Somalia has one of the youngest populations in the world. Approximately 75% of Somalis are under 30. Yet in most governance reform discussions, youth appear primarily as a risk factor — potential recruits for armed groups, drivers of urban insecurity, a demographic to be managed — rather than as agents of change to be engaged.
Himma Consultancy's work with UN-Habitat on the Baidoa Youth Hub under the Youth and Urban Regeneration Somalia (YOURS) project offered a different perspective. The question we were asked to investigate was not how to manage youth, but how to create conditions for meaningful youth participation in local governance.
What We Found in Baidoa
When Himma conducted its gap assessment for the Baidoa Youth Hub in 2023, we found a physical space that existed but functioned primarily as a passive facility — a place youth visited, not a structure through which they acted. The hub had no clear governance framework, no mechanism for youth to participate in decision-making about its own programming, and no formal link to district governance processes.
We also found enormous unrealised potential. Baidoa has a significant population of educated young people — returned diaspora, university graduates, young professionals — who expressed strong desire to contribute to their city's development but had no meaningful platform through which to do so.
The gap in Baidoa was not youth motivation. It was institutional architecture. Young people knew what they wanted to contribute. They had nowhere to bring it.
Youth Hubs as Governance Infrastructure
From Facility to Institution
Our Youth Engagement Strategy for the Baidoa Hub reframed the centre not as a service delivery point but as a governance institution — a structured space through which youth could engage with local authorities, participate in planning processes, and advocate for their interests through legitimate channels.
This required three things: a governance structure within the hub itself (a youth council with transparent election processes), formal linkages to the Southwest State Ministry of Youth and Sports, and a programme framework that connected hub activities to district development priorities.
Capacity Before Connectivity
Our five-day capacity building training for hub staff and Ministry personnel — covering governance, programme development, financial management, and M&E — was designed on a specific principle: institutions cannot connect to governance processes they don't have the capacity to navigate. Building the internal systems of the hub was a prerequisite for meaningful external engagement, not an afterthought.
Broader Implications
The Baidoa experience points to a model that could be replicated across Somalia's Federal Member States. Youth hubs — when properly structured, resourced, and linked to formal governance processes — can serve as legitimate entry points for civic participation. They provide a channel for the enormous energy and capability of Somalia's young population to flow into governance rather than away from it.
This requires sustained investment. Physical infrastructure alone is not enough. The governance architecture, the staff capacity, and the formal linkages to government must all be built and maintained. But the evidence from Baidoa suggests the return on that investment is real.
Conclusion
Youth in Somalia are not a problem to be solved. They are a resource to be engaged. Youth hubs, properly designed and resourced, offer one of the most promising institutional mechanisms for that engagement — connecting young Somalis to the governance processes that shape their lives.
