Adeso

Last updated
Adeso
PredecessorHorn Relief
Formation1991
Founder Fatima Jibrell
Type nonprofit organization
PurposeHumanitarian and development work
Headquarters Nairobi, Kenya
Region served
Horn of Africa, East Africa
Executive Director
 Degan Ali
Staff
~300
Website www.adesoafrica.org

Adeso (previously Horn Relief) is Nairobi-based humanitarian non-governmental organization.

Contents

The organisation was founded by Fatima Jibrell in 1991, who handed leadership over to her daughter Degal Ali in 2006.

The organisation is noted for its use of cash-based programming to support communities in Somalia and Kenya and for its executive director's advocacy efforts around advancing localisation. Its programs in Somalia, Kenya, and South Sudan also include women's literacy, agricultural support, and community environmental education.

Nomenclature and history

Adeso is a portmanteau of Africa Development Solutions. [1]

Founder Fatima Jibrell Fatima Jibrell2.jpg
Founder Fatima Jibrell

Adeso was founded in Connecticut, in 1991 by environmental activist Fatima Jibrell. [2] Adeso was initially known as Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization, with a mandate to provide a response to humanitarian needs in Somalia in the context of the Somali civil war and its effects on Jibrell's homeland of Somalia. [3] Initial activities included the protection of acacia trees and old growth forest against logging for charcoal. [4]

In 1998, the organization changed its name to Horn Relief. [5]

In 2002, in response to Jibrell's advocacy work, the Puntland Government banned the export of charcoal in the region. [6] The same year, Jibrell won the international Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa. [7] [4]

The organisation implemented the first large-scale cash transfer program in Somalia in 2003. [8]

In 2006, Jibrell retired as executive director, and was succeeded by her daughter Degan Ali. The following year, Jibrell won the National Geographic's Buffett Award for Leadership in African Conservation, [9] and the organisation published a cash transfer implementation manual. [10] Also in 2006, the organisation launched a women's literary program in Sanaag, Somaliland. [2] The program was initially met with some resistance from people who objected to women's education on religious grounds, however staff demonstrated that Koranic verses supported the education of women. [2]

The organisation changed its name to Adeso in 2012. [11] Somali-American actor Barkhad Abdi joined Adeso as a voluntary Goodwill Ambassador in 2014. [12]

In 2019, Adeso pushed for a shift of power towards locally-community run humanitarian organisations. [13] Adeso was one of the 286 organisations chosen by MacKenzie Scott to receive a share of her US$2.7 billion unrestricted donation in 2021. [14]

Activities

A significant part of Adeso's work is the delivery of cash assistance, which is often provided to pastoralists. [2] Cash is used by people to pay off debt, and meeting their basic education and healthcare needs. [2] Adeso adopts a "Inclusive Community-Based Targeting" approach to its activities, adjusting to local cultural and religious norms, respecting the traditional community hierarchy and role of elders and communities leaders who form Village Relief Committees. [2] The committees are obliged to consist of at least 40% women. [2] The committee meets in a public space (in what is known locally as a kulan) and discusses the needs of each potential program beneficiary and then does house-to-house verification of unmet humanitarian needs. [2] This process improves local community ownership of the program and means that the needs assessment, while slower than traditional humanitarian aid, is done by people with the best local knowledge. [2]

Other program activities include women's literacy, cash-for-work programs, and agriculture programs that provide seeds and tools to pastoralists [2] Adeso's community education about environment covers the impacts of charcoal use small scale irrigation. [6]

Advocacy efforts cover topics such as illegal overfishing in Somali waters [15] and the importance of allowing cash remittances into Somalia. [16]

Activities are centred around the Sool and Sanaag regions of Somali [9] and extend also into Kenya and South Sudan. [6]

Organization

Adeso has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom, Kenya, and the United States. [17] [18] There are approximately 45 staff in the Nairobi head office and nearly 250 staff in field offices. The 2012 revenues for Adeso were $25 million. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somalia</span> Country in the Horn of Africa

Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country in the Horn of Africa. The country is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland. Its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains, and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall. Somalia has an estimated population of around 17.1 million, of which over 2 million live in the capital and largest city Mogadishu, and has been described as Africa's most culturally homogeneous country. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have historically inhabited the country's north. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the south. The official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic. Most people in the country are Muslims, the majority of them Sunni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanaag</span> Region of Somaliland

Sanag is an administrative region (gobol) in north eastern Somaliland. Sanaag has a long coastline facing the Gulf of Aden to the north, and is bordered by the region of Sahil to the west, Sool to the south and Somalia to the east. The region is disputed by the self-declared Republic of Somaliland and Puntland, a Federal Member State of Somalia. Its capital city is Erigavo. Sanaag is the largest region of Somaliland, accounting for 35% of Somaliland's total land area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Las Khorey</span> Town in Sanaag, Somaliland

Las Khorey is a historic coastal town in the Sanaag region of Somaliland.

The Warsangali is a major Somali sub clan, part of the Harti clan which itself belongs to one of the largest Somali clan-families - the Darod. In the Somali language, the name Warsangali means "bringer of good news." The Warsangeli primarily inhabit the Sanaag, Bari, Lower Juba, Gedo, Bay and Bakool regions.

