Logistical challenges to relief aid: An explorative study on Somaliland’s transport sector and the emergence of logistics service providers

project summary

<strong>Abstract: </strong> This thesis provides an explorative baseline study of Somaliland’s transportation sector in Berbera corridor through a lens of humanitarian utilisation. The analysis of the main actors, their interrelations, and modes of operation is conducted using a tripartite concept of <em>embeddedness </em>(Hess 2004). Hereby, I found that logistics service providers overcome operational challenges through their <em>societal embeddedness</em>, acquire knowledge and expertise through <em>network embeddedness</em>, and are constrained and exposed to economic changes due to their <em>territorial embeddedness.</em> The humanitarian system has a positive impact on the transport economy by proliferating knowledge, enforcing local capacities, and providing economic opportunities to a diverse set of transporters. An investment deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ethiopia in Berbera corridor is set to transform Somaliland from the global periphery to a major outlet of landlocked Ethiopia. This provides economic opportunities, but also risks concentrating logistics-activity to a limited number of elites. The example of the humanitarian system’s use of the local economy is suggested as a blueprint for wider economic inclusion in the Berbera corridor.