Questions, answered plainly.

The most vulnerable: marginalised communities, women, youth and children, pastoralists and their livestock, people affected by natural disaster and civil conflict, and the poor, with a specific focus on neglected groups. We serve without regard to colour, clan or religion. Need decides who we serve, and nothing else does. Our mission and values.

We work across seven states and territories of Somalia: Jubaland, South West, Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Puntland, North East and Somaliland. We also work in neighbouring countries in East Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Our published programme records are concentrated in Lower Juba (Afmadow and Dhobley, including the Qorax IDP camp) and Lower Shabelle (Marka and Kurtunwarey). Child protection work has also run in Mogadishu and Baidoa, and we have an office in Kenya. Our teams are based in the areas they serve and work through local committees rather than parachuting in and out. See our footprint.

BADEF Development Foundation is a nonprofit development organisation working with poor and marginalised communities across the Somali regions and in neighbouring countries in East Africa, alongside government ministries and international partners. Our registration documents are available on request. Contact the office and we will send them to you.

We start from need, and from invitation. Projects emanate from the needs a local community expresses, in their own order of priority, not from a plan written elsewhere. We work where displacement, drought and the long aftermath of conflict have hit hardest, and agree priorities with that community before a programme is designed. How projects begin.

Every project runs through four levels: the community, a district office, a regional office and our main office. Participants and the relevant line departments evaluate the project every month, regional offices consolidate those returns into quarterly reports, and the main office reviews them about twice a year, then sends a monitoring team to the project site to consult community representatives directly. How we work.

We report what changed for people, not just the activities we ran. Figures come out of the monthly reporting chain that runs from the community up through our district and regional offices, are updated as programmes close, and are reviewed with local partners. The published write-ups sit in our impact stories.

Gifts fund programme delivery in the districts where we work. The remainder covers the staffing, transport and reporting that keep those programmes running. Transparency is one of our stated values, meaning open books and open decisions on what we receive and what we spend, so if you want the detailed breakdown for a given programme year, ask us and we will send it.

Yes. A gift can be directed to any of our seven programme areas: food security and livelihoods, basic health services, gender balance and mainstreaming, water, sanitation and hygiene, community mobilisation, education, or environmental protection. If a programme is already funded we will tell you, and ask before moving your gift anywhere else. Choose a programme when you give.

Yes. Tell us what you do, where you are, how much time you have and which of our seven programme areas your experience sits in. Placements and roles follow live project needs, mostly alongside district teams in Lower Juba and Lower Shabelle, and any role involving contact with children or programme participants requires checks before it is confirmed. Volunteer with us or see careers.

We deliver through partnership with United Nations agencies, bilateral and pooled donors, and Somali organisations working in the same districts, alongside government ministries. Our nine partners and donors are the European Union, FAO, FCG, the Somalia NGO Consortium, the Somalia Humanitarian Fund, Somalia Non-State Actors, UNICEF, URUR KAAB and USAID. Meet our partners.

We deliver as a partner and as a sub-grantee. Tell us which districts you work in and the period you are funding, and choose Partnership or funding as the subject on our contact form so your message reaches the right desk. Our institutional funding page covers where we deliver, how we report and due diligence.

If anyone is in immediate danger, contact the local police or emergency services first. Then tell us by email at info@badef.org with Safeguarding in the subject line, through the contact form (choose Safeguarding or complaint), by phone, or on WhatsApp at +254 703 808 080. You do not need to prove anything before you tell us, and we do not penalise anyone for raising a concern honestly. Read our safeguarding page.

Email info@badef.org, or call +252 61 5888383 or +252 1 201132 in Somalia and +254 703 808 080 in Kenya, which also takes WhatsApp. General enquiries, partnership proposals, media requests and safeguarding concerns all reach the same inbox and are routed from there. Send us a message.