Somalia’s lagging health outcomes reflect the country’s insecurity, vulnerability, and poverty, limiting opportunities for people to access basic social services, including health and education. The average life expectancy is 56 years and the fertility rate, at 6.9 children per woman, is among the highest in the world. Moreover, poor health outcomes are underlined by weak health service delivery: for example, only 11 percent of children in Somalia are fully immunized. The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed Somalia’s weak health system, underlining the need for increased investment to the nascent health sector and its institutions.

“The Somali people have long suffered from recurrent humanitarian and health emergencies. There are substantial challenges in the health sector, and the country needs to lay the foundation for a resilient health system to improve health outcomes and respond to external health challenges.” World Bank Task Team Leader, Naoko Ohno. “The Damal Caafimaad Project will help the Government build its leadership and stewardship capacity in the sector, while responding to immediate service gaps by rapidly increasing essential service coverage through working with partners”.