WeTransformCommunities
A Somali-led international NGO headquartered in Minnesota, United States, delivering locally driven humanitarian, development and peacebuilding solutions across Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Guided by our 2025–2027 Strategic Plan.
Our Foundation
Community
Impact
Our Mission
Our mission is to empower forcibly displaced and marginalized communities across Somalia, Kenya, and Sudan by delivering locally led, sustainable, and rights-based solutions in livelihoods, climate resilience, social protection, and peace-building.
6 years of impact
Our Vision
We envision a peaceful, resilient and self-reliant Horn of Africa where every person, regardless of background or circumstance, has equitable access to opportunity, essential services, and the means to lead a dignified life.
Core Values
Principles that drive our work every day
Dignity & Justice
We uphold the inherent worth of every person and prioritize those most excluded, ensuring fairness, inclusion, and respect in all actions.
Local Leadership & Trust
We believe sustainable change starts locally; we build trust, amplify community voices, and invest in country-led systems for lasting impact.
Integrity & Transparency
We act with honesty, fiscal responsibility, and openness, maintaining accountability to beneficiaries, partners, and donors alike.
Gender-Transformative Inclusion
We actively challenge inequality, create opportunities for women and girls, and design programs that promote equitable power relations.
Conflict Sensitivity & Do-No-Harm
We understand complex contexts and design interventions that strengthen, not strain, social cohesion and peace.
Evidence-Based Learning & Adaptation
We learn continuously, adapt based on data and feedback, and use community innovation to enhance program quality and impact.
Environmental Stewardship & Resilience
We protect ecosystems and promote climate-smart, sustainable practices that build resilience for future generations.
Partnership & Collaboration
We embrace collaboration with governments, civil society, UN agencies, and the private sector to amplify reach and results.
Geographic Focus
Our comparative advantage is locally led, cross-border programming that combines rapid crisis response with durable systems strengthening in climate-vulnerable pastoral and displacement-affected corridors.
Headquarters
Minnesota, United States
Global coordination, strategy, donor relations, research partnerships
Somalia
Primary Operational Focus
- • Mogadishu
- • Gedo
- • Lower Juba
- • Riverine/peri-urban corridors
Kenya
Cross-border & ASAL Engagement
- • Garissa
- • Wajir
- • Mandera
- • Marsabit & Isiolo
Sudan
Humanitarian Response
- • Khartoum
- • El Fasher (North Darfur)
- • Kordofan
Programmatic Focus Areas
Integrated interventions that address root causes of fragility
Our Theory of Change
How we create lasting impact
If LHF delivers integrated, locally-led interventions that strengthen livelihoods, basic services, climate adaptation and inclusive governance, and mobilizes diversified finance and strategic partnerships, then communities in Somalia, Kenya and Sudan will become more peaceful, resilient and self-reliant because strengthened local systems, market linkages and protection mechanisms reduce vulnerability, enable sustainable incomes and restore social cohesion.
Our Approach: Why LHF Delivers Results
Integrated & Systems-oriented
Interventions combine livelihoods, protection, climate and governance to address root causes of fragility
Locally-led & Community-owned
Programming is co-designed with communities and local leaders to ensure relevance and sustainability
Gender-transformative & Protection-sensitive
Gender inclusion is mainstreamed across design, implementation and M&E. All programs are protection-screened
Evidence-driven & Adaptive
A strong MEAL system, action-research components and digital feedback loops guide iterative program adaptation
Scalable & Partnership-driven
We collaborate with governments, UN agencies, INGOs, private sector and diaspora networks for scale and policy uptake
Key Assumptions
Local communities and leaders will engage actively and sustain co-management of interventions
National and sub-national authorities will cooperate and permit program access
Local markets remain sufficiently functional to absorb diversified products and services
Basic security is stable enough in target hubs to allow safe implementation
Climate forecasts and early warning information are available and actionable at community level
Sufficient co-financing and partner commitments will be mobilized as planned
LHF's teams and partners can rapidly build the technical capacity needed for scaled delivery and learning
Why Fund Us?
Our value proposition: high-impact, low-risk entry point for durable investments in fragile, climate-vulnerable contexts
Somali-led with Deep Local Legitimacy
LHF's leadership and field teams are drawn from the communities we serve, enabling rapid access, high trust and culturally appropriate programming
Cross-border Operational Reach
We deliver integrated programming across Somalia, Kenya and Sudan, connecting shared rangelands, markets and displacement corridors
Gender-transformative Programming
Gender equality is core to our design: interventions intentionally increase women's asset ownership, leadership and access to finance
Youth-centred Economic Pathways
We prioritize youth employment and entrepreneurship to convert demographic potential into social stability and green livelihoods
Climate-smart, Anticipatory Approach
All projects embed climate adaptation, early warning systems, and anticipatory action to reduce disaster losses and produce measurable resilience gains
Evidence, Innovation & Policy Influence
Built-in MEAL and participatory research convert field learning into operational improvement and policy uptake
Partnerships that De-risk Scale
We mobilise government co-investment, UN/INGO technical partners, private buyers and community co-finance to leverage donor capital
Accountability & Safeguarding
Robust MEAL, PSEA and financial controls underpin our commitment to do no harm, protect beneficiaries and ensure value for money
Sustainable, Revenue-oriented Models
LHF fosters social enterprises, cooperatives and village resilience funds that generate local revenues and reduce long-term aid dependency
Rapid, Adaptive Delivery
Our locally embedded staff, flexible implementation modalities and contingency planning enable effective, timely responses even where security is constrained
Strategic Targets
High-level targets from our 2025–2027 Strategic Plan
Displaced Individuals Empowered
Annually through education and jobs
Social Enterprises
Self-sustaining enterprises established by 2027
Healthcare Services
Provided to vulnerable community members per year