NATIONAL MEDIA
30 August – Source: Jowhar.com – 142 Words
Hirshabelle deputy leader, Ali Gudlawe Hussein, on Thursday opened six developmental projects implemented in Bulo-burte town in Hiran region by The Nordic International Support Foundation (NIS) with the support of the Somali Stability Fund (SSF). The delivered projects that would be vital for better service delivery in the town of Bulo-burte are the construction of the District Administration Block, a community social hall, meat and vegetable market, youth sports stadium, support to local women farmers and installation of 40 solar street lights. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Gudlawe said he was pleased to see the implementation of key infrastructural developments in Bulo-burte, which has borne the brunt of Al-Shabaab’s blockade. Meanwhile, he vowed that his administration would do everything at their disposal to reopen the area’s key main supply routes that are key for the supply of essential services to the people.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
28 August – Source: CGTN – 210 Words
On Thursday, 45 Somali refugees returned to the Horn of African country from Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya as part of the voluntary repatriation program, the United Nations Refugee agency announced. The repatriations come following a move by the Kenyan government to close the refugee camp. Kenya reportedly wants Dadaab closed by the end of 2019. Kenya has previously ordered the closure of the camp on many occasions, but the UN and other international players intervened and persuaded the government to back down temporarily. The camp, located in eastern Kenya, is home to more than 200,000 refugees, mainly of Somali origin who fled the war in their country.
The latest refugees to return to Somalia from Dadaab arrived in Baidoa and were received and assisted by officials from South West State Commission for refugees & IDPs. According to UNHCR, the voluntary repatriation program is viewed as a desirable long-term solution for most refugees around the world. The agency says it has helped more than 90,000 Somali refugees return home from nine different countries of asylum. Somalia has been dogged by violence for over a decade. Islamist extremist group al-Shabaab wants to topple the government and an install sharia law. The conflict has forced millions of Somalis from their homeland.
29 August -Source: East Africa Monitor – 291 Words
A local youth-led organisation in Somalia which is working under the vision of “Make Somalia Green” has launched a tree-planting project in the capital of Mogadishu. During the inauguration ceremony, Dr Mohamed Abdullahi Buule, founder of the project, expressed his commitments to ensure that youth are working to build a better Somali. “The Association works on two main levels within the tree planting project, first it engages with the community as a whole through sensitization and meetings with local youth,” he said.
This project is expected to help communities build their knowledge about their local environment by sensitizing local workshops for the youth, and other members of the community and it will provide leadership and community service experience to young people in the environmental sector. “Secondly, volunteers will plant fruit and other lucrative trees on the hill sites and flatlands that have been degenerated within our communities of operation. The planting activity takes place during the rainy season and generally occurs three times a week,” he added. “During the tree planting, SGPA volunteers link with local community youth and leaders to seek the best areas where trees can be planted and to ensure that these trees will be cared for”.
This tree-planting project will engage the community through sensitisation meetings that discuss the importance of trees to provide protection from strong winds and rain and to prevent soil erosion. SOGPA’s volunteers will work with the local community to seek the best and most appropriate areas fir planting trees to ensure they are cared for. They then plant trees with an awareness of what trees could potentially be lucrative for the community and could tackle issues such as food insecurity. The project will build knowledge about the environment and combat soil erosion.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“In Somalia, most of the organisations do monitoring and evaluation, but there’s not any learning inside the project. This learning helps us understand [our] impact. We learnt about community communication systems where there is a hotline system [for reporting security incidents], and the calls are free of charge. The main takeaway from this event is to apply these to community approaches in Somalia,” says Amina Arale, Executive Director of the Somali Women Development Centre”
29 August – Source: Safeworld – 875 Words
In Somalia, the security provided by formal institutions such as the police or informal institutions can lack legitimacy and impartiality. Historically, communities haven’t had access to structures that allow them to play a role in shaping security responses or reducing tensions between different conflicting groups and clans. But as Amina Arale, Executive Director of the Somali Women Development Centre points out, “Communities have the capacity to identify and the power to come up with solutions to their own security”. For these community approaches to peacebuilding to be successful in places like Somalia, they need to be more sustainable and inclusive. But how can this be achieved? How can communities work better across clan lines and with formal state institutions? Which approaches work, and what challenges do they face? And how can communities in different conflict-affected areas learn from each other?
These were all questions that participants discussed at a learning event, hosted by Saferworld, Conflict Dynamics International and the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law in July. Staff from the three organisations were joined by partners, donors and representatives of various institutions from across East Africa to share knowledge on community peacebuilding. At the event, we caught up with Amina and other participants to find out what they had learnt and what they considered to be the main takeaways from the event. Adan Abdullahi Bare, Research and Training Coordinator for the Somali Youth Development Network
“This learning event is very important, as on a personal level it will empower my ability to engage more in community structures and it will help us as an organisation to review our previous approach and bring onboard new approaches that will help sustain community structures. One main learning I’ve taken from this is that we need a policy change in the government so that Somalia can have a standard policy that will guide all these community structures and so that we can lobby relevant institutions. [After the event] I’m going to change my initial way of operating. Now I’ll bring on board other local-sector groups like government administrative units and security agencies to work closely with community-based organisations, to make sure that the objective of attaining sustainable peace and stability is achieved.”
Amina Arale, Executive Director of the Somali Women Development Centre “This is the second time I’ve participated in a learning event. In Somalia, most of the organisations do monitoring and evaluation, but there’s not any learning inside the project. This learning helps us understand [our] impact. We learnt about community communication systems where there is a hotline system [for reporting security incidents], and the calls are free of charge. The main takeaway from this event is to apply these to community approaches in Somalia. We have the resources in my current organisation, we just need to train young people on how to report what issues exist. These systems are easier in terms of analysis and in terms of getting information.” |
