This report is written by the Talk to Loop Global and Somalia & Somaliland team, with ongoing insights and support from our national Somali host, Raagsan. Their expertise in the Somali context, community needs and reporting gaps helps ensure the platform is appropriately contextualized. This report reflects that collaboration.
The fourth quarter of 2024 highlighted persistent and worsening humanitarian challenges across Somalia and Somaliland. Escalating displacement, corruption concerns, and environmental crises shaped the daily struggles of affected communities. Feedback across regions shows significant geographical disparities in needs and priorities, calling for nuanced and targeted approaches to the design and delivery of Aid.
For example, in drought-affected Southwest states, priorities centred on water, food, and livelihoods, while in flood-hit Jubbaland, the focus was on shelter, infrastructure repair, and disaster preparedness. In Banaadir, feedback revolved around displacement and shelter needs, particularly in conflict-affected areas, leaving families in unsafe living conditions. Corruption, especially in Baay, raised concerns about unfair targeting in aid delivery. Education remained disrupted due to conflict and disasters in Banaadir and Middle Shabelle, with children often lacking basic learning materials. In Lower Shabelle, food security was a major concern, exacerbated during the flood season.
While responsiveness for this quarter remained low, we are seeing an increase during January already as a result of organisations investing in onboarding staff to use Loop as an integral part of their Community Engagement approaches.
Sensitive feedback was primarily corruption and protection related with 100% of protection and assistance cases addressed by relevant organisations in this quarter. Worryingly, as of the end of January this trend appears to be changing. As a result of the Stop Work Orders response rates have decreased. Organisations have shut down projects and have reduced staff with the skills to respond, primarily to GBV cases so far, leaving survivors at heightened risk.
Demographic information:
The majority of feedback was in Somali Maxaatiri (77%), followed by Maay (22%) and English (0.2%). Languages like Benadiri Merka and Bujuni were underutilized, indicating a need for targeted campaigns in these regions.
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Male users predominated, differing from previous trends, suggesting a need to explore and address factors influencing female participation.
Two users self-identified as belonging to minority communities, identified needs focusing on livelihoods, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and food needs. While three other sensitive reports of discrimination were from people from minority groups.
Children aged 14-17 contributed 3% of feedback, primarily requesting assistance with food, cash, and jobs.
19 pieces of feedback were received from People Living with Disabilities (PLWD) who highlighted challenges related to mobility, access to medication, and general assistance needs. This is likely to be a direct result of targeted awareness raising by organisations working with PLWD.
People from across the country provided feedback, suggesting that the use of Loop has been shared predominantly by word of mouth amongst community members.
Sectoral Insights:
Environmental challenges over 45% of feedback was related to environmental concerns, with drought dominating at 38% of all feedback. Water scarcity was particularly severe in the Southwest states, where 64% of reports cited it as a primary issue. In Baay and Baaykool, the rise in water-related submissions showed worsening drought conditions.
Displacement & shelter needs displacement was the most frequently reported issue, particularly in Cerigaabo, where inter-clan violence forced population movements. In Banaadir and Middle Shabelle, many reported losing homes to conflict and environmental disasters, leaving families in unsafe conditions.
Corruption & aid diversion reports of corruption, particularly in Baay, raised concerns over unfair targeting in aid distribution, with communities reporting alleged unfair targeting of aid intended for vulnerable populations.
Education disruptions, conflict and disasters significantly impacted education, particularly in Banaadir and Middle Shabelle, where parents and youth cited a lack of basic learning resources. A mother described the dire situation: “They want to learn, but we have nothing, no books, no teachers, no schools.”
Food security & aid distribution Lower Shabelle was a hotspot for food insecurity, particularly during the flood season. A community member from Balcad shared: “The floodwaters destroyed our homes and farms. We are now displaced and living without any resources or food.”
Healthcare gaps access was a pressing concern, particularly for people living with disabilities, who reported difficulties in reaching medical facilities and accessing necessary medication.
During Q4, Loop received 1,000s of voice recordings from communities of which we published over 850 pieces of feedback on the open platform (this number continues to grow with 500+ in January 2025 alone). This growth was driven by outreach initiatives, including: The Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Network’s radio campaign in mid-October 2024; collaboration with and onboarding of 16 new organisations, including KAALO Aid & Development, Gargaar Relief Development Organization (GREDO), Zamzam Foundation, Save Somali Women and Children (SSWC), Somali Women Development Centre (SWDC) Somali Women's Studies Centre (SWSC), Save Somali Marginalized and Minorities Organization (SASMO), Alight, Banaadir Primary Health Care Consortium (BPHCC), Marginalised Communities Advocacy Network (MCAN), Save the Children, CARE, Concern Worldwide, Action Against Hunger ACF), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Another key factor behind the growing usage within communities is the sharing of the short code number through word of mouth. The platform is receiving strong indications that this organic outreach is taking place on the ground:
”... a friend of mine referred me to this number and the platform, and told me that you help those in need. I am reaching out to you for assistance…” or “... I have never been registered with any humanitarian agency for assistance. A friend provided me with your contact information, which is why I am reaching out to you...'".
