Miskiin Kalkaal: A concrete step towards poverty reduction in Somaliland

Yassin Yusuf Abdulahi

11 May 2011

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Poverty in Somaliland 3. Miskiin Kalkaal 4. Suggestion 5. Conclusion 6. References

Abstract
Africa is often synonymous with poverty and famine and fighting it becomes a multimillion dollar relief effort, but the magnitude of poverty has hardly reduced, let alone been eradicated. However, the light of hope is shining in a small unrecognized country called Somaliland in east Africa. Here, a new home-grown system called Miskiin Kalkaal (poor helper) has emerged directed to fight against poverty. The first part of this paper will give an introduction to Somaliland as a country then proceed to talk about Somaliland poverty and the various efforts made in the country to remove poverty. Here I will outline the definition of poverty and to what extent it has affected its citizens, which will cover a detailed explanation of Somalilands development goals and a poverty profile of each of six regions of Somaliland. The second part of this paper will focus on Miskiin Kalkaal, a concept which emerged in the heart of Somaliland in 2004 designed to help the efficient distribution of zakah collections. Here, I will give an overview of how it started , how it works in eradicating poverty. Lastly, I will propose some suggestions on how to improve the effectiveness of Miskiin Kalkaal organizations.

Introduction
Somaliland The Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognized self-declared sovereign state that is seen internationally as an autonomous region of Somalia which lies at the eastern Horn of Africa, bordering Ethiopia in the South and Djibouti in the West. The government of Somaliland considers the territory as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent for a few days in 1960 as the State of Somaliland, before uniting with Southern Somalia later the same week to form the Somali Republic. In 1991, after disintegration of Somalia, Somalilands 3.5 million citizens set up its own government. Unlike the experiences of Southern Somalia, it was peaceful and has made huge strides towards political and economic development. Somaliland is constitutional republic and it has formed a hybrid system of governance under the Constitution of Somaliland, combining traditional and western institutions. In a sequence of inter-clan conferences, ending in Boorama Conference in 1993, a clan based system of government was constructed. This consisted of an Executive with a President, Vice President, and Council of Ministers, a two-house Legislature, and an independent judiciary. The country has three political parties i.e. UDUB Party, Kulmiye Party and UCID party. The current President of the Republic is H.E Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud and the vice-president is H.E Abdirihman Abdillahi Ismail of Kulmiye who were elected on July 2010 for a five year term. The outgoing president H.E Dahir Rayaale Kahin, who was elected in 2003, handed over the power peacefully in a ceremony within 30 days of the election as per the election rules. The elections in 2003 and 2010 are symbols of Somaliland's political stability and maturity.

Poverty in Somaliland
Definition of poverty Poverty is the lack of basic human needs, such as clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. (Wikipedia) The weakness of any economy is poverty as it limits the number of people saving and investing whilst making those in poverty focus on fulfilling their minimum daily survival requirements. Poverty amidst the majority remains a huge challenge, even in the modern world. The impact of poverty is not confined to starvation only, but rather it includes the suffering of limited income which usually leads to the unattainability of a good education and thus, a chance to build a rewarding career. Furthermore, the absence of nutritious foods results in more child mortality among deprived sections of society as the limited access for information and knowledge prevents from market participation and opportunities. (Nabeel K.N) Somalilands Development Goals According to Somaliland millennium development report by ministry of planning and development of Somaliland, the proportion of children under five who are undernourished declined from 36% in 1999 to 21% in 2006, which demonstrated that Somaliland is on the right path to achieve this target, if not surpass it. The prevailing peace and stability in Somaliland, as well as the recovery and development from the civil war in the 1990s-2000s was a direct cause to this rate reduction. Fig 1: Underweight Prevalence among under Five Children

Assuming that the rate of decrease remained constant from 2006 to 2010, the trend analysis on figure 1, predicted the underweight prevalence rate as 12%, which indicates that there are 61,320 malnourished underfive-year-old children in Somaliland yet to be addressed by the development initiatives. Effective food security policy is also crucial to tackle the food shortage, and consequently raising food prices, where the poorer households cannot buy sufficient food, causes many to fall victim to severe hunger and malnutrition. Establishing coping mechanisms is also required for the situation to improve. The major source of food and income in Somaliland is the livestock, where 63% and 57% of the Somaliland settlements reported livestock as their major food and income sources respectively. Although, the Somaliland people suffer from the decade long (1997-2007) livestock ban by Saudi Arabia, lifting of the livestock export increased the governments budget by 38% from 2007 to 2008. Poverty profile of six regions of Somaliland For the first time ever, poverty profiles of all Somaliland regions are being produced by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Somaliland government. From 2006 to 2007, they jointly conducted participatory Community Census for Poverty Assessment and Mapping throughout country. In this paper, we would like to give a measurement of Somalilands poverty level under two broad groupings of food poverty and non-food poverty based on the perceptions and experiences of the people.

