Assessing the impact of urbanization, unemployment, ICT, and Climate change on economic growth in Somalia

This study examines the impact of urbanization, unemployment, information and communication technology and climate change on Somalia’s economic growth using annual data from 1991–2022. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was employed to estimate the short-run and long-run relationships, while FMOLS, DOLS, and CCR estimators are used to verify the robustness of the long-run results, alongside Granger causality analysis. The findings reveal a stable long-run relationship, with temperature and unemployment exerting significant negative effects on economic growth, whereas urbanization has a significant positive effect. Internet shows a positive but statistically insignificant effect in the ARDL model, although robustness estimators generally support a positive long-run association. Based on these findings, the study recommends strengthening climate adaptation measures, implementing employment creation and skills development programs, promoting sustainable urbanization, and expanding digital infrastructure and ICT capacity to foster sustainable economic growth in Somalia.