Our areas of operations constitute a challenging and volatile environment to work in. Populations are in constant need of life-saving and livelihood support. The areas have some of the lowest human development indicators in the region. The humanitarian demands and risky operating environment means that organizations are compelled to be at par with the changing and multifaceted context, thus the need for them to conduct systematic reviews, reflections and capacity appraisals.
Regular capacity and context assessments as well as monitoring of program activities ensure quality program management and service delivery and most importantly ensuring that aid is reaching the intended beneficiaries. The following are highlights of key institutional faculties and capacities of SOLO.
SOLO has the mandate to work in the East and Horn of Africa regions. In recognition of the need for key infrastructure to support its operations and enhance the effectiveness of staff in executing their mandate effectively, SOLO has strategically positioned field offices in different parts of Somalia/Somaliland and Kenya including Garissa and the coordination and liaison office in Nairobi. SOLO’s offices are fully equipped with tools of work such as desktop computers/laptops, internet connectivity and for off-grid locations; generators.
SOLO is dedicated to Knowledge Management and Learning for organization development; quality program management and delivery. The organization regularly identifies and incorporates the lessons learned into its future program plans and strategies. This has made SOLO to gain experience as well as strengthened its internal capabilities and aptitude to program design and implementation in order to achieve its overall goals and mandate.
SOLO utilizes an integrated program design and implementation approach with gender equity being a key and basic consideration. SOLO has a Monitoring and Evaluation framework that ensures both process and impact monitoring aspects throughout the Project Cycle Management (PCM). SOLO’s M&E tools and protocols (assessments, project inception workshops, baseline surveys, mid term reviews and final evaluation) are routinely updated.
Safe and predictable access is a fundamental pre-requisite for effective humanitarian and development programming. SOLO recognizes that as the main stakeholder, communities are the entry point for any intervention and therefore, SOLO works closely with all communities irrespective of their socio-economic status and clan or political affiliation. Partnership with target communities in all SOLO interventions is guided by a participatory, transparent and accountable process in the entire project cycle-identification of needs assessment, analysis, formulation & design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This nurtures a strong sense of ownership and sustainability.
In practice, SOLO has found that working with local communities enhances the protection of programmes. The communities act as the principal buffer against demands made by external elements. Through their representatives, they put relentless pressure upon the local authorities to allow the NGOs to work freely.
SOLO has worked closely with communities, making significant progress in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations in the war-torn country. As a result of SOLO projects, families have been able to receive the much-needed life-saving assistance in times of crisis, which has contributed to improved well-being of the recipient. SOLO has adopted all inclusive and participatory approach in working with communities, to foster peaceful co-existence; ownership and sustainability of our intervention strategies.
SOLO has a good number of professional full-time and part-time personnel that deliver diverse functions within its different departments. Currently the organization has over 30 regular staff (50% female). SOLO ensures that staff are largely drawn from the local communities and embraces an open-door policy to all in the community in which they live and serve. This sense of integration enhances staff and program security and sustainability.
Our core staff has the necessary departmental skills and has worked with the organization since its establishment. Thus most of these staff members have excellent institutional memory and are now scattered across the areas where SOLO has programs. With this capacity, the organization is able to quickly mobilize and assign necessary staff to run the proposed project on short notice.
SOLO is committed to enhancing coordination of humanitarian interventions to maximize the impact of assistance provided. The organization actively participates in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) cluster coordination forums including water and sanitation, emergency livelihoods, shelter, protection, food security and nutrition and health.
SOLO works and maintains partnerships for community development support with UN agencies, International NGOs; Local NGOs and Community based organizations (CBOs), Donors and relevant Line Ministries such as: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Water and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Gender and Family Affairs, Ministry of Youth and Sports, and UN led Clusters: WASH, Health, Education, Food Security, Nutrition and Protection Cluster.