1. Food Poverty Food poverty is defined as a household that receives less than two meals a day within Somalilands six regions, and those subsidizing on Zakat.

1.1 Living on Less than Two Meals a Day Togdheer Region According the report 28.2% of regions families are living on less than two meals a day. District comparisons show variations, where a significant proportion of households in Oodweyne district (69.9%) and Buuhoodle district (61.5%) are living with less than two meals in a day. From the results of this analysis, this is a large population living in poverty. If not checked, this situation may lead to malnutrition, low resistance to infections, common ailments and low levels of productivity. It should however be pointed out that the high proportion of poor of households living in Burco district may be partly attributed to non-coverage of the urban areas in the district.

Sool Region The ability of household members to afford two full meals a day is used to estimate the proportions of poor households in various settlements. From the observations recorded, the number provided by the settlements interviewed is noted to be less than the proportional values given for the eligibility of Zakat. About 23.4%% of the families in the region are perceived to afford less than two meals a day, with Laas Caanood district registering the least proportion.

Sanaag Region The households living on less than two meals a day stand at more than 36%, as reported by all the districts, with nearly all the households in Laasqoray seriously affected at 86%.

Awdal Region The region is characterized by very high levels of food poverty, at 44.8%, as reported by the residents of the districts. Households living on less than two meals a

day are more than 30% of the total number of districts, with the problem being experienced greatly in Boorama district, in 54.1% settlements.

Waqooyi Galbeed Region In Hargeisa and Berbera, 31.8% and 25.6% of the families cannot afford two meals a day respectively. A higher proportion of the households in Gebiley, 38%, report that they cannot afford two meals a day. The results in the analysis above indicates that the most poor groups of the region who rely on Zakat and are unable to afford two meals a day live in Gebiley.

1.2 Subsistence on Zakat In Muslim communities and according to the Islamic teachings, Zakat is a compulsory contribution of a proportion of ones income to charity, mainly the impoverished family members. The proportion is usually a certain percentage of ones crop harvest, livestock or wealth. Persons and households receiving Zakat are normally perceived by the community to be poor; the level of families living on Zakat gives a proxy indication of poverty. It can therefore be used as an indicator of measuring poverty levels and prevalence in Somaliland.

Togdheer Region 35% of the regions households live on Zakat. Across the districts, majority (80.7%) of the households in Oodweyne are living on Zakat, showing high levels of poverty. On the other hand, Burco district (excluding Burco town) has the lowest proportions of households living on Zakat.

Sool Region In the entire region, families in 34.3% of the households in settlements are perceived to be eligible for receiving Zakat. This proportion, which is associated with poverty, is relatively high, considering that Zakat is a compulsory donation of

a proportion of wealth to the poor for Muslims. The majority of families in Taleex district (68.3%) are receiving Zakat, while Caynabo district has the lowest proportion of 32.4% of families eligible for Zakat.

Sanaag Region Laasqoray had the most families with eligibility to receive Zakat. Nearly all the families recorded in this district qualify for Zakat, which implies that in the region, the district suffers considerably higher levels of poverty.

Awdal Region In the entire region, according to residents perceptions, 55.8% of the district residences are eligible for Zakat. Nearly all families (96.2%) in Zeylac district are eligible for Zakat.

Waqooyi Galbeed Region More than 40% of Hargeysas families are eligible for Zakat, while the corresponding proportion in Berbera is almost one-third. Eligibility is the highest in Gebiley, where 44.1% of the families are reported to qualify for receiving this form of assistance.
60.0 45.0 30.0 15.0 0 Awdal Togdheer Sanaag Sool W.Galbeed

Less than 2 meals a day Eligible for Zakat

[UNDP and Government of Somaliland poverty profile report]

2. Non-food Poverty According the report, this category considers the size of family possessions and properties (accumulation of wealth) including size and type of livestock owned, and the size of family land.

2.1 Livestock Size Togdheer Region According the report, a family in the region on average owns 12 camels, 4 heads of cattle and 67 sheep/goats. Across the districts, families in Burco district have the highest mean number (16) of camel compared to the other three districts; while families in Buuhoodle district have herd sizes of cattle and sheep/goats with means of 11 and 121, respectively; compared to the regional average of 12 and 67. These are relatively large herd sizes since they exceed the expected minimum number of livestock a normal family should possess for economic sustenance. It is observed that families in Togdheer region possess more than the minimum livestock required for economic sustenance. With the exception of cattle, the other livestock types kept are in excess of minimum requirement. Nonetheless, cattle kept by households in the districts of Burco and Sheikh coincide with the minimum size required for economic sustenance. As was earlier pointed out, in this region, the inhabitants are mainly pastoralists and therefore rely on camel, cattle and sheep for food and source of income. It can therefore be concluded that household in the region are generally not poor with regards to livestock sizes.