The New Humanitarian is an independent, non-profit news agency focusing on humanitarian stories in regions that are often forgotten, under-reported, misunderstood or ignored.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harti</span> Sub-clan of the Somali Darod clan

Harti, meaning "strong man", is a Somali clan family that is the part of the Darod clan. The major sub-clans include the Majeerteen, Dhulbahante, Warsangali, Tinle, Maganlabe, Kaptallah and Dishiishe, while other minor sub-clans consist of Kaskiqabe, Geesaguule and Liibaangashe.

Various international and local diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the Somali Civil War have been in effect since the conflict first began in the early 1990s. The latter include diplomatic initiatives put together by the African Union, the Arab League and the European Union, as well as humanitarian efforts led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) and the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Badhan, Sanaag</span> City in Sanaag, Somaliland

Badhan, also known as Baran is a city in the Sanaag region of Somaliland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Collett</span> Kenyan film director

Nathan Collett is a filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatima Jibrell</span> Somali environmentalist, conservationist, humanitarian

Fatima Jibrell is a Somali-American environmental activist. She was the co-founder and executive director of the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization, co-founder of Sun Fire Cooking, and was instrumental in the creation of the Women's Coalition for Peace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David H. Shinn</span> American diplomat

David H. Shinn is an American diplomat and professor. He is an Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. His diverse career in the foreign service of the United States has included ambassadorships to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. Shinn is also a frequent commentator in the news media on political issues, and has provided consultancy to the U.S. government on Horn of Africa related matters as well as Sino-African relations.

Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid (HIJRA) is an African humanitarian organization focused on the implementation of emergency and resilience programming in the greater Horn of Africa; Somalia, Kenya and Uganda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 East Africa drought</span> Natural disaster

Occurring between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East African region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis.

Relief International is a humanitarian non-profit agency that provides emergency relief, economic rehabilitation, and development assistance services to vulnerable communities worldwide. Relief International UK is non-political and non-sectarian in its mission. It is based in Washington, D.C. and London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barkhad Abdi</span> Somali-American actor

Barkhad Abdi is a Somali-American actor. He made his acting debut as Somali pirate Abduwali Muse in the biographical drama film Captain Phillips (2013), which earned him a British Academy Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, along with Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre also known as KIPT is a Kenyan non-governmental and non-profit technical advisory and management community based theatre institute, which was founded in 2007.

Bali busle is a town in the Eastern Sanaag region of Puntland (Somalia). Somaliland also has a claim to the territory, and Dhahar District in the administrative division of Somaliland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa</span> International NGO focused on Horn of Africa

The Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) is an international non-governmental organisation, founded in 1989 by professionals and development workers from the Horn of Africa to address pastoral and agro-pastoral development from a regional perspective and provide cross-learning at a global level. With headquarters in London, PENHA has established country offices in Ethiopia and Somaliland, with close organisational partnerships in Eritrea, Sudan and Uganda.

Degan Ali is the Somali-American humanitarian consultant and the executive director of Adeso.

References

  1. ↑ "Work for us | Vacancies and volunteering for African charities". 2014-03-19. Archived from the original on 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Endogenous Development: Naïve Romanticism Or Practical Route to Sustainable African Development. (2017). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. p103-104
  3. ↑ "Climate for conflict". ABC News. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  4. 1 2 Gilbert, G. (2004). World Poverty: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues). United Kingdom: ABC-CLIO. p111
  5. ↑ Fiegl, Amanda (2014-11-26). "A Somali Aid Worker Would Rather Give Out Cash Than Free Food". NPR. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  6. 1 2 3 Primack, R. B., Wilson, J. W. (2019). Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa. United Kingdom: Open Book Publishers.
  7. ↑ "Fatima Jibrell". Goldman Environmental Foundation. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  8. ↑ "EVALUATION OF CASH RELIEF PROGRAMMEIMPLEMENTED BY HORN RELIEFCOMMISSIONED BY NOVIB/OXFAM NETHERLANDS" (PDF). 2012-08-24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-24. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  9. 1 2 "Fatima Jibrell". explorer-directory.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  10. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2012-03-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ↑ Standing Tall, Celebrating 30 Years Impact Report: 1991–2021, Adeso
  12. ↑ Neumyer, Scott (2014-01-21). "Barkhad Abdi Talks Captain Phillips, Oscar Nominations & Giving Back to Somalia". Parade. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  13. ↑ "Are INGOs ready to give up power?". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  14. ↑ Alexandra Hutzler (2021-06-15). "MacKenzie Scott donates $2.7B to charity; here's which organizations were recipients". Newsweek. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  15. ↑ Hatcher, Jessica. "Illegal overfishing and the return of Somalia's pirates". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  16. ↑ "Somalis panic as cash flow dries up after U.S. remittance lifeline cut". Reuters. 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  17. ↑ The Editorial Board (2021-02-13). "Opinion | Foreign Aid Is Having a Reckoning". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  18. ↑ "How COVID-19 Is Shifting the North-South Philanthropic Power Dynamic (SSIR)". ssir.org. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  19. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2014-02-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.