HIJRA

HIJRA, short for Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid, is an African humanitarian and development organization whose roots are in Somalia. It emerged in response to the severe humanitarian needs created by the collapse of the Somali state in 1991 and the resulting conflict, displacement, poverty, and disruption of basic services. The organization works primarily in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda, with a particular emphasis on communities affected by conflict, disasters, displacement, food insecurity, and weak public-service infrastructure. HIJRA combines emergency response with longer-term resilience and community-development programming. Its work includes water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); primary and maternal health; education; livelihoods; protection; cash assistance; community mobilization; and humanitarian advocacy. In WASH, the organization supports access to safe water, sanitation facilities, hygiene promotion, and the creation or strengthening of local committees responsible for maintaining services. These activities are intended to reduce preventable disease and improve the capacity of communities to manage water and sanitation systems after external assistance ends. Its health work addresses the needs of poor and marginalized populations in South Central Somalia and other program areas. Activities described for the organization include constructing and rehabilitating health facilities, training community health workers, supplying essential medicines and equipment, supporting immunization, addressing malnutrition, strengthening maternal and child health, and participating in disease surveillance and response. The stated approach links community education, frontline health workers, local authorities, and health facilities rather than treating clinical care as an isolated service. HIJRA’s livelihood programming is designed to help households and communities withstand recurring shocks such as drought, conflict, displacement, and food-price pressure. The organization conducts vulnerability assessments, promotes sustainable production and income diversification, protects household assets through social-safety mechanisms, and supports training intended to improve food access and adaptive capacity. Cash distribution and other forms of direct assistance have also been used within emergency programming where immediate purchasing power is needed. In Uganda, HIJRA has worked with refugees and vulnerable host communities, including through protection programming. This work has included assistance for unaccompanied and separated children and other people at risk of abuse, exploitation, or neglect; support for access to legal aid; community policing and dialogue; and efforts to reduce sexual and gender-based violence. The organization has also supported community structures and local authorities involved in protection and security, with the stated aim of improving reporting, prevention, peaceful coexistence, and self-reliance. HIJRA describes itself as an impartial responder guided by transparency, accountability, independence, neutrality, professionalism, and equality and justice. It applies Sphere standards when assessing or entering new program areas and generally recruits much of its workforce from the communities where it operates. Beneficiary participation, local capacity building, and partnerships with other humanitarian actors are central to its operating model. The organization has participated in humanitarian clusters, consortiums, working groups, and the Somalia Humanitarian Country Team, and has been described as one of the larger operational organizations in South Central Somalia. Funding has primarily come from public, private, and governmental donors, with program resources earmarked by theme and country. Historical reference material identifies support associated with DFID, CIDA through an Oxfam partnership, the Common Humanitarian Fund, and the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, alongside in-kind assistance from organizations including WHO, UNICEF, and Rotary International. Because the available material is largely historical and does not establish HIJRA’s current legal, operational, or financial status, its present activity level and organizational structure remain unverified in this dossier.

HIJRA was formed by Somali professionals in the context of the humanitarian emergency that followed the collapse of Somalia’s central state in 1991. Its founding purpose was to respond to the immediate needs of people affected by conflict and disaster while contributing to improved living conditions over time. From its Somali base, the organization developed an operating model that combined emergency relief with longer-term community recovery and resilience. The organization’s program portfolio expanded beyond short-term distributions. WASH became a core area, including water-scheme support, sanitation construction, hygiene promotion, and training for local committees. Health programming addressed primary care, maternal and child health, malnutrition, communicable diseases, immunization, health-worker training, and facility rehabilitation. Livelihood activities sought to help households protect productive assets, improve food access, diversify income, and cope with repeated shocks. Education and community awareness were used alongside these interventions to encourage sustained behavioral and social change. HIJRA also developed protection work in Uganda, particularly in refugee settings and surrounding host communities. This included services for unaccompanied and separated children, legal assistance, community policing, support for local protection structures, and measures addressing sexual and gender-based violence. The organization’s protection model emphasized community participation, cooperation with authorities, reporting mechanisms, and peaceful relations between refugees and host populations. Operationally, HIJRA relied heavily on personnel recruited from its program areas, supplemented by a smaller international presence. This approach was intended to improve contextual knowledge, beneficiary participation, and local ownership. The organization stated that it used Sphere standards before entering new areas and maintained principles of neutrality, independence, transparency, accountability, equality, and professionalism. HIJRA participated in the wider humanitarian coordination system through clusters, consortiums, working groups, and the Somalia Humanitarian Country Team. Historical material described it as one of six nongovernmental organizations on that team and as one of the larger organizations operating in South Central Somalia. One historical account reported that it had 126 staff in 2011 and provided assistance to more than 371,000 people in the region; other material described WASH programs in Somalia and Uganda as benefiting more than 400,000 community members. These figures are time-specific and should not be interpreted as current. Funding historically came mainly from institutional donors and partnerships. Reference material states that approximately 90 percent of program funding came from donors and identifies support linked to DFID, CIDA through Oxfam, the Common Humanitarian Fund, and the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. WHO, UNICEF, and Rotary International were identified as sources of in-kind support. The organization also reported allocating most funding to direct program costs, with an indicative five-percent allowance for indirect expenditures, subject to donor requirements. Available sources document HIJRA’s historical activities in detail but do not reliably establish its current leadership, financial condition, legal registration, or operational footprint. The organization’s website and directory listings should therefore be checked before treating the historical program descriptions or geographic presence as current.

• 2011

  Historical expansion across the Horn of Africa

  [1]HIJRAen.wikipedia.org

  HIJRA was documented as operating in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda with a staff of 126 and a large portfolio of lifesaving and resilience activities.

• 1991

  Organization formed in response to Somalia’s humanitarian crisis

  [1]HIJRAen.wikipedia.org

  Somali professionals established HIJRA after the collapse of the Somali state created severe humanitarian needs among conflict-affected and disaster-affected communities.

• Participation in Somalia humanitarian coordination

  [1]HIJRAen.wikipedia.org

  The organization participated in humanitarian clusters, working groups, consortiums, and the Somalia Humanitarian Country Team.

A locally rooted African humanitarian partner that combines rapid, impartial relief with community-led resilience and development programming.

• Water, sanitation and hygiene

  WASH programs

  HIJRA’s WASH work focuses on safe-water access, sanitation facilities, hygiene promotion, and local management capacity. Activities include construction or rehabilitation of water and sanitation infrastructure, community education, and training or mobilization of WASH committees. The intended outcomes are lower incidence of water- and sanitation-related disease and stronger community ability to operate and maintain services.

• Humanitarian healthcare

  Health and nutrition services

  Health programming has included primary healthcare, maternal and child health, newborn services, communicable-disease control, malnutrition response, immunization, disease surveillance, facility construction and rehabilitation, essential medicines, and community-health-worker training. The model connects community outreach with facility-based services and emphasizes poor, marginalized, and conflict-affected populations.

• Livelihood development

  Livelihood and resilience programs

  These programs seek to improve household food access and adaptive capacity during recurrent shocks. Activities have included participatory vulnerability assessments, training, sustainable production, income diversification, protection of livelihood assets, social-safety mechanisms, and support for community assets.

• Refugee and community protection

  Protection and legal aid

  Protection services in Uganda have addressed the needs of refugees and vulnerable host communities, including unaccompanied and separated children and people exposed to abuse, exploitation, or neglect. Activities have included pro bono legal representation, court interpretation and witness facilitation, community policing, dialogue, support for local protection structures, and work to reduce sexual and gender-based violence.

• Somalia WASH and water-scheme response

  Somalia

  HIJRA implemented WASH activities in Somalia, including support for water schemes, sanitation, hygiene promotion, and community management structures in areas affected by conflict and humanitarian crisis.

  Outcome. The documented objective was to expand safe-water and sanitation access and reduce preventable disease.

  Source
• Refugee protection and community policing programming

  Uganda

  HIJRA supported refugees and host communities through legal aid, community policing, dialogue, protection structures, and assistance for vulnerable children and people facing abuse or exploitation.

  Outcome. Reported aims included improved access to justice, stronger reporting and prevention mechanisms, reduced crime, and more peaceful coexistence.

  Source

1. 1HIJRAen.wikipedia.org
2. 2ReliefWeb organization profile: HIJRAreliefweb.int
3. 3UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Somalia WASH Clusterhumanitarianresponse.info
4. 4Oxfam evaluation of mobile phones for polio prevention in Somaliapolicy-practice.oxfam.org.uk
5. 5HIJRA member profile, CHS Alliancechsalliance.org