Sool Region According the report, different settlements in districts within Sool cite varying proportions of the number of livestock required to be reared in order to achieve economic sustenance by the households. There is no difference in the extent to which goats and camels are considered though. The minimum number of camels in a household required for basic economic sustenance is 24, nine, 30 and 21 in Laas

Caanood, Caynabo, Taleex and Xudun respectively. The overall mean and median figures for camels stand at 18 and 20 respectively. The overall mean for cattle is five. Xudun and Taleex have almost the same number of cattle, at 11 and 12 respectively. The residents of Las Caanood and Caynabo have smaller numbers of three and two cattle for economic sustenance.

Awdal Region According the report, the region is very dependent on pastoralism for its residents livelihoods. This section presents the status of household ownership of livestock and their sustenance. Table 6.4 shows that most settlements own more than the minimum number of livestock needed for economic sustenance. This has an environmental degradation effect, due to overgrazing, if the region is not expansive. The most affected districts include Lughaya and Zeylac, which are likely to suffer from reduction in bio-diversity, decrease in palatable pastures, consumption of grass before it matures, and poor regeneration of rangeland after the dry season. The other major challenges that the local communities of Awdal face are the high frequency of drought and pest diseases, which usually result in the loss of livestock. These challenges are compounded by long distances to markets for livestock products and the unavailability of livestock drugs

Miskiin Kalkaal
Overview The concept of Miskiin Kalkaal emerged in early 2000 when an optometrist began to collect Zakat and distribute it among the poor families in Sanaag region of Somaliland. That project was later named Miskiin Kalkaal (poor helper).

The concept of Miskiin Kalkaal didnt become well-known among the Somaliland population until the following incident was publicized on a national level. In one of the neighborhood in Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland, two parents died because of hunger while the neighborhood had no knowledge that the family living amidst was suffering from hunger. When the story broke out in the media, the whole city saddened over the incident. Within a short period of time, the Miskiin Kalkaal concept becomes a nationwide phenomenon and every city and every village began to implement it. How it Works Each neighborhood mosque appoints team to be responsible of the Miskiin Kalkaal project. The team will investigate the whole neighborhood inquiring about every household and register the poor families, recording how much food they need per month. At the same time the team will also register every household who can afford to give away food or money to support to the poorer people of the neighborhood. They will rent a warehouse where they will keep all the food and clothes they collect and from there they distribute to the poor people. One of the key features of this project is that the poor people are not required to collect, but rather they bring the food and clothes collected to their homes to not expose their situation and thus, safeguard their dignity.

A case study of Al Rahma Society In 2004, Wadaad Abdalla an ex-soldier in Qatar founded Al Rahma Society a non-governmental organization in Hargeisa, Somaliland. The main objective of the organization was to eradicate poverty and help poor people to help themselves and their families. And become advocate and raise funds for all Miskiin Kalkaal projects to implement their own projects. Al Rahma projects Al Rahma Society categorized the poor people in three categories. Hardcore poor people i.e. old and childless poor people, widowed women having young children; Unemployed poor people or unskilled poor people; Petty traders who desperately in need micro financing to support their families.

Food distribution for hardcore poor people Every month, Al Rahma society collects food supplies from wealthy neighbors and distributes to each family around 150 kilos of sugar, flour and rice. Free Education for poor children Al Rahma society, setup free schools for hardcore poor children who are often deprived of mainstream education system .And provide free a school bag, books, stationery and lunch. Vocational training programme for unskilled poor woman There is an old saying goes like this, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" Al Rahma society provides free vocational training programme for unskilled poor women, the programme enables them to maintain a degree of self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

When they finish the programme, al Rahma society provides all necessary equipment for free and develops contacts between these women and other local business to generate a higher level of income. Al Rahma society provides the following training. Tailoring Cooking

Al Rahma provides Micro financing Micro financing is socially responsible investments which can alleviate poverty by making small finances available to poor people through programme designed specifically to meet their particular circumstances and needs. The Islamic world is enormous with over 1.2 billion people, stretching from Senegal to the Philippines. Poverty rate is quite high in all Muslim countries except a few countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Poverty levels have also been associated with high inequality alongside low productivity.( Dr.W.Akhter, Dr. N. Akhtar and S. A Jaffri, 2009) An estimated 72 percent of people living in Muslim-majority countries do not use formal financial services (Honohon 2007). Since, conventional micro financing is not compatible with the financial principles in Islamic law. Then, the Islamic microfinance emerged as alternative to the conventional and create a new niche market to serve the low-income Muslims whom in dire need to get Islamic finance. Islamic microfinance is the product of the convergence of two industries: microfinance and Islamic finance. Since, Islam emphasizes ethical, moral, social, and religious factors to promote equality and fairness for the good of society as a whole. The potential of Islamic finance is to combine the Islamic social principle of caring for the less fortunate with microfinances power to provide financial access to the poor.

