By Maher Ahmed - Reporter
Somalia, July 25 2026 – Somalia's Hirshabelle state presented the World Bank-backed BULSHO programme to district officials and civil society representatives ahead of its rollout, Somalia's Ministry of Interior said on Friday.
The awareness workshop was opened by Hirshabelle's Minister of Interior and Local Government, Abdidahir Gure Karore, and attended by officials from Somalia's federal Ministry of Interior, district administrations and civil society groups.
BULSHO, a Somali word meaning community, is a government-led programme aimed at strengthening community and local institutions to improve social cohesion, inclusion and resilience. It uses a community-centred approach in which residents, district authorities and state and federal institutions jointly identify local priorities and mobilise resources to address them.
The World Bank provides financing for the programme, which includes institutional support for districts, participatory local planning, platforms intended to strengthen relations between communities and authorities, and matching grants for eligible districts.
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Officials said the Jowhar meeting was intended to explain how the programme would operate, outline eligibility requirements and prepare districts for implementation.
Karoore said participating districts would compete for project support under established criteria and that the selection process would be conducted fairly.
The programme is led nationally by Somalia's Ministry of Interior and is intended to operate across the federal member states, including in rural and hard-to-reach areas.
The workshop comes ahead of the programme's formal launch in Hirshabelle. The federal government introduced the World Bank-backed BULSHO programme in Mogadishu in April, followed by implementation in Galmudug in June and South West State in July as Somalia expands the initiative across its federal member states.