Somalia is endowed with enormous stocks of natural resources including fertile soil, minerals, livestock, oil and marine resources. Yet one resource is greater and more vital than all of these endowments combined, and is a precursor to any meaningful development and future economic growth – the Somali people themselves. The country needs citizens with the necessary knowledge and skills to take advantage of all its resources and to help them find gainful employment. Skilled Somali citizens with well-paying jobs will help the economy grow and the nation develop.

This chapter provides a summary of the outcomes of the five baseline studies undertaken between 2018 and 2020 as part of this project to better understand Somalia’s human capital needs in terms of education, health and labor as well as the top productive sectors of agriculture, livestock and fisheries. The National Human Capital Development Strategy (NHCDS) lays out a human capital development roadmap for Somalia.

It is a set of strategic priorities and interventions that the research suggests are needed and that could be effective in addressing the country’s human capital development challenges. The NHCDS recognizes the importance of inclusivity and takes into account gender, poverty, youth, social exclusion and marginalization. Many of these issues are taken up within the strategic interventions and action plans presented in each of the five sectoral chapters. The NHCDS is the first step in the development of a five-year human capital development strategic plan that will be reviewed and revised by all relevant actors every five years.

This NHCDS is also an integral part of Somalia’s Ninth National Development Plan (NDP-9), which states:

“The Ministry of Planning in close consultation with the Ministries of Labour and Education commissioned in 2018 a research consortium [consisting of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies and the City University of Mogadishu funded by the Somalia Stability Fund (SSF)] on the creation of an inclusive, indigenous and sustainable Human Capital Development Mechanism (HCDM). The overarching objectives of the HCDM are first to establish partnership with leading human capital development stakeholders from the public sector, private sector, civil society and academia in line with NDP-9. The HCDM research consortium was specifically tasked to: conduct a comprehensive country-wide baseline study with special emphasis on the productive sector (agriculture, fisheries and livestock), to develop a human capital development strategy and to propose a mechanism that facilitates synchronization of the efforts by the human capital development stakeholders. The baseline study and the national strategy will be released in early 2020 and will guide developing the human capital of the Somali citizens.”

The NHCDS provides a common guide for the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and Federal Member States (FMS) in partnership with the private sector, civil society stakeholders, international partners and implementing NGOs to realize human capital development priorities and objectives.

This strategic framework for human capital development addresses five key sectors: education, health, labor, fisheries, agriculture and livestock and fisheries. Within each sector, critical constraints are identified and strategic interventions are formulated and prioritized. Potential implementing stakeholders are also identified whose engagement and leadership are deemed essential.