We work where the need is greatest, and we stay.
BADEF Development Foundation is a nonprofit organisation whose primary focus is helping war-torn societies and marginalised communities in Africa. We work to heal the degraded conditions of communities affected by the prolonged civil war in Somalia.
A healthy, educated, self-reliant and prosperous Somalia.
Our focus is the south west regions, where prolonged civil war and domination by militias and warlords have left communities furthest from the services they are owed.
Five commitments that decide what we take on.
Serve the most vulnerable
Marginalised communities, women, youth and children, pastoralists and their livestock, victims of natural disaster and civil conflict, and the poor, with a specific focus on neglected groups and cases.
Bridge relief and development
Holistic, multi-sectoral and pro-poor programmes that connect emergency response to long-term development at grassroots level.
Build local capacity
Empower communities by building capacity and maximising local resources in both programme design and implementation.
Promote self-reliance
Support peaceful coexistence and the reintegration of marginalised communities.
Protect lives
Prevent physical injury, death and psychological trauma wherever we find it.
Seven, and we mean all of them.
They are how we choose partners, hire staff and decide what to refuse.
Transparency
Open books and open decisions on what we receive and what we spend.
Humanity
We respond to the need in front of us, not to who is watching.
Integrity
We do what we said we would do, whether or not anyone is checking.
Honesty
We report what actually happened, including the parts that did not work.
Accountability
To the communities we serve first, and to the partners who fund the work.
Advocacy
We speak up for neglected groups and cases, not only raise funds for them.
Impartiality
We conduct our activities without bias of colour or religion.
Contributing to reconstruction, and to stability.
We create impact through interventions that build the resilience of the people of Somalia, while advocating for peace and stability. Three principles govern every one of them.
Care for people uprooted
by war
We work with those compelled by hard conditions or oppression to leave their homes and property, and we treat return and reintegration as part of the job, not someone else’s problem.
Build integrated
communities
We develop projects with multiple objectives rather than single-issue interventions, because water, schooling and income fail or hold together as one system.
Serve without bias
We conduct our activities without regard to colour, clan or religion. Need decides who we serve, and nothing else does.
Four levels, one loop.
Every project runs through the same structure, and every level is responsible for monitoring, so that all members stay familiar with a project’s progress. Reports travel up from the community; policy, oversight and monitoring visits travel back down.
Main Office
Sets long and short-term policy together with the regional offices, and administers and represents the foundation nationally. Receives consolidated reports roughly twice a year, then sends a monitoring team to the project site to consult community representatives directly.
Regional Office
Supports several district offices and shares responsibility for delivery against the agreed terms. Where a project needs changing, the decision is taken jointly by the department line, the district and regional representatives, and the donor. Monthly updates are consolidated here into quarterly reports.
District Office
Keeps close, hands-on contact with the local community. This is where project ideas are conceived, developed, implemented and evaluated, and where the observations that shape every report begin.
The community
Participants and the appropriate line departments evaluate the project and give feedback every month. Nothing travels up the chain that did not start here.
Administered on
three levels.
Separating these levels is what keeps mission decisions, strategy and delivery from collapsing into one another.
Institutional
Concerned with the foundation’s relationship to its whole environment: creating, maintaining and modifying the external relationships essential to its existence and development. This is the level at which the mission is defined and the values are articulated.
Managerial
Translates those values into objectives and the strategies for reaching them within set time periods, subject to the limits imposed by economic, political, social and ecological conditions. Strategic planning happens here.
Technical
Concerned with implementing managerial decisions, and with the general regulation of work performance.
Want the detail behind the structure?
Our annual report and audited accounts set out governance, spending and results in full.