In Ethiopia’s Somali Region, WFP empowers women to dream big and become financially independent

The parched land in Ethiopia’s Somali region absorbs the sun’s glare through its cracked soil and whispers a story of endurance. A gust of wind lifts and carries the dust further away.  A thinly paved makeshift road winds its way through the vast terrain, promising nothing of a way back if the rains come.

The bumpy road gives way to refugee camps that home thousands that have fled war and instability in neighbouring Somalia in hopes for a better future. The Somali region has limited institutional capacity to deliver services in these camps, and refugees depend on humanitarian actors like WFP for support. The communities hosting refugees in the region are dealing with recurrent climate crises, from the longest drought on record to devastating floods that continue to push both host and refugee communities further into hunger.

In Bokolmayo refugee camp, Sadiya Dubud starts her day by letting out her goats from the barn. Whistling cheerfully, she leads the goats to a water point, and further away from the camp to find a good grazing spot. This is a rare sight to see in the Somali region, where men traditionally oversee livestock rearing. “It is not easy to be in this business as a woman,” says Sadiya. “When we started, many people told us not to waste our time and money as we will surely fail.” 

Navigating a complex social fabric

Beyond what meets the eye lies a complex social fabric. Being a predominantly pastoralist and traditional society, women in Ethiopia’s Somali region are often marginalized and confined to traditional gender roles. Confined to taking care of household chores and children, women’s involvement in public life and decision making is limited. On top of this, refugees do not have access to land for farming, employment opportunities, and financial resources. 

Sadiya heads to a meeting at the headquarters of Hodan Cooperative union, where the members await her arrival to begin their weekly meeting. WFP and Mercy corps supported 25 women and five men in the camp to pool their resources and then matched their savings with a start-up capital for a livestock trading business.  The programme promotes women’s leadership by bringing them into the forefront of leading the business, while the men play a contributory role.   Sadiya is the chairwoman of Hodan cooperative and kicks of the session with a roll call. Next, the members tally last week’s sales and decide on how much to save, and what type of livestock to invest in. 

“Many of the skills we have now, we gained through WFP’s trainings” says Sadiya. “They trained us on how to save, how to develop our business, how to buy and sell livestock, and how to share information within the cooperative.”

A multilayered approach to women’s empowerment

WFP and partners selected 1000 women for this programme, 500 from refugees and 500 from host communities – enhancing social cohesion between the two groups. The programme looks at a multi layered approach, with intertwined interventions that create an environment where women can embark on and sustain new businesses. The participants then formed 43 registered cooperatives and village savings and loan association (VSLA) groups. 

Daniel Ocom, WFP’s resilience programme officer in Somali region says “the programme focuses on entrepreneurship where women select businesses that they want to engage in. Once the businesses are set up, we provide different trainings to equip the women with a skillset that will allow the women to sustain thriving businesses.” The programme also links women-led cooperatives to sustainable markets to sell their products and services. 

Daniel adds “Access to markets and financial services is a game changer for many women in this region. From our interventions, we have seen first-hand that the women in these areas have many innovative ideas for businesses and when linked with the right markets and given financial access, they will be able to build profitable businesses.” 

Waiting for her turn

Mouslima Abdirahman’s role in the Hodan Cooperative is to balance the books- writing off expenses and recording this month’s savings. She was finishing her last year in high school when her family decided to flee Somalia and come to Ethiopia. She reflects on what she learned through the trainings.

“I have bittersweet feelings about the training.” says Moulima. “I felt so happy to learn and gain knowledge, but at the same time I felt bad for not finishing school. If I had completed my studies, I would have more knowledge on how to do business. However, I also learned that everything is gradual, step by step, and it is never too late to learn.” Being part of Hodan means Mouslima can help her three younger siblings finish college. “Once all of them graduate, I swear it will be my turn to go and get a degree.” She says dreamily. 

Challenging the status quo

As part of WFP’s programme, Sadiya and Mouslima are led through guided reflection sessions on gender, access to resources, land inheritance, division of labour at home, decision-making, and women’s participation in public spheres. 

“Before the training, many people in our community thought that women should take care of their families and stay at home,” says Mouslima. “Now we know that mothers who stay at home can go out to earn an income and support their families, and fathers should extend a hand of support at home to mothers that work tirelessly.”

The community dialogue, and the success of the cooperatives, is shifting perceptions in the community. Sadiya remembers a time when things were different.  “When we first started, some women’s husbands came to us and asked for their wives' shares without the wives’ knowledge.”   

“They humiliated us saying that we stole the money their wives contributed and withdrew the money from our savings. Now they are saying that we are making good progress and encouraging us.” 

Dreaming Big

WFP and partners are supporting the women led cooperatives to expand their businesses through a coaching and mentoring system that deploys field level agents that guide the cooperatives through one-on-one coaching on negotiation, business management, as well as other soft and technical skills needed to run their businesses.

“We started as a livestock business, but our vision is to expand our business into multiple sectors and be a well-known cooperative across the world,”  Sadiya says. “Everyone will know the name Hodan!”

The WFP women empowerment project has been funded by Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation since 2023.