The challenge of understanding school attendance within Somalia has been ongoing for quite some time due to several reasons such as displacement of communities due to recurring disasters and lack of correct information regarding school children. There are some additional complications to this in cases where children may have similar names, or variations such as Muhammed or Muhammad. Although there is some record keeping, it is done sporadically and is inconsistent. In order to understand the causes of dropouts and the dynamics of variables like gender, there needs to be a more efficient and effective way of capturing and storing this data.

By Max Vieille, Global Director, Response Innovation Lab

RIL’s Global Director dives into the difference between innovation in Silicon Valley, and in the humanitarian space, and how we can better solve identified challenges with a different playbook.

A short video to showcase RIL’s M&E tool in Somalia gathering evidence around an educational pilot case study of the Digital Attendance Application (DAA) education pilot with World Vision.

Somalia RIL conducted a rapid mini-assessment survey in April 2020, focused on understanding the needs and priorities of humanitarian actors in the COVID-19 response. These results are being shared openly to foster learning, improve coordination, and prioritize resources to areas of need.

The report presents the findings from the RISE innovation ecosystem mapping study which seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the key actors, factors, and relationships within Somalia’s humanitarian innovation sector.

On February 27th, 2020, the Response Innovation Lab (RIL), along with the SomReP and BRCiS consortiums co-hosted a session at the Sankalp Forum’s 7th Africa Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The session showcased that despite the challenges in Somalia, there are many opportunities for innovation, partnership, and investment.

Response Innovation Lab has collaborated with Briter Bridges to visualize the state of educational technology across some of the major African technology ecosystems.