Somali Women’s role in peace-building Project Background:
Armed conflicts have a devastating impact on economic life, destroying infrastructure, markets, and livelihoods. Women’s lives are drastically altered at this time as they are compelled to take on new tasks and responsibilities and family survival comes to depend heavily on women who are forced in such period of hardship to look for alternative sources of livelihood. Although women also take on roles previously held by men in the formal sector, they tend to maintain their livelihood and that of their families by working in the informal sector where their labour is neither legally recognized nor protected. In contrast with the pre-war period, a high number of woman-headed households become the primary source of family income and to a large certain extent, are atthe forefront of the country’s or region’s economic recovery in the post-conflict setting.
At the cessation of hostilities, women tend to be most neglected in formal economic reconstruction activities. This problem, which pervades transition economies as allowingemployers to discriminate in favor of men, reinforces gender disparities, violates women’s rights and constricts women’s contributions to economic growth. Working conditions of women frequently deteriorate and are characterized by low wages, little or no labour standards protection, poor working conditions, particularly with regard to women's occupational health and safety and a lack of job security and social security, in both the formal and informal sectors. Widows, women with disabilities, single women without family support and female -headed households as well as other groups such as rural women, refugee and internally displaced women, are especially susceptible to increased economic hardship.
This project willprevent such discriminations by providing more opportunities to women and female youth in El-Afwayn to positively take part the Post-conflict reconstruction in the district. It will support women’s contributions in the informal and reproductive areas of the economy, where most economic activity occurs. Specific interventions will be undertaken to leverage opportunities for women’s further economic empowerment and political participation and the promotion of gender equality as necessary pre-conditions fora real peace economy to flourish. Economic recovery and development is a key element in building sustainable peace and lack of economic possibilities and employment opportunities can undermine public support to post-conflict reconciliation and fuel political instability and insecurity. It is paramount that women’s economic participation be an integral part of post-conflict recovery, thus providing an opportunity for women to engage more actively in a larger sustainable peace building context.
Approach Used to complement with other Oxfam interventions is El-Afweyn
A people-centered approach should deploy inmainstreaming community engagement of all planning in development and humanitarian programs  and local conflict resolutions to empower underrepresented groups such as women and youth. In that regards, Oxfam had tested triple nexus programing approach as part of transformative solution to the interconnected needs of the vulnerable and marginalized groups caused by the crises.  Therefore,  focusing on a particular area using area-based method in a cross-sectional coordination in other Oxfam humanitarian interventions implementing in El-Afweyn district, will result greater impact for sustainable development through eradication of the root causes of the conflict and finally bring resilient and inclusive society.
Current humanitarian and resilient interventions are; rehabilitation/construction of multi-use water structures, village saving loan associations (VSLAs), EWCs and contingency plans, agricultural input support, diversification of livelihoods, and restoring access to veterinary, agricultural, and advisory services, as well as supportingthe development of community adaptation action plans, are all existing interventions that address conflict triggers. Support women's producer associations by providing seed funds to help them leverage savings and gain access to loans also significantly tackles conflict but creates social capital within the society.
Therefore, the project is inline with the country strategy in relation to contributing inclusive governance systems and should address conflict crises and inequality to ensure effective participation of marginalized groups, particularly women and youth. Also strengthen the capacity of local community/actors and link to local government institutions through community dialogues to effectively influencing peace and security transformative processes.
Objective, Outcomes, Outputs and Activities:
Objective:  Strengthening local communities, particularly women and female youth and have increased their capacity to fully participate peace building processes to foster community cohesion and coexistence
Outcome 1. Enhanced role and participation of women in influencing conflict resolution and peace building processes to promote, sustain and consolidate peace.