UNHCR continued to support the Government in providing protection and assistance and working towards the attainment of durable solutions for refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees and IDPs in Somalia, working in close partnership with international and national actors. In doing so, UNHCR pursued an integrated approach that aimed at mainstreaming protection and solutions considerations into all engagement, underpinned by a strengthened evidence base through improvements in information management initiatives. Overall, engagement was guided by a focus on inclusion, national capacity-building, and sustainable, long-term and multi-partner planning; and principles and objectives of the CRRF, promoting the latter with all partners as the key engagement framework for all people of concern. Implementation of this approach was supported by UNHCR assuming the co-leadership for a 12-month period of the National Development Plan Sub-Pillar Working Group on Durable Solutions, the key inter-actor coordination forum on durable solutions. UNHCR also supported the finalization of the Government National Action Plan on Durable Solutions for Somali Returnees and IDPs, as the national application of the regional Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework. In pursuit of strengthened legal and physical protection, UNHCR advocated and supported key legal and policy development processes. In particular, UNHCR actively engaged in a federal level legal and policy development project linked to the return and reintegration of IDPs and Somali returnees, spearheaded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. UNHCR reviewed and provided comments to the draft IDP policy (expected completed in early 2019) and the HLP interim protocol. Other laws and policies, which began the development process in 2018 as part of this project, include a Refugee Act, National Eviction Guidelines, and a Migrant Returnee and Re-admission Policy. In Puntland, UNHCR supported the Memorandum of Understanding to complete its local integration strategy and land tribunal act, in implementation of the Puntland IDP policy. In Somaliland, UNHCR supported the finalization of the National Displacement and Refugee Agency (NDRA) strategy, which outlines priorities for refugees/returnees/IDPs and migrants from 2019 to 2021. In addition, the office assisted the Ministry of Justice in development of a Countering Trafficking in Person and Smuggling of Migrants Act. In line with the CCRF objectives, the office aimed at dedicating 10% of the assistance towards the host populations and directed this support towards essential public service providers and institutions such as health, education, the Human Rights Commission, Ministry of Justice, Immigration actors and government counterpart entities such the NDRA in Somaliland, the Ministry of Interior in Puntland and the National Commission for Refugees and IDPs (NCRI). The Office also reached out to other agencies and operational partners to advocate for inclusion of people of concern in their programmes. In support of evidence-based, protection-driven programming and advocacy of UNHCR and partners, UNHCR revised its cash-based interventions (CBIs) post-distribution monitoring, introducing new survey questions to better monitor the protection and reintegration impact of CBIs. UNHCR also carried out a post-return monitoring pilot with returnees from Kenya, based on which the post-return monitoring approach was revised and prepared for broader roll-out in 2019. An intentions survey of Ethiopian asylum-seekers in Somalia was successfully carried out in December 2018, in preparation of an expected return process in 2019.
