An innovative and unique partnership: WHO, Sweden and Somalia work together to improve health outcomes for all Somalis
Jessamyn Stanley needs you to know what yoga is really about - and it's not the poses. In her new book Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance, the yoga instructor and body activist shares reflective personal essays that touch upon everything from racism to the cultural appropriation of American yoga, from consumerism to cannabis. And while the timing couldn't be better considering the current cultural climate, the idea for the book came to her years ago while she was writing her first book, Every Body Yoga, a guide to developing a yoga practice. "I realized yoga is a lot more than postures," she tells PEOPLE. "The postures get to be more complicated, not because you're practicing harder gymnastics or physical postures, but because you're practicing emotional and mental and really spiritual postures." In fact, she says, yoga is not supposed to feel good. Take the example of someone expecting a Zen-like experience from a yoga practice - only to be disappointed. "You're like, 'This is hard. Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. I am not good enough, I shouldn't be doing this, maybe my body is supposed to look different, maybe my life's supposed to be different.' All these feelings start to come up. That's what the postures are leading you towards, is to have that experience." RELATED: Jessamyn Stanley Found Body Acceptance Through Yoga and Can Help You Do the Same Stanley has been nurturing this self-awareness in the nearly 10 years since she has been breaking barriers in the yoga world, tackling topics like fat-shaming, her queer Black identity and unattainable beauty standards. In Yoke - which means yoga in Sanskrit - she uses her own life as a a metaphor to further explore the coming together of mind and body, light and the dark, good and the bad - both on and off the mat. "I wanted to reflect on what it is to practice yoga when we are as a society being forced to reckon with the long, deep, systemic, down-to-the-bone problems. We're being forced to look at things that we've never wanted to look at. And that's all that yoga is, is looking at the things that you don't want to look at. And ultimately, come hell or high water, accepting them." Story continues Workman Publishing
Nearly 30 years of conflict and instability have heavily marked Somalia’s recent history. Some gains are being made, but the country still faces many challenges ahead.
Somalia’s health indicators, especially for women and children rank among the lowest in the world.
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| Swedish Ambassador, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO joint UHC High-Level mission to Hargeisa and Garowe. |
Recently published statistics show that maternal mortality and deaths of children under five remain high, while female genital mutilation is still widespread. Prevalence of early marriage also contributes to high fertility rates. These issues are further exacerbated by cramped conditions in the country’s over 2 000 sites for internally displaced persons.
An innovative partnership between WHO, Sweden and Somalia’s Ministry for Health was launched to address these and other persistent health problems. The partnership, which is borne out of a policy dialogue and a high-level mission by Sweden to Somalia in 2020, aims to create an independent Somali Public Health authority and to modernize the country’s health information management system.
This collaboration between Sweden and WHO in Somalia was inspired by WHO’s 2019-2013 General Programme of Work to deliver impact at the country level.
Improving health outcomes in Somalia
UHC High-Level mission in Somalia.
Sweden’s funding initiatives and active collaboration in the country, supported by WHO, are focused on promoting equitable access to health care and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Sweden is working closely with WHO to support the establishment of an independent Somali public health authority: The National Institute of Health. This includes technical support from The Public Health Agency of Sweden.
“We strive to contribute to making the National Health Institute a centre of excellence. It is one of the priorities of WHO,” said Kyle DeFreitas, External Relations and Resource Mobilization Officer at WHO Somalia.
“We will help build the capacities of the institute, which will enable Somalia to deal more effectively with public health issues into the future, including potential disease outbreaks and pandemics,” he added.
Dr Abdifatah Diriye Ahmed, Executive Director of the National Health Institute, said the newly formed institution will be one of the most important and crucial steps towards establishing a strong health system in addition to the areas of equitable access and reproductive health and rights in Somalia. During the past three decades, the health system has been fragmented and has faced many challenges.
