Research in Somalia: Opportunities for Cooperation
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Pellini, Arnaldo et al. Research Report Research in Somalia: Opportunities for cooperation ODI Report Provided in Cooperation with: Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London Suggested Citation: Pellini, Arnaldo et al. (2020) : Research in Somalia: Opportunities for cooperation, ODI Report, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/216987 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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Abdi, Guled Salah, Hussein Yusuf Ali, Kalinaki Lawrence Quintin, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, Salim Said, Amina Khan and Ed Laws February 2020 Readers are encouraged to reproduce material for their own publications, as long as they are not being sold commercially. ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. For online use, we ask readers to link to the original resource on the ODI website. The views presented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI or our partners. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Cover photo: A Somali lecturer teaches English to students at the Somali National University, Mogadishu, 2014. AMISOM/Stuart Price Acknowledgements This report was authored by Arnaldo Pellini (Research Associate, Overseas Development Institute (ODI)) with Deqa I. Abdi (Consultant, Somali Institute for Development and Research Analysis (SIDRA)), Guled Salah (Former Executive Director, SIDRA), Hussein Yusuf Ali (Acting Executive Director, SIDRA), Kalinaki Lawrence Quintin (Projects Coordinator, SIDRA), Mohamed Abdi Hassan (Consultant, SIDRA), Salim Said (Consultant, SIDRA), Amina Khan (Senior Research Officer, ODI) and Ed Laws (Senior Research Officer, ODI). The analysis presented in this report is that of the authors and does not reflect the views of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The authors would like to thank Anne-Lise Dewulf, Elina Lehtomäki, Francesca Iannini, Johanna Värlander, Matthew Foley, Samira Dualle, Susan Nicolai, Teresa Durand Mazza for their support, comments and suggestions throughout the project. 3 Contents Acknowledgements 3 List of tables and figures 6 Acronyms 7 Executive summary 8 1 Introduction 11 1.1 Study methodology and approach 11 1.2 Limitations 13 1.3 Report overview 13 2 Higher education and research cooperation in fragile contexts 14 2.1 Education, higher education and post-conflict rehabilitation 14 2.2 International support to higher education in post-conflict and fragile contexts 16 3 The higher education system in Somalia 19 3.1 Evolution of the higher education system 19 3.2 Current higher education landscape 22 3.3 International cooperation and higher education 39 4 Analysis of current challenges to higher education in Somalia 47 4.1 Weak governance and enabling environment 47 4.2 Weak research capacity and limited academic research production 49 4.3 Limited collaboration and exchange opportunities 53 4.4 Weak research culture and a weak research-to-policy nexus 54 4.5 An inadequate national research agenda 56 4.6 The problem of academic freedom 56 5 Conclusions and programming suggestions 58 5.1 Opportunities and modalities for support 60 References 64 4 Annex 1 Terms of reference 69 Annex 2 SomaliREN members 74 Annex 3 University profiles 75 5 List of tables and figures Tables Table 1 Key events in Somalia 20 Table 2 University enrolment data 24 Table 3 Students’ enrolment at SNU 25 Table 4 Qualifications of academic staff in selected universities 27 Figures Figure 1 Political map of Somalia, February 2018 22 Figure 2 Security risk levels and accessibility map for Somalia, January 2018 38 Figure 3 Screenshot of the Find Researchers section of the AuthorAID website 44 Figure 4 Regional ranking in the number of academic publications, 1996–2018 49 Figure 5 Trends in the total number of academic publications, 1996–2018 50 6 Acronyms DFID UK Department for International Development AMISOM African Union Mission in Somalia ESSP Education Sector Strategic Plan FCAS fragile and conflict-affected settings GCPEA Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack HIPS Heritage Institute for Policy Studies INASP International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications MoECHE Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education (Federal) MoEHE Ministry of Education and Higher Education (Puntland) MoEHS Ministry of Education and Higher Studies (Somaliland) MOOC massive online open courses MoU memorandum of understanding NGO non-governmental organisation NORHED Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development PDIA problem-driven iterative adaptation RRPP Regional Research Promotion Programme SAREC Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries Sida Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SIDRA Somali Institute for Development Research and Analysis SNU Somali National University SSRA Sweden–Somalia Research Association SOMAC Somali Academy of Science and Art UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNSOM United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia USAID United States Agency for International Development USWDP USAID Afghanistan University Support and Workforce Development Program 7 Executive summary Research cooperation between Somalia and The main findings of the study are: Sweden began in 1982, but was interrupted in the early 1990s due to the civil war. As Somalia • Weak governance of the higher education gradually starts the process of institution- system has resulted in a boom in private building and shifting towards a federal system, universities offering courses, certificates and the Swedish government is considering whether degrees of variable quality. These are not and in what form to re-establish its support for informed by an analysis of the current and domestic research capabilities. future demands of the labour market and The Swedish International Development the economy. The federal and state-level Cooperation Agency commissioned a team from governments in Somalia are slowly establishing the Overseas Development Institute and the institutions to set standards and, for example, Somali Institute for Development Research and accreditation across universities, such as state- Analysis (SIDRA) to conduct a feasibility study for level higher education commissions. research cooperation in Somalia. The study, which • Federal and state financial resources for took place between March and October 2019, higher education systems are limited, and was organised around three guiding questions: dependence on development partners and off-budget contributions is still considerable. • What are the key enabling factors for Approximately 44% of the whole federal and barriers to research performance and budget for 2019 comes from multilateral and academic freedom at universities in bilateral donors’ contributions. The education Somalia today? sector as a whole receives 4.6% of the annual • What are the current ongoing initiatives budget, the majority of which goes to primary termed, defined or categorised as education. ‘research’ support or cooperation to • Structural conditions hinder the production and in Somalia? of good-quality research: very few or no staff • What are the different opportunities in universities have research qualifications and modalities for support to and (e.g. PhDs); research production and organisation of research cooperation academic publications do not contribute to in Somalia? the career progression of academic staff; and there are problems with the availability of To answer these questions, the study team and access to the internet, reading materials undertook a review of academic and programme and libraries. Only one university reviewed literature on support to higher education and in the study offers a PhD degree (Benadir research cooperation in Somalia and other University in Mogadishu) and academic staff countries; 39 semi-structured interviews; interested in a career in research tend to three workshops (in Hargeisa, Garowe and move, or stay, overseas. Female researchers Mogadishu) to explore the problems in the face additional barriers linked to insecurity higher education systems in the different states and safety on campuses and cultural norms of Somalia;