What works in Somalia

Somalia's digital-financial infrastructure has expanded dramatically: 73% of adults use mobile money monthly, with roughly $2.7 billion moving through mobile-money systems each month, and over 300,000 women have received digital-literacy training through the national Baxnaano cash-transfer programme, which has reached over 4 million Somalis. Women's political representation has nearly doubled from a 2012 baseline of 14%, though it remains below the 30% target at 24% in the Senate (2021) and roughly 20% in the House of the People (2022), partly because the quota lacks legal enforcement. The evidence quantifies digital inclusion and cash-transfer reach but does not measure outcomes of digital-literacy training or track whether mobile-money access translates into sustained economic benefit for users.