Amahoro Coalition, Hormuud Salaam Foundation join forces to restore livelihoods for Somali IDPs

Somali businesses step in to turn displacement into livelihoods

MOGADISHU — On a sun-baked morning in a sprawling camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the signs of lives interrupted are unmistakable: corrugated iron shelters clustered along dusty tracks, makeshift stalls selling tea and charcoal, children weaving between tents. For many inside, the question is no longer just where to sleep tonight but how to rebuild a future when formal jobs are scarce and public services thin.

Into that breach this week stepped an alliance between two Somali-rooted organizations — the Amahoro Coalition and the Hormuud Salaam Foundation — that promises to channel private-sector muscle into practical pathways out of displacement. The five-year partnership aims to reach as many as 10,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) and members of host communities with job training, entrepreneurship support, access to finance and affordable housing initiatives.

Local leadership, local solutions

“This partnership represents a powerful alignment of vision — Somali-led solutions for Somali challenges,” said Isaac Kwaku Fokuo, curator of the Amahoro Coalition. The foundation behind Hormuud Telecom, Somalia’s largest mobile operator, has long invested in schools, clinics and community projects under the principle “Local help for local people.”

Abdullahi Nur Osman, CEO of Hormuud Salaam Foundation (HSF), said the move is a deliberate effort to move beyond handouts. “By joining forces with Amahoro, we are taking a bold step toward enabling thousands of Somali families to access dignified livelihoods and secure a better future,” he said.

The partnership is an emblem of a broader shift in humanitarian and development thinking. Donors and agencies increasingly stress the role of the private sector — and local private actors in particular — in offering sustainable jobs and finance. In Somalia, where the state’s reach is limited and international aid has long been a stopgap, locally rooted firms and foundations are often the most consistent providers of services.

Programs on paper, change in practice

The Amahoro–HSF plan is deliberately broad: workforce development to connect displaced youth to formal employment, entrepreneurship training for small businesses, microfinance and so-called blended finance models that mix grants with commercial capital, and an exploration of affordable housing solutions. For displaced families renting in overcrowded compounds or living in camps, the promise of stable income — and potentially formal employment — could be transformative.

In Somalia, where informal livelihoods dominate, an apprenticeship scheme or small grant to buy materials for a tailoring or welding business can be the turning point from survival to stability. Mobile money platforms pioneered by telecom companies like Hormuud have already reshaped commerce by enabling cashless payments and remittances across fragmented markets. Pairing that digital infrastructure with training and finance is a logical next step.

Why it matters: a national and regional lens

Somalia hosts more than 2 million internally displaced people, driven by inter-communal conflict, recurring drought and economic shocks. Many live for years in limbo, outside formal labour markets and dependent on humanitarian aid. Young people face particularly high barriers to employment, even as the country’s demographics tilt towards a youthful majority.

International actors have increasingly called for “locally led” responses — a recognition that communities and local institutions often understand context and can deliver services more effectively than distant operators. The Amahoro–HSF partnership is part of that trend, but it also raises practical questions about scale, sustainability and inclusion.

• Can private foundations and companies create enough jobs to absorb the numbers of displaced people and idle youth?
• Will microfinance and blended finance models reach the most vulnerable, or mainly those with some assets and connections?
• How can affordable housing be provided in cities with high rents, weak planning and fragile municipal governance?

On-the-ground hurdles

Turning plans into lasting livelihoods is never easy. Training needs to be linked with actual demand from employers; microloans need to be paired with market access and mentoring; and housing projects must navigate land tenure complexities and high construction costs. In Somalia, perennial insecurity and weak regulatory frameworks add another layer of difficulty.

There are, however, promising precedents. Somali entrepreneurs are renowned for nimbleness — from small market traders to larger enterprises that run logistics, construction and telecommunications — and the diaspora plays a large role in financing startup ventures back home. The challenge is converting that vibrancy into structured pathways for the displaced.

Small beginnings, big questions

For the thousands of families targeted by the initiative, even incremental changes will be meaningful. “Access to a small loan or a place in a formal training program can mean the difference between selling tea on the roadside and running a proper business,” said one development worker who has spent years in Mogadishu’s camps. Yet the worker’s pragmatism was clear: sustainable change will require patient investment, local buy-in and coordination with government authorities.

The Amahoro–HSF partnership is also a test case for wider regional ambitions. Amahoro has pursued similar private-sector engagement across East Africa, arguing that inclusive growth often comes from building private-sector capacity rather than relying solely on donor handouts. If successful, the model could be exported to other countries wrestling with large displaced populations and fragile economies.

Looking ahead

The plan will need robust monitoring and transparent metrics to measure whether livelihoods are truly improving, not just whether programs are being delivered. Donors and Somali institutions will watch closely to see if the initiative can scale beyond initial pilots and whether it genuinely includes women, people with disabilities and the most marginalised displaced families.

Ultimately, the partnership prompts a wider question about who should shoulder the responsibility for recovery after displacement: international agencies, national governments, or domestic businesses and philanthropies? Somalia’s answer, increasingly, seems to be all of the above — but the balance between them will determine whether recoveries are temporary or lasting.

For families in the camps, the immediate hope is simple and deeply human: work that restores dignity, income that feeds children, and a chance to rebuild a home that is more stable than a patched tarp and a prayer. Whether this new private-sector coalition can turn those hopes into reality will be one of the most consequential experiments in Somalia’s long recovery.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.