The objective of the foundation is to work to support improved security, environmental health, and stability through the realisation of the principles underpinning the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Foundation’s work has a global focus, tailoring programmes to fit the needs and circumstances specific to the operating environment, ranging from conflict-affected countries to developed countries, including Norway. NIS will primarily work with institutional development, social measures, education, utilisation of green technologies, grants management and awareness raising efforts, focusing on supporting the creation of peaceful and inclusive societies, environmental awareness, social equality and sustainability. For us, the exact nature of a project is secondary to its ability to contribute to the realization of the principles upon which the SDGs are based.
NIS programmes provide short-term employment opportunities in an effort to combat poverty in Somalia by providing an immediate relief to household needs.
Through one project module, NIS also provided education and training in technical skills to young students as a means to provide skills that will enable the communities to move out of poverty in a sustained manner. And in this way, also ensuring inclusive and quality education for all (SDG 4).
NIS contributes to the right of communities in Somalia to have access to food by rehabilitating and constructing markets in the communities. NIS also rehabilitates and secures roads that function as the arteries for those markets, ensuring and facilitating the transit of goods to their final destination.
Programmes engage in mental health support to conflict-affected stakeholders including youth and IDPs.
NIS’ programmes contribute to the right to a healthy life within conflict-affected communities by providing adequate and very needed solar-based electrical systems that ensured that a wider range of health services can be provided at hospitals, as well as to extend the hours at which patients could receive the care needed.
Programmes provide mental wellbeing sessions to staff, as well as to partners and promote an atmosphere of collective care for overall health.
Vocational training is increasingly a part of NIS’ programmes in Somalia. Over the past six years, NIS has engaged in 8 TVET/vocational training interventions, reaching close to 180 direct beneficiaries. These programmes targeted basic construction skills, with an emphasis on solar technologies.
NIS funds and collaborates with community based and civil society organisations that work with increasing the rights and participation of minority groups, gender equality and accountability.
One NIS programme directly sought to contribute to this in the Somali communities by providing microfinancing and installing solar-based energy systems to women-led SMEs in need. By doing this, the programme ensured women economic empowerment locally and that other women had access to more job opportunities.
One NIS programme works exclusively with women and LGBTQIA+ organisations in order to support targeted issues of women, girls and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Another NIS programme has targeted standards set to ensure that partner projects are gender mainstreamed at a minimum, with a goal of many being gender transformative. No gender-blind projects are accepted.
As part of its Green Module interventions, one NIS programme (ISTAND) guaranteed the right to access to water of Somali communities that did not count with a source of water that met their basic daily needs through the construction/ rehabilitation of water wells/ catchments and the installation of solar systems to water wells that made extraction more efficient.
Overall, several of NIS’ interventions seek to address the causes and effects of climate change and environmental adverse events. The promotion and installation of renewable energy technologies across our programmes demonstrate the use and benefits of alternative energy solutions in the communities that enhances environmental sustainability.
As an example, some of the solar systems installed by NIS in hospitals have helped health services improve their quality, SMEs to expand their businesses and save money which translated into new business investments, solar streetlights that make public lightning available to communities where life stopped after dark, amongst others.
NIS works to improve the economic dynamics of the locations it intervenes by introducing infrastructure that would support the local business environment; by providing skills training and education to young people as a means to ensure they had the capability to secure employment; and by providing short-term employment to laborers who then manage to secure a wage to sustain the most immediate needs of their households.
NIS is dedicated to the delivery of resilient, long-lasting infrastructure that would ensure the right to access basic services of communities in Somalia. At the design and procurement stages, NIS makes sure to conduct the required assessments to determine the best materials and sources so that the infrastructure would be able to withstand the environmental conditions and securing the delivery of the services in a sustained manner.
NIS funds CSOs who support those affected by inequalities and violence, calling for increased rights and accountability and justice regardless of gender, ethnic, religious and generational identities, LGBTQIA+ affiliation or disabilities.
In Somalia, NIS seek to empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of youth, women and diverse clans by, first, conducting inclusive engagement sessions where projects are discussed, second, by providing employment opportunities to youth, third, by facilitating loans to women-owned businesses and fourth, by constructing infrastructure that in design would allow for the access and use of communities regardless of gender, age and clan affiliation.
In Somalia NIS has implemented a range of projects contributing to the sustainability of cities and communities. Flood defense projects in Beledweyne, Mogadishu, Bardheere and elsewhere have helped to mitigate the negative impacts of regular flooding: NIS has constructed and/or rehabilitated over 18km flood defence infrastructure all over Somalia.
A project hybridising an existing diesel-powered electricity grid with solar-PV capacity in Luuq helped to reduce the emissions of the city’s electricity supply.
Additional projects targeting waste management and community clean-ups are also helping to make cities safer and healthier for their residents.
With most of its infrastructure interventions, NIS also contributes to the promotion of sustainable consumption and production patterns, seeking to support the rights of people to have access to basic, sustainable services that also encourage economic development to combat poverty and diminish the impact of future possible economic and climate change-derived factors.
In one programme country specifically, NIS works with grassroots organisations which provide access to basic, necessary, and sustainable services to their local communities.
In Somalia, NIS has implemented a number of projects aimed at mitigating the effects of flooding, which have been made worse and more frequent by climate change. By refurbishing and building flood control infrastructure such as canals, levees and culverts, local communities are better equipped to handle climate change-related challenges.
Through NIS’ extensive work installing solar-PV capacity for public lighting, hospitals, schools and government buildings, diesel consumption for these services has been greatly reduced, lowering overall carbon emissions.
NIS’ work building water catchment infrastructure in Somalia is helping local communities to better manage water in between the rainy seasons, supporting communities and livelihoods during their most vulnerable periods: NIS has installed 22 solar-powered pumps for wells in Somalia for both public consumption and irrigation purposes.
In Mali, NIS is installing nano-grids for poorer households, as well as solar-powered irrigation technology, helping to reduce fuel usage in target areas.
NIS has been involved in projects geared directly towards promoting social inclusion, supporting organisations that target daily issues of justice in the community, including GBV, sex workers rights and protections, LGBTQIA+ rights and protections, IDPs, and women and girls’ say over their own life and role in their communities.
Over several years, we have found that solar streetlights in Somali promote women’s safety at night.
