On 13 September 2007, SAACID signed a contract with UNDP/UN-OCHA and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) to fund a 12-week programme to clean up the then 260 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) settlements in Mogadishu City. The programme was designed to provide a more sanitary environment for IDPs and to provide emergency livelihoods for 780 IDPs (93% women).

While this programme is absolutely an emergency assistance programme, due to its positive impact on livelihoods and development in Mogadishu city, the programme has been included under our "Livelihoods and Development" sector.

A successful citywide mobilisation workshop was held on 29-30 September 2007 to introduce the programme; and to hand over ownership of the programme to local communities in the city.

Throughout the 12 weeks, 16 district-based work team cleaned IDP settlements throughout the city without any serious incident; this despite the high level of conflict and insecurity that continued to pervade the city.

The programme employed 780 IDPs (96.3% women) – 3 each from the 260 IDP settlements.

At the end of the 12-week period, some 168 of the then functioning 260 IDP settlements were cleaned. What remained was 92 settlements from the 260 sites, plus 37 new sites that were identified in UNHCR’s November 2007 survey of IDPs settlements in Mogadishu City (297 total). Thus, there were some 129 sites remaining to be cleaned in Mogadishu.

UN-OCHA and DRC agreed to fund a second phase of the programme, so as to clear the remaining IDP camps. This second phase of the programme began on 13 April and was completed on 3 July 2008.

The second phase was equally successful, with 303 of 320 IDP camps being successfully cleaned (the number of IDP camps continues to increase as chronic insecurity continues to increase).

The programme cleaned 88,908 tonnes of garbage from the 303 camps; and employed 780 IDPs (93% women) for 26 weeks. Each worker received US $52 per month; or US $312 for the length of the programme.

Some 96 Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs) were found in the garbage, and they were cleared by the Danish Demining Group.