The King’s Somaliland Partnership (KSP) was established in 2000 and works with the Somaliland government, higher education and healthcare institutions in the following areas:

• Strengthening higher education and training for health professionals
• Institutional development of medical, nursing and midwifery schools
• Developing national medical education policy and regulation
• Improving hospital management

Somaliland has some of the world’s worst health indicators and a shortage of adequately trained health workers, rooted in challenges in the tertiary education sector.

A good health system requires a workforce that is well-trained and of sufficient size to meet the needs of the population. In Somaliland, the overall density of doctors, nurses and midwives is 4.6 per 10,000 population. This is far below the WHO-recommended minimum threshold of 23 health workers per 10,000 population. Higher education health faculties are not managing to produce graduates who are prepared for clinical practice. Critical gaps exist in the curricula and for many core health subjects, there is currently insufficient expertise within universities to design and deliver courses.

We support our partners in Somaliland to strengthen teaching, learning and assessment within medical, nursing and midwifery institutes; develop the skills of higher education personnel and the management of teaching institutions; and strengthen the governance of higher education for health, by supporting national, medical education policy reform and curriculum development.

Our projects

Prepared for Practice

Building Somaliland's health workforce by reforming the higher education system