In November 2020, the Somalia NGO Consortium commissioned the development of its Strategic Plan (SP) for the period 2021 – 2026. This incorporated the Strategic Review of the previous Strategic Plan (2016 – 2019).

The strategic review took place between November 2020 and April 2021. Stakeholder consultations were conducted in the context of COVID-19, a global health pandemic that restricted global and in-country movements. Consequently, interviews in the first phase were conducted virtually with selected members and other strategic stakeholders. Specifically, the feedback was obtained from a total of 04 donor partners, 10 International NGOs, 07 national NGOs, 03 Government Officials, 03 members of the SNC Steering Council, 05 SNC staff, and one external non-member stakeholder. Data collection involved feedback on the SNC mandate, its niche, vision and mission, strategic pillars, strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, and SNC stakeholders mapping. A strategic plan draft was then developed based on the feedback obtained and subjected to strategic planning workshops. These included in Hargeisa attended by 23 members (12 INGOs, 11 national NGOs), Mogadishu attended by 37 members (24 INGOs, 13 national NGOs), and Garowe attended by 22 members (11 INGOs, 10 national NGOs, 01 CSO Umbrella body).

The Strategic plan was validated in a number of debriefing sessions were held with strategic stakeholders and members. These included the Country Directors Forum held in February and attended by 25 Country Directors, and a consultative forum held in March with the SNC Secretariat to resolve the outstanding gaps. The SNC Secretariat held a follow up session on Monday 15th March to work on the Annual Operational Plan, after which the amended draft was circulated on 16th March 2021 for final validation by the SNC stakeholders. Based on the stakeholder’s feedback, the strategy document was finalized and submitted to the Steering Committee for endorsement in early April 2021.

This document outlines SNCs strategic themes and approaches over the next 5 years. It is anticipated that the simplicity of this format will assist the SNC to communicate its strategic ambition and role as a principled collective voice of NGOs operating in Somalia. The strategy incorporates insights and feedback from a wide consultation with stakeholders, as noted above, including: Steering Committee members, staff, donors, UN partners, INGOs, N/LNGOs, government, civil society and other coordinating fora.

It offers a flexible framework, which defines the SNC core themes of engagement in addition to its approach, providing room to further develop and operationalize specific priority areas until 2026. Due to the nature of the operating context in Somalia, and at the time of the development of this strategy, the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Somalia, this flexibility is necessary for the SNC to ensure its focus on ‘scale up’ in response to the priority for increased coordination and a balance between a reactive vs proactive strategic focus.