Stockholm, Sweden – How can partnerships across sectors deliver lasting impact for people affected by crisis? This was the central question at Shared value – Sweden × Somalia and the Horn of Africa: From partnership insights to practical co-action and scaled impact for people, co-hosted by Uppsala University, Tinkr, World Vision and SomRep in Stockholm on 9 October 2026.
The roundtable brought together people from government, civil society, business, investment, research and diaspora communities. It followed a September gathering in Nairobi, where around 150 representatives of Nordic and East African organisations explored how to build partnerships that create shared value and deliver impact at scale.
Angelica Lindqvist-McGowan, Director of Operations and Outreach for the Violence & Impacts Early-Warning System (VIEWS), co-facilitated two discussion groups on “Partnering for data and evidence to make better decisions”, together with Johan Eldebo from World Vision.
The discussions focused on making better use of available data and evidence in complex contexts such as Somalia.
Five key takeaways emerged:
- Make existing evidence more accessible and actionable. Research and data are often fragmented across organisations and systems. Participants highlighted the need to improve how knowledge is shared and connected to the decisions and workflows of those who can use it.
- Put local knowledge at the centre. I Local communities and diaspora networks can contribute essential insights and contextual understanding. Their involvement should begin at the outset, with communities recognised as partners in producing and using evidence.
- Build trust through collaboration. Bringing together different sources of knowledge and perspectives can help make evidence more credible, relevant and grounded in local realities.
- Strengthen the loop between evidence and action . Collaboration between funders, researchers and organisations working on the ground should be reciprocal and continuous. Evidence producers need to understand how their work is used, while implementing partners need information that responds to their practical needs. Lessons from implementation, in turn, should feed back into funding calls and programme evaluation criteria.
- Focus on outcomes for people. Ultimately, better access to evidence and stronger partnerships should support better decisions and more effective action for communities affected by crisis.
For VIEWS, the discussions reinforced the importance of working closely with organisations that use conflict forecasts. Understanding partners’ needs and how forecasts inform decisions is essential to making early-warning information more relevant and useful.
The other discussion groups also explored partnerships around funding, investment and financial mechanisms; alongside collaboration across the private, humanitarian and public sectors, academia and diaspora networks. Discussions considered, e.g., how different actors can share risks, strengthen cooperation and support more resilient economies across Somalia and the Horn of Africa.
A key message was that partnerships must be reciprocal. Evidence producers need to understand how their work is used, while those implementing programmes and working with communities need accessible knowledge to guide their decisions. Ultimately, collaboration should create value not only for the organisations involved, but also for the communities they serve.
Takeaways from both the Nairobi and Stockholm events will be presented in a forthcoming synthesis report.