Al Rahma Society provides micro finance for petty traders as well as entrepreneurs by using AlQard al-Hasan, the period of all these finances are divided; Daily Weekly Monthly

Al-Qard al-Hasan (loan). Islam allows loan as a form of social service among the rich to help the poor and those who are in need of financial assistance. Loan in Islam may be obtained in two ways: (i) Loan with condition of repayment, and (ii) gratuitous loan without any compensation or gift. However, Islam does not recognize any loan with interest for the benefit of the debtor. It only recognizes gratuitous loan or better known as Al-Qard al-Hasan. There is a great reward in the Hereafter for giving it. The objective of Qard Hassan a. To help the needy fellow people. b. To establish better relationship among poor and the rich. c. The mobilization of wealth among all people in the society. d. To perform a good deed that is encouraged and appreciated by the Almighty Allah and His messenger. e. To strengthen the national economy. f. To facilitate the poor to create new jobs market and business ventures by using their merits, skills and expertise.

g. To establish a caring society. h. To eradicate unemployment problem from the society. i. It can be also a missionary work for daw'ah activities by giving qard al-hasan to the nonMuslims, who might be attracted by knowing the beauty of Islam. j. It can remove social and economical discrimination from the society, and

Suggestion
Miskiin Kalkaal Network Since, Miskiin Kalkaal is not a cohesive organization throughout Somaliland, the best way is to form a national network with the mandate to coordinate and improve the efforts of all Miskiin Kalkaal projects working in Somaliland regions, and to play a key role in the expansion of the overall poverty reduction efforts in the country, through capacity building, resource mobilization, advocacy and lobby, networking and coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Whilst network members increasing their capacity to identify, design, implement and control poverty intervention programs is in adequate or limited, the Network is committed to strengthen and coordinate their existing efforts and resources as well as mobilizing external support from national and international donors. The membership of the network should be an open to any organization operating in the six regions of Somaliland. The network should have a clear structure of separate departments and hierarchy. This structure defines roles, responsibilities, authority, and process of carrying out assigned duties. There is a General Assembly, National Council and National Secretariat. Establishing Zakah and Waqf funds Currently, in Somaliland there is no Zakah organization who responsible to collect or distribute. And Zakah, the third pillar of Islam, is probably the first pillar of its economic system. It represents the first and most important tool for implementing the economic justice of Islam and provides sustenance to the economically unfortunate. Zakah is the basis for equitable

redistribution of wealth in Islam and the most viable tool for combating poverty and other social and economic ills in an Islamic society. It is an obligation mentioned in the Quran about thirty times, in twenty-eight of which, Zakah is associated with prayers. This obligation is also emphasized in a number of sayings of the Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him). Islam encourages creating Waqf that keeps producing benefits to its targeted objectives. These objectives can be for the society at large, including the provision of religious services, socioeconomic relief to the needy segment, the poor, education, environment, scientific, and other purposes. The term Waqf is continuous alms, because the virtue is continues even after the death. The Waqf can be Mosque, or building for social purpose, or giving away any other wealth that have perpetuity feature on a permanent basis.

Conclusion
The last twenty years, Somaliland political and economic achievement was astonishing and is known as Africas best kept secret. Eradicating poverty is one of the main goals for both government agencies and international and local non-governmental organizations. And Miskiin Kalkaal is one of the home grown initiatives to fight against poverty and its simple and implementable concept for any country.

References
1. Poverty Alleviation: An Aim of Islamic Economics by Nabeel K.N 2. Somaliland Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 By Ministry of National Planning and Development 3. participatory community census for poverty assessment and mapping of all Somaliland regions by United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) 4. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extdevdialogue/Resources/537297-1241045572558/ Islamic_MicroFinance.pdf 5. Islamic finance for micro and medium enterprises Edited by Mohammed Obaidullah and Hajah Salma Haji Abdul Latiff 6. Al-Qard al-Hasan: A Practical Approach by Mohammad Delwar Hossain 7. Map by Nasiib news network Khadar Eid Karie 2010 8. 9. http://somalilandgov.com/ Islamic micro-finance and poverty alleviation: a case of pakistan by Dr.W.Akhter, Dr. N. Akhtar and S. A Jaffri, . CBRC, Lahore, Pakistan November 14, 2009