NATIONAL MEDIA
15 October – Source: Goobjoog – 664 Words
Finance Minister Abdirahman Beileh has accused the Auditor-General Mohamed Ali of ‘erroneous reporting’, failure to ‘consult with clients’ in line with auditing standards and limited understanding of public finance management procedures. In a letter dated October 11 responding to the just-released audit report, Minister Beileh raises concerns over some key questions arising from the report such as understatement of funds, accounting procedures by state institutions and records of external grants. The Finance Minister says the errors arising from the report would have been avoided “if only a draft report had been availed to us and discussed prior to publication.”
EXTERNAL GRANTS
Regarding the donor grants which the Auditor General were understated to the tune of $18 million, Beileh says the funds were kept intentionally in foreign accounts following in agreement with the International Monetary Fund. “It is important to note that, following an agreement with the IMF under SMP IV program, guidelines were prepared and cleared on the basis of which a “Fiscal Buffer” was established to enable government to sustain critical expenditures and avoid arrears in the face of volatile revenues,” the letter by the Finance Minister reads in part.
The Ministry of Finance concluded talks with IMF staff in May 2019 for the start of the SMP IV running from May 2019-July 2020. The Audit Report covers the 2018 financial year. In effect, therefore, Beileh says some of the grants including the $20 million from Saudi Arabia in 2017 are kept at the FGS account in Ziraat Bank in Istanbul, Turkey. The Finance Minister also took issue with the AG’s report on the EU grant. Minister Beileh also questioned the variance between the AG’s report and the CBS report on the EU grant. “The record in the Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) shows the amount of $12,011,954 for the TSA (Treasury Single Account) while the figure in the Auditor General’s report is $13,266,667. We stand by the amount reported by the CBS as the correct amount,” the Minister said. The variance of $1,254,713 between the reported amount by CBS and the Auditor General’s report, Beilhe adds, was received from UNOPS and disbursed, in total, to the Somali Police Force, the intended beneficiary…….
15 October – Source: Goobjoog – 64 Words
The Ministry of Interior and Local Government of HirShabelle administration has appointed 9-members, who have been selected by the technical team from the Hirshabelle Ministry of Interior and members of Parliament. The decree also notified the Independent Boundaries & Federation Commission that such members are responsible and represent HirShabelle Administration. The commission works with the federal government both local and national issues concerning boundary planning.
15 October – Source: Garowe Online – 226 Words
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Kuwait, Khaled Al-Jarallah has announced that his country will host a donor conference to support Somalia’s ailing education sector next year, Garowe Online reports. Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reports that Al-Jarallah presided over a meeting on Sunday in preparation for the forum which becomes the first of its kind the Gulf nation to hold for war-torn Somalia. The Deputy FM met with a number of Kuwaiti diplomats and education ministry officials, aimed to ensure that the gathering of international donors to support Somalia would go off without a hitch.Five days ago, the United States Embassy Mogadishu through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced nearly $50 million in additional education funding to help Somalia. The funds aimed to implement a five-year program Bar Ama Baro (“Teach or Learn” in Somali) intended to increase access to quality education and support accelerated learning for out-of-school children and youth who have been persistently left behind. The Federal Government of Somalia which heavily relies on international finance assistance declared last week it will standardize schools with the first new curriculum since the civil war began. The new books cover English, Arabic, Somali, maths, Islamic studies, science, physical education, technology, and social studies. UN said Somalia has one of the world’s lowest enrolment rates, with only 4 out of 10 children in school.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
15 October – Source: Daily Nation – 679 Words
When Al-Shabaab militants ambushed a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) platoon earlier this year, the insurgents’ trap could have seen the annihilation of the 25 to 50 men. But one soldier, Senior Sergeant Ali Guyo, risked his own life to scuttle the plans. On Monday, during the 8th KDF Day celebrations, Defence Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo and Chief of Defence Forces Samson Mwathethe honoured the senior sergeant alongside 13 others for their commendable service. “Senior Sergeant Guyo is being recognised for his courage and initiative by single-handedly firing platoon mortar, hence disrupting the Al-Shabaab flow,” Kenya Army Commander Lt-Gen Walter Raria read a citation in honour of the soldier. The ceremony also saw Francis Onyiso, one of the country’s uncelebrated football legends, finally honoured.
COMPENSATION
Mr Onyiso, a sergeant in the military, played a key role in the famous 1-1 draw with Nigeria’s Super Eagles in 1997. “Sergeant Onyiso is being recognised for his sporting prowess and his contributions to the growth of football as a sport within KDF and nationally, where he has participated in numerous winning matches both as a player for Ulinzi Football Club and the national team Harambee Stars,” his citation read. “[These soldiers] go where we cannot go. This is the day when we say thank you to them. We must never stop recognising and remembering their efforts,” Ms Omamo said during the event held at Lang’ata Barracks. This year’s event, themed “Towards sustainable welfare for the Kenya Defence fraternity”, saw Gen Mwathethe stipulate efforts that the government has taken to help KDF personnel who have suffered injuries and families of those who have lost their lives in the line of duty. “We have now [adopted] measures to ensure that there is prompt compensation to personnel affected in their line of duty by ensuring the benefits are paid within a maximum of 30 days after making the claims,” Gen Mwathethe announced.
TRAUMA
The compensation claims are now being handled by 69 newly-opened welfare centres spread across various military formations, units and bases around the country. “The welfare centres aim to address the challenges faced by serving and retired service personnel, those with disabilities, families and dependants of deceased,” Gen Mwathethe said. “They are the point of contact and provide cross-service support.” During the event, KDF personnel who have worked tirelessly to heal the wounds of soldiers injured in the African Union Mission (Amisom) in Somalia were also recognised. Lt-Col Obadiah Yator, a clinical psychologist, was recognised for his “contribution in the management of combat stress and the mental health of service personnel affected by trauma from operations in El Adde and Kolbiyow in Somalia as well as the victims of the Karai tragedy in November 2016.” Over 40 individuals were burnt to death in a night of horror following an accident on the Nairobi-Naivasha road in Karai, when a lorry carrying flammable material burst into flames causing multiple vehicle collisions. Warrant Officer 1 Boniface Mayenda was honoured for his “immense contribution to the psychological support of troops involved in operations in Somalia, especially (for being) instrumental in assisting the survivors and families of the El Adde victims”……
15 October – Source: Xinhua – 355 Words
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi continued his talks with South African officials on Tuesday to address concerns of refugees in the country. Grandi will be in the country until Wednesday morning and will have a series of meetings with state authorities, business leaders, UN and non-governmental organizations (NGO) partners and others, his office said in a statement emailed to Xinhua. Soon after arriving in South Africa on Monday, Grandi met some representatives of refugees and asylum seekers, and they were joined by two refugee community leaders in Cape Town through a video link. “I had a useful and constructive meeting with some refugee representatives today in Pretoria,” Grandi said after the talks. “I told them that UNHCR will continue to develop its dialogue with them and that I will also discuss their concerns with the authorities during my visit in the country,” said Grandi.
The High Commissioner encouraged the refugees to continue to express their concerns in a peaceful manner. According to Hélène Caux, UNHCR senior communications officer in South Africa, Grandi listened to the concerns raised by the refugees. These concerns mainly linked to better access