INCREASING ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES IN CEEL JAALE TOWN:

By Daryeel Project with Ceel-Jaale Community, Marka Disrict.

Using a participatory community consultation process, the Ceel-Jaale community prioritized responding to the lack of a public market that is urgently affecting the entire town where women are lacking a designated space to run and own small scale businesses. The construction of a market will aim to enhance the livelihood opportunities of business owners and benefit the community and its surrounding locations. A market will also improve interaction among various clans residing in Marka.

Ceel Jaale is a town is located 8km from Marka town and comes under Marka District Administration. It is a coastal town near a seaport known as Hebta Sambuska that relies mainly on fishing, livestock, and farming as the main sources of livelihood. It has an estimated population of 10,200 and roughly 4,800 internally displaced persons (IDPs). The town has been under government control since 2012.

The community in Ceel Jaale has shown and presented great interest in participating in the Marka District community-based planning and matching grant sessions through the Daryeel project, which supplements funds raised by the community at a set ratio. This funding scheme incentivizes cooperation between community sub-groups, boosting collective action and encouraging social cohesion. The community in Ceel Jaale has no previous experience in initiating, co-financing, or directly financing projects and this is the first time this is being piloted in the town. The community prioritized piloting the matching grants with the construction of a market. The construction of the market will seek to promote social-economic development and enhance social cohesion. The market will also foster a women-led economy, as women in Lower Shabelle are seen to be the breadwinners. The matching grant ratio will be 1:3. The community contribution is expected to be $25,000 with the project matching $75,000. Hence the total cost of the community project will be $100,000.

The implementation process is government-led, and community-drive. The increased intercommunal interaction and the community government promotes both horizontal and vertical trust, reducing any potential conflict that existed among the different clans and subclans since the target areas are fragile and at least experienced conflict either in the past or the present.

Thank you for contributing towards improving access to social economic amenities in Ceel Jaale town through forecasting to establish public space that will give an atmosphere of equitable resource mobilization, sound business environment and recreational centre to ensure peace and social cohesion is uplifted.