“With the goal of becoming the leading evidence-based centre of knowledge excellence and dissemination in research, the National Institute of Health will be the epicentre of efforts to shape Somalia’s new health care system and the future of healthy Somalis,” he said.
Sweden’s second project with WHO and the Somali Ministry of Health is a collaboration with SPIDER Centre, an institute based at Stockholm University. The initiative aims to help authorities digitalize the country’s health information management system starting in three pilot locations in Puntland, Galmudug, and Banaadir.
WHO and the National Institute of Health will also work with the SPIDER Centre to help build a state-of-the-art integrated disease surveillance and response system.
A unique partnership
UHC High-Level mission in Somalia.
Sweden as a donor doesn’t just give financial support to WHO to carry out a project or a programme. We work together. We network together. We strive towards common goals in the health sector in Somalia. We make resources available and we use them to push things together in the right direction, says Daniel Magnusson, Senior Programme Manager at the Somalia Section at the Swedish Embassy in Nairobi.
A critical feature of the partnership focuses on the exchange of expertise which will happen through the secondment of personnel. An experienced senior professional will join WHO Somalia to, among other duties, focus on supporting the National Institute of Health and collaboration with the SPIDER Centre. Another expert consultant will join at a later stage.
After the first stage, the team will assess their progress and make any necessary adjustments.
A cohesive UN system
UHC High-Level mission in Somalia.
Sweden believes in a UN system that works together. Our view of health sector development in countries like Somalia is that there needs to be strong collaboration and coordination between the different multilateral agencies like WHO and bilateral actors like Sweden, combined with a strong engagement with the government at different levels, explained Daniel.
Building a stronger primary health care system is crucial in creating a brighter future for the people of Somalia and is therefore part of WHO’s main focus.
“A strong primary health care system can ensure equitable access to health care and rights to health including reproductive and sexual health for women and other marginalized groups. “It is an investment for managing health security threats at the local level before they become a national threat or an epidemic,” says Dr Mamunur Malik, WHO Representative in Somalia.
Despite the long road ahead, the collaboration between Sweden, WHO and the Somali Ministry of Health is one significant step towards ensuring that no one in Somalia will be left behind in the journey towards health for all.
Jessamyn Stanley needs you to know what yoga is really about - and it's not the poses. In her new book Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance, the yoga instructor and body activist shares reflective personal essays that touch upon everything from racism to the cultural appropriation of American yoga, from consumerism to cannabis. And while the timing couldn't be better considering the current cultural climate, the idea for the book came to her years ago while she was writing her first book, Every Body Yoga, a guide to developing a yoga practice. "I realized yoga is a lot more than postures," she tells PEOPLE. "The postures get to be more complicated, not because you're practicing harder gymnastics or physical postures, but because you're practicing emotional and mental and really spiritual postures." In fact, she says, yoga is not supposed to feel good. Take the example of someone expecting a Zen-like experience from a yoga practice - only to be disappointed. "You're like, 'This is hard. Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. I am not good enough, I shouldn't be doing this, maybe my body is supposed to look different, maybe my life's supposed to be different.' All these feelings start to come up. That's what the postures are leading you towards, is to have that experience." RELATED: Jessamyn Stanley Found Body Acceptance Through Yoga and Can Help You Do the Same Stanley has been nurturing this self-awareness in the nearly 10 years since she has been breaking barriers in the yoga world, tackling topics like fat-shaming, her queer Black identity and unattainable beauty standards. In Yoke - which means yoga in Sanskrit - she uses her own life as a a metaphor to further explore the coming together of mind and body, light and the dark, good and the bad - both on and off the mat. "I wanted to reflect on what it is to practice yoga when we are as a society being forced to reckon with the long, deep, systemic, down-to-the-bone problems. We're being forced to look at things that we've never wanted to look at. And that's all that yoga is, is looking at the things that you don't want to look at. And ultimately, come hell or high water, accepting them." Story continues Workman Publishing