| City | Neighbourhood | Current capacity | Required Capacity | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bardale | Ahmed Gurey | 14 | 62 | 48 |
| Horseed | 6 | 86 | 80 | |
| Oktober | 4 | 58 | 54 | |
| Wabeeri | 12 | 69 | 57 | |
| Xudur | Buulow | 12 | 21 | 9 |
| Horseed | 4 | 73 | 69 | |
| Moorogaabey | 4 | 7 | 3 | |
| Sheik Awes | 2 | 8 | 6 | |
| Shidoole | 1 | 20 | 19 |
Service Gap Analysis
This report provides an overview of the gap analysis, with a primary focus on health, education and water facilities, based on findings from the service analysis data.
Key Findings:
Water Facilities: Although Bardale requires more water points in absolute numbers (239 gap), Xudur faces a more urgent need due to highly uneven distribution. This leaves certain neighborhoods like Shidoole and Horseed particularly underserved, suggesting Xudur should be prioritized despite having a smaller overall gap.
Health Services: Bardale shows a substantial shortfall across all health indicators (beds, CHWs, skilled personnel), with service provision falling far below SPHERE standards. In Xudur, the situation is relatively better, but still short of recommended benchmarks.
Education: The education gap is significant in Bardale, driven by a large school-age population and low enrollment assumptions. Xudur shows better alignment, though conclusions are subject to assumptions around population and enrollment rate.
Service Prioritization: Residents reported high needs for water, electrical, and health services. For example, 95% in Xudur identified water points as the top priority, while in Bardale 73% highlighted electricity as the most needed.
Overall, the analysis underscores the need for targeted investments to address both infrastructure gaps and inequitable service distribution, especially in underserved neighborhoods.
Reported service need:
Service analysis data indicates a critical need for water facilities in Xudur, whereas in Bardale, the most pressing gap is in access to electrical services. Although access to electricity in service facilities is higher in Bardale (28%) compared to Xudur (19%), the findings underscore the severity of water scarcity in Xudur.
The distribution of water facilities in Xudur appears to be concentrated on the eastern side of the town, limiting access for residents in the western areas—particularly in Shidoole and Horseed neighborhoods.
Education
Using population data from DTM B2-R3 and secondary sources, it is estimated that approximately 35% of the urban population in Somalia is of school-going age (6–17 years). Assuming a 30% enrollment rate, the service analysis indicates an immediate need for additional education facilities in Bardale. In contrast, no apparent gap was observed in Xudur; however, this finding should be interpreted cautiously given the underlying assumptions.
Required vs Current Capacity
*Additional service capacity located just beyond the Derisnimo/neighbourhood boundaries may exist but is not captured in this analysis.
Health
The health facility gap analysis was conducted based on five key criteria aligned with the Sphere Minimum Standards for Health Action. These benchmarks represent the minimum level of services and human resources required to ensure adequate access to essential healthcare in humanitarian settings. The following standards were applied:
Access to prioritized health services: At least 80% of health facilities should offer a core package of prioritized services.
Inpatient capacity: A minimum of 18 inpatient beds (excluding maternity beds) per 10,000 people.
Health workforce density: At least 1 general healthcare worker per 10,000 people.
Community outreach: 1–2 community health workers per 1,000 people (i.e., 10–20 per 10,000 people).
Skilled personnel availability: A minimum of 23 skilled birth attendants (doctors, nurses, and midwives) per 10,000 people
Access to prioritized health services
To assess this indicator, the service analysis asked whether each health facility provides a set of core services considered essential in crisis-affected settings. Based on responses, facilities were classified into two categories:
Facilities providing prioritized health services: Those that reported offering a majority of the core services.
Facilities not providing prioritized health services: Those offering limited or no essential services.
The proportion of facilities meeting this threshold was then calculated to assess overall access to essential care.
| Health services | Classification |
|---|---|
| Pediatric | Prioritized health services |
| In-patient | Non-Prioritized health services |
| Out-patient | Prioritized health services |
| Nutrition | Prioritized health services |
| Vaccination | Prioritized health services |
| Maternal health | Prioritized health services |
| Surgery | Non-Prioritized health services |
| Pharmacy | Prioritized health services |
| First-line TB treatment (for non-drug resitant) | Prioritized health services |
| Second-line TB treatment (for durg resistent) | Non-Prioritized health services |
| Psychosocial | Non-Prioritized health services |
| Psychiatric | Non-Prioritized health services |
| Physical disability (including follow up and physiotherapy) | Prioritized health services |
| Non-communicable diseases (Diabetes, Asthma, Hypertenstion | Non-Prioritized health services |
| HIV/ AIDS treatment | Non-Prioritized health services |
For the purpose of this analysis, a health facility is considered to be providing prioritized health services if it offers at least 4 out of 8 core health services identified as essential according to the Sphere standards. This threshold ensures that facilities meet a minimum level of service delivery necessary for effective and life-saving care in crisis-affected settings.
Geographic Coverage
The analysis reveals that all health facilities in Bardale meet this criterion, indicating strong coverage of prioritized services in the town. In contrast, only 44% of health facilities in Xudur meet the threshold. The distribution across neighborhoods in Xudur is uneven:
Horseed: 25%
Moorogaabey: 20%
Sheik Awes: 50%
Shidoole: 67%
These findings highlight significant disparities in service availability within Xudur and indicate a need for targeted investments to ensure more equitable access to essential health services across all neighborhoods
The below visual comparison of health facility capacity and requirements across Bardale and Xudur reveals contrasting gaps in service provision.
In Bardale, the current availability of beds, community health workers (CHWs), and skilled personnel falls significantly short of the required levels—only 22 beds are available against a need for 247, and just 51 skilled personnel are in place compared to a requirement of 317. Similarly, the number of CHWs (24) is far below the required 137. This highlights a substantial service gap across all indicators in Bardale. In contrast, Xudur shows an opposite pattern: the number of beds (145) and skilled personnel (189) exceed the estimated requirements (115 beds and 148 personnel), suggesting a potential overconcentration. However, Xudur still shows gaps in CHWs (36 available vs. 64 required) and has more health facilities (17) than required (6), pointing to imbalances in workforce and infrastructure distribution that could hinder efficient service delivery.
The below graphs shows the comparison between current capacity and requirements of health facilities of Bardale by neighbourhoods.
The disaggregated analysis of health service capacity across Bardale’s four neighbourhoods—Ahmed Gurey, Horseed, Oktober, and Wabeeri—highlights consistent and significant gaps across key health indicators.
In Ahmed Gurey, the current availability of beds, CHWs, and skilled personnel is far below required levels, with only 14 beds available against a need for 56, and just 5 CHWs and 5 skilled personnel compared to needs of 31 and 72 respectively. Horseed faces the most acute gaps in human resources: despite a relatively higher number of skilled personnel (18), the neighbourhood only has 2 CHWs and 2 beds in place, against needs of 43 and 77.
In Oktober, capacity shortfalls are similarly stark, with only 4 beds and 3 CHWs available—less than 10% of what’s required—while only 12 out of 67 required skilled personnel are present. Wabeeri has the highest number of CHWs among the neighbourhoods (14) and slightly better skilled personnel coverage (16 out of 79), but it still suffers from severe shortages in beds (4 compared to a need for 62).
Overall, all neighbourhoods in Bardale exhibit critical gaps in both health infrastructure and workforce, particularly in beds and skilled personnel, indicating an urgent need for targeted investment and redistribution to meet minimum health standards.
The below graphs shows the comparison between current capacity and requirements of health facilities of Xudur by neighbourhoods.
The health service capacity analysis across Xudur’s five neighbourhoods—Buulow, Horseed, Moorogaabey, Sheik Awes, and Shidoole—reveals significant variation in both gaps and overcapacity across key indicators.
In Buulow, the current number of skilled personnel (16) is relatively close to the required 24, but the neighbourhood has only 1 bed and 1 CHW compared to needs of 19 and 10, respectively—highlighting a critical shortage in infrastructure and frontline outreach capacity. Horseed, by contrast, shows a strong overconcentration of beds (84 vs. 65 needed) and skilled personnel (99 vs. 84), but a deficit in CHWs (5 vs. 36), pointing to imbalanced staffing.
In Moorogaabey, all four indicators show excess capacity—especially skilled personnel, where 26 are present against a need of just 8. Similar overcapacity is evident in Sheik Awes, with 30 beds and 27 skilled personnel far exceeding respective requirements of 7 and 9. However, this neighbourhood has very limited CHW presence (2 vs. 4 needed) and shows a mismatch in resource allocation.
Shidoole is the only neighbourhood in Xudur where current and required figures are closely aligned across all indicators. Slight shortages remain in beds (16 vs. 18) and skilled personnel (21 vs. 23), but CHWs (18 vs. 10) and facilities (3 vs. 1) exceed minimum standards.
Overall, the data points to uneven distribution of resources in Xudur. While some neighbourhoods have a surplus of skilled personnel and beds, others lack even basic infrastructure and community outreach coverage. This calls for targeted reallocation to ensure equity and efficiency in health service delivery.
Water
According to the Sphere standards for WASH facilities, there should be one water tap per 250 people, one hand pump per 500 people, and one hand-dug well per 400 people. Based on these benchmarks, we have applied a conservative threshold of one facility per 500 people when estimating minimum service requirements.
The above table illustrates the gap between current and required capacity of services across neighbourhoods in Bardale and Xudur. At the city level, Bardale shows consistently large gaps in service capacity, with all four neighbourhoods reporting deficits ranging from 48 to 80 units. The highest gap is in Horseed (80), followed by Wabeeri (57), Oktober (54), and Ahmed Gurey (48), highlighting widespread under-capacity in the city. In contrast, Xudur presents a more mixed picture. While Horseed faces a severe shortfall (69), other neighbourhoods such as Buulow (9), Moorogaabey (3), Sheik Awes (6), and Shidoole (19) show relatively smaller gaps, indicating better alignment between current capacity and need in parts of the city.
The overall analysis shows that Bardale has a larger service gap, with only 36 water facilities available compared to a required 275—resulting in a shortfall of 239 facilities. Xudur, by comparison, has 23 facilities in place against a requirement of 129, leaving a gap of 106. While Bardale has the greater overall need in absolute numbers, field-level observations reveal that the distribution of water points in Xudur is highly uneven, leaving several neighbourhoods underserved despite moderate total coverage. Given this spatial disparity, priority should be given to addressing service gaps in Xudur, where targeted investments could significantly improve equitable access to water facilities across all neighbourhoods.