Healthcare in Somalia

[3] Until the collapse of the federal government in 1991, the organizational and administrative structure of Somalia's healthcare sector was overseen by the Ministry of Health.

As with other previously nationalized sectors, informal providers have filled the vacuum and replaced the former government monopoly over healthcare, with access to facilities witnessing a significant increase.

[8] [9][10] Child mortality and morbidity The last three decades of armed conflicts, lack of functioning government, economic collapse, and disintegration of the health system and other public services - together with recurrent droughts and famines – has turned Somalia into one of the world's most difficult environments for survival.

This is bluntly reflected in the poor child health conditions, as twenty per cent of the children die before they reach the age of five, more than one third are underweight, and almost fifty percent experience stunting.

[11] The under-five mortality rate in Somalia is among the highest in the world, while the prevalence of malnutrition has remained at record high levels for decades.

[9][13] According to United Nations Population Fund data on the midwifery workforce, there is a total of 429 midwives (including nurse-midwives) in Somalia, with a density of 1 midwife per 1,000 live births.

[18] According to a 2005 World Health Organization estimate, about 97.9% of Somalia's women and girls underwent female circumcision,[19] a pre-marital custom mainly endemic to Northeast Africa and parts of the Near East.

[22][23] By 2013, UNICEF in conjunction with the Somali authorities reported that the prevalence rate among 1- to 14-year-old girls in the autonomous northern Puntland and Somaliland regions had dropped to 25% following a social and religious awareness campaign.

While the government's institutional capacity is developing, UN agencies would in the interim through public-private partnerships administer immunization among other associated health programs.

The initiative will continue through to the end of 2016, and is expected to ensure that health facilities operate with better equipment, more healthcare workers, and for longer shifts.

It is also centered on growing institutional capacity through training medical personnel, health sector reform, and policy development facilitation.