Urban Poverty in Somaliland: The Case of State House Area in Hargeisa

Somaliland, like any other Sub-Saharan Africa remains amongst the poorest nations in the world with a Gross Domestic Product per capita of $499.8 according to the World Bank ahead of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Niger. The purpose of this study is aimed to analyze urban poverty in Somaliland. Both primary and secondary data were used; the primary data were obtained from field activity results of a questionnaire distributed to 97 randomly selected respondents in the study area. The secondary data were taken from different published assessments and reports from reputable global institutions. Descriptive statistics and econometric model were used to analyze the data. According to the results of this study, urban poverty in Somaliland is multi-dimensional; it manifests itself in the form of inadequate basic services and goods such as lack of clean water, nutritious food, lack of hygiene and sanitation, lack of health facilities, lower standard houses without lighting, unemployment, poorly paid wage. The combinations of these problems deteriorate and worsen the living conditions of the urban poor in Somaliland. Urban poverty is determined by consumption expenditure, household size, education level of the head of the household, access to health facilities and status of unemployment in the study area. Therefore, this implies the necessity of intervention and preparation of comprehensive and inclusive national planning: reduction of poverty, employment creation, investment in education (vocational and training) and health, introduction of poor friendly public utilities, promotion of investment in national productive assets, and institutionalization of local community support systems (local charity).