During Q4, intensified conflict led to increased feedback volumes, particularly in Luuq, where fighting in October caused a 37% surge in reports. Often conflict is exacerbated by environmental factors such as floods or drought. A 20-year-old resident of Luuq reported:
“There has been fighting in the area, and we have nothing—not even shelter to protect us from the rain and scorching sun. It is the rainy season, and we fear it will worsen our situation.”
Similarly, in Ras Kambooni, feedback highlighted large-scale displacement, restricted access to services, and delays in aid delivery. Despite urgent needs, Loop continues to struggle in finding active organisations to provide assistance in this area.
During the reporting period, Loop handled a total of 88 sensitive reports. These reports were categorised into the following areas:
Loop handled 45 protection-related reports during this period. This included 11 GBV reports, 21 child protection cases, 3 reports of discrimination, 2 requests for mental health support, and 9 general protection reports. The latter included assistance requests from vulnerable groups such as female-headed households, large families with low income, and persons living with disabilities.
Reports of corruption, particularly aid diversion, were also prominent, with 43 cases handled during this period. The majority of corruption allegations were related to beneficiary selection processes; authors frequently cited that they felt the process was unfair.
During this reporting period, corruption allegations were most commonly related to food security programming (19 reports), with a small percentage of reports coming from governance (2), shelter (1) and health (1) sectors.
In this reporting period, Loop handled 3 reports of discrimination against minorities. One of these reports was a complaint that minority groups have no representation in the IDP camp where they live and are being subjected to mistreatment; another report related to a woman disowned by her family due to her marriage outside of her own clan, and the final report alleged that assistance in the village was being diverted by the majority clan. The three reports all came from different areas (Baydhaba, Luuq and Puntland).
From the 88 cases opened this quarter, 38 were closed. Of these, only 2 closures resulted in a positive outcome for the author. The remaining 36 closures occurred because reports were withdrawn by the author, authors could not be reached, or no actionable solution was possible.
We are very pleased to report that all referrals during this period demonstrated strong organisational responsiveness. Of the 8 assistance referrals and 11 allegation referrals made, 100% of referral organisations responded to the cases referred to them.
Sadly we are already seeing a trend of reduced capacity to respond to referrals for assistance as a result of the USAID Stop Work Orders from USAID. This is already having a direct impact on people in crisis.
To enhance efficiency for platform users, Loop has introduced “Filter Presets,” allowing organisations to save and share customised filters for feedback analysis. This will help with consortium or donor analysis for example.
Despite increased engagement, organisational responsiveness to non-sensitive feedback remained low. To address this, Loop is:
Key trends reveal the persistent impact of droughts and floods on Somali communities, with water scarcity and displacement emerging as dominant themes. Conflict-affected areas demonstrated heightened vulnerabilities, particularly regarding protection and access to essential services. Similarly, feedback emphasised the need for equitable and transparent aid delivery, as inefficiencies and delays continued to erode trust in humanitarian mechanisms and leave people without protections.
We see evidence that investing time in onboarding staff from a range of different national and international organisations, to use Loop as an integral part of their community engagement strategy, leads to increased actionable feedback, replies and also sensitive reports from communities directly. The more targeted and focused the engagement by organisations the more specific and actionable to resulting feedback and data. As a result, the more organisations promote Loop, respond to communities and action sensitive reports the more accountable the delivery of Aid can become.
Between the analysis of the quarter 4 data from 2024, and publishing the report we have noticed a trend in reduced capacity from organisations to manage sensitive referrals for assistance, primarily Gender Based Violence, as a direct result of the stop work orders from USAID having an impact on the sector's ability to respond. We are extremely concerned about staff and budgets linked to communicating with communities, community engagement, community feedback mechanisms and safe reporting of fraud, corruption, gender based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, being cut. This will result in direct harm to the most vulnerable in communities and the increase of potential fraud and corruption of the limited Aid going to humanitarian and development contexts.
Loop is proposing an adjusted emergency approach to help fill this gap through a low cost, collective mechanism, while maintaining our high standards of data protection and safe referrals which have been tried and tested over the past 4 years. If you would like to hear more, please contact maria@talktoloop.org and alex@talktoloop.org.
To read the extended version of this report please click here.
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