About us
Community Development & Humanitarian Network (CoDHNet)
- Who We Are
Community Development and Humanitarian Network (CoDHNet) is a non-governmental organization established in 2013 and dedicated to promoting sustainable development and humanitarian assistance across the Horn of Africa.
Our work focuses on addressing poverty, empowering vulnerable communities, and advancing human rights, peace, and good governance. We support communities affected by conflict, displacement, climate challenges, and economic hardship, helping them build resilience and sustainable livelihoods.
Operating across Kenya and Somalia, CoDHNet connects communities across borders to strengthen solidarity and provide support to those most in need. By bringing people together, we promote peaceful coexistence, justice, and human dignity.
Through unity, collaboration, and humanitarian action, we empower communities with the knowledge, tools, and opportunities needed to create lasting positive change. Our programs are designed to improve livelihoods, strengthen resilience, and respond effectively to humanitarian crises.
Working closely with local communities and partners, we strive to ensure that development solutions are inclusive, sustainable, and community-driven.
Guided by our core values, CoDHNet envisions a world where everyone has equal opportunities and can live in peace, dignity, and security.
🤝 Together, we achieve more.
- Our Leadership
CoDHNet’s leadership is composed of a dynamic team of professionals, guided by our Board of Directors and led by an Executive Director. Our board comprises six members, including four women and two men, with a female chairperson and a male executive director.
Our leaders bring a wealth of experience and a shared vision of creating impactful, sustainable change across our regions of operation. They ensure that our organization adheres to principles of transparency, accountability, and human rights in all our work.
- Where We Work
Operating across Kenya and Somalia, CoDHNet works to connect communities across borders, build solidarity, and provide support to those most in need. Through inclusive partnerships and community-driven solutions, we promote peace, justice, and dignity for all.
We believe that sustainable change happens when communities are empowered. By working closely with local leaders, civil society organizations, and development partners, we help communities access the knowledge, resources, and opportunities necessary to improve their lives and shape their own futures.
CoDHNet addressing the unique needs of communities in these regions. Our work spans several thematic areas including peacebuilding, health, education, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), climate change adaptation, agriculture, and youth development.
We work in some of the most vulnerable regions, partnering with local governments, communities, and international organizations to deliver impactful interventions and provide humanitarian aid to those in need.
Our work focuses on addressing poverty, empowering vulnerable communities, and promoting human rights, peace, and good governance. We strive to strengthen the resilience of communities affected by conflict, displacement, climate change, and economic challenges.
- Organizational Structure
At CoDHNet, we are organized into two main departments:
- Programmes Department: This department manages and oversees our humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding initiatives, focusing on community engagement, resilience building, and service delivery.
- Administration and Finance Department: This department ensures that our financial and administrative functions support the effective implementation of our programs and maintain the integrity of our operations.
Our organizational structure is designed to streamline operations and enable us to respond effectively to both the immediate and long-term needs of the communities we serve
- Our Strategic Goals:
CoDHNet currently implements projects across the Kenya and Somalia under six core programs guided by our three strategic goals:
- Providing Humanitarian Assistance,
- Building Resilience, and
- Promoting Peace and Security.
1) Providing Humanitarian Assistance
- Provide reliable and timely responses to emergencies
- Improve coordination with relevant stakeholders (partners and communities)
2) Building Resilience
- Increase food security and promote better livelihood systems
- Improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services
- Reduce barriers to access to education
- Prevent malnutrition among the most vulnerable groups
- Promote sustainable use of natural resources
3) Promoting Governance, Peace and Security
- Empower local actors in peace and governance
- Improve conflict prevention and management mechanisms for local communities
- Prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG)
- Counter violent extremism.
- Our Key Program Areas:
Health and Nutrition
CoDHNet is committed to improving community health and well-being by expanding access to essential healthcare services and strengthening nutrition support for vulnerable populations. Our programs focus on preventive care, community outreach, and health system strengthening, ensuring that communities—especially women, children, and other at-risk groups—can access life-saving services.
We support initiatives that promote maternal and child health, nutrition education, and community-based healthcare, helping to reduce preventable illnesses and improve overall health outcomes.
Key Interventions:
- Primary Healthcare Access: Improving availability and quality of essential healthcare services at the community level.
- Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Programs: Supporting safe pregnancies, deliveries, and early childhood care.
- Integrated Mental Health Services: Delivery of comprehensive mental health and psychosocial support, including rehabilitation, gender-based violence (GBV) response, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), disaster preparedness, and response, and primary healthcare.
🎯 Program Goals
CoDHNet works to improve health, well-being, and social resilience through integrated and targeted interventions. Our key goals include:
- Integrate Mental Health into HIV Interventions: Enhance mental health support within HIV prevention, care, and response programs, ensuring holistic health services for affected individuals.
- End Violence and Empower Women and Girls: Promote nonviolent, equitable, and respectful relationships while addressing gender-based violence and supporting women’s and girls’ empowerment.
- Strengthen Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR): Increase access to quality, holistic SRHR services for young people, including education, counseling, and health services.
- Prevent and Respond to Alcohol and Drug Abuse (ADA): Enhance prevention, early intervention, response, and rehabilitation among children, youth, young women, and persons with disabilities.
- Promote Mental Health Awareness and Prevention: Increase knowledge and awareness about mental health, supporting early identification and prevention of mental health conditions among the general population.
Through these goals, CoDHNet aims to build healthier, safer, and more resilient communities, addressing both immediate needs and long-term well-being.
- Nutrition Programs: Addressing malnutrition through community-based interventions, education, and awareness campaigns.
- Disease Prevention and Control: Implementing malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment initiatives.
- Vector-Borne Disease and Environmental Health: Promoting preventive measures and resilience against environmental health risks.
- Community Health Outreach: Raising awareness, building local capacity, and strengthening linkages between communities and health systems.
Through strong partnerships with local communities, health authorities, and stakeholders in Kenya and Somalia, CoDHNet builds healthier, more resilient communities capable of preventing, responding to, and recovering from health challenges
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
We promote healthy communities by improving access to safe water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene education. We strengthen community resilience by improving access to safe water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene practices. CoDHNet implements clean water supply projects, builds and rehabilitates latrines, promotes handwashing, and supports behavior-change campaigns to prevent waterborne diseases. Our efforts target vulnerable households, schools, and health facilities to ensure sustainable access to WASH services.
Food Security and Livelihoods
We strengthen community resilience through livelihood support, climate-smart agriculture, pastoralist assistance, and small business development.
We empower communities to achieve self-reliance through sustainable food production and income-generating activities. CoDHNet supports smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and marginalized groups with agricultural inputs, training in climate-smart farming, livestock management, and vocational skills development. By enhancing local markets, promoting entrepreneurship, and providing emergency food assistance, we help communities improve nutrition and economic stability.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
We help communities prepare for and reduce disaster risks through early warning systems, preparedness training, and climate adaptation initiatives.
👩🦰👨🦱 Youth & Women Empowerment
CoDHNet empowers youth and women to become leaders, innovators, and drivers of positive change in their communities. Through skills development, entrepreneurship support, and leadership training, we enable young people and women to build confidence, gain economic independence, and participate meaningfully in social, economic, and civic life.
Our initiatives address key challenges such as unemployment, gender inequality, social exclusion, and vulnerability to exploitation and radicalization, particularly in underserved and conflict-affected communities across Kenya and Somalia.
Protection
CoDHNet safeguards vulnerable populations by addressing risks that threaten their safety and well-being. Our programs include gender-based violence (GBV) prevention, child protection initiatives, and community awareness campaigns that empower communities to identify, prevent, and respond to protection risks. By working closely with local authorities, families, and service providers, we ensure that children, women, and other at-risk groups have access to safe environments, support services, and opportunities to thrive.
Education & Youth Empowerment
We support crisis-affected children by providing temporary learning spaces, educational materials, and teacher training. We invest in the future by improving access to quality education and skills development. CoDHNet supports formal and non-formal education, early childhood programs, and vocational training. Our youth programs focus on leadership, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement, equipping young people with the knowledge and confidence to contribute meaningfully to their communities.
Peacebuilding, Social Cohesion, and Preventing Violent Extremism Program
The Community Development and Humanitarian Network (CoDHNet) implements a holistic, cross-border approach to preventing and countering violent extremism in Kenya and Somalia. Through community dialogues, youth engagement, and conflict resolution initiatives, we promote peaceful coexistence and strengthen social cohesion.
Our programs actively involve women, youth, religious leaders, survivors, minority groups, PwDs, former combatants, government officials, and other stakeholders, ensuring interventions are inclusive, context-sensitive, and sustainable. CoDHNet emphasizes:
- Community Ownership: Empowering communities to lead and shape initiatives addressing local drivers of extremism.
- Sustainability: Designing programs with lasting social impact.
- Robust Monitoring & Evaluation: Measuring outcomes to guide adaptive programming.
- Knowledge Sharing: Promoting learning and the dissemination of best practices.
- Capacity Strengthening: Building skills and resilience at individual, organizational, and community levels.
Through this integrated approach, CoDHNet fosters resilient cross-border communities capable of effectively preventing and countering violent extremism while promoting peace and harmony.
Climate Change and Environmental Resilience
We support communities in adapting to climate change through environmental conservation and sustainable natural resource management. CoDHNet strengthens community capacity to adapt to environmental challenges and mitigate disaster risks. We implement climate-smart interventions, reforestation, sustainable land management, and early warning systems for floods, droughts, and other hazards. By building resilience and raising awareness, we help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate-related shocks.
- Our Overall Impact:
Since its establishment, CoDHNet has supported thousands of vulnerable individuals and households across Kenya and Somalia through humanitarian assistance and long-term development programs.
Our work has contributed to:
Improved access to healthcare services
Increased availability of safe water and sanitation
Strengthened livelihoods and food security
Program Reach – Youth & Women Empowerment. CoDHNet has positively impacted over 40,000 individuals across Kenya and Somalia, strengthening economic opportunities, gender equality, youth participation, and community resilience.
Enhanced community resilience to disasters and climate change
Protection and support for vulnerable populations
- Partnerships:
CoDHNet works with local communities, government institutions, civil society organizations, and international partners to deliver effective and sustainable humanitarian programs.
We believe that strong partnerships are essential to achieving lasting impact.
- Get Involved:
Partner With Us
We welcome partnerships with humanitarian agencies, development organizations, and donors who share our commitment to community resilience.
Support Our Work
Your support helps vulnerable communities access essential services and build sustainable livelihoods.
- Contact Us:
Community Development and Humanitarian Network (CoDHNet) Kenya & Somalia
Email: info@codhnet.or.ke
Website: www.codhnet.or.ke
Follow us on social media: