Five years ago, in July 2021, SPA Learning Lab launched a flagship blog writing training programme to equip young Somalis with practical skills in writing, research, storytelling, and digital communication. The original plan was to offer the training twice a year and train 30 young people each year.

The response was immediate. After the training materials were developed and the programme was advertised online, more than 100 young people applied within the first five days. Because the first cohort could accommodate only 15 participants, the selection process was rigorous. As demand continued to grow, SPA Learning Lab gradually increased the number of participants to between 25 and 30 per cohort.

The training was designed differently from conventional classroom-based courses. It is highly practical and interactive, requiring participants to write and publish one blog post each week throughout the four-week programme. This hands-on approach enables participants to apply what they learned immediately. In the first cohort alone, the 15 trainees produced 43 blog posts in four weeks.

The training is delivered over two days each week at SPA. Participants learn what a blog is and how it differs from news reporting, how to identify and develop blog topics, conduct research, properly cite sources, address sensitive issues, write and edit blog posts, and use social media to reach audiences. The programme also includes weekly sessions with experienced bloggers and writers, who share their blogging journeys and responded to participants’ questions.

Over time, the training became more than a skills-development programme. It began to create a growing community of young Somali bloggers who shared a common learning experience and a commitment to using writing to tell stories and contribute to public discourse.

After SPA Learning Lab completed 10 cohorts, the growing community highlighted a new need: a platform that could bring Somali bloggers together beyond the classroom. Over five years, 176 young people had graduated from the blog writing programme, and many had gone on to become regular bloggers.

In response, SPA Learning Lab began consultations and meetings with programme graduates and mentors to explore how this emerging community could organise itself. These discussions led to the decision to establish a membership-based Somali Bloggers Association (SoBA), with graduates of the SPA Learning Lab blog writing programme becoming its first members while opening membership to Somali bloggers more broadly.

The goal of SoBA is to establish a sustainable, independent, and member-led association that promotes ethical blogging, professional development, and digital civic engagement among Somali bloggers.

On 23 June, the Somali Bloggers Association was officially launched, marking a significant milestone in the journey that began with a small blog writing training programme five years earlier. SPA Learning Lab assumed the interim secretariat role for up to two years, while Hassan Abdi Hassan was elected Chairperson for the same period. SoBA now has a General Assembly composed of members, an interim Executive Board selected during the launch event, and an interim secretariat hosted by SPA Learning Lab.

During the interim period, SPA Learning Lab will support SoBA with administrative coordination, membership management, financial administration under Board oversight, event logistics, and digital platform management. The association will gradually assume these administrative responsibilities and establish its own financial management system after the interim period.

The establishment of SoBA represents a longer-term outcome of five years of investment in practical writing and storytelling skills. What began in 2021 as a training programme for young people has grown into a community of 176 graduates and, ultimately, a platform designed to connect and support Somali bloggers beyond the SPA classroom.

For SPA Learning Lab and Somali Public Agenda, this is an example of how sustained investment in skills development can generate outcomes that extend beyond the original training programme. The blog writing training not only equipped young Somalis with writing and storytelling skills; it helped lay the foundation for an organised blogging community that can continue to grow, connect its members, promote professional and ethical blogging, and contribute to Somalia’s digital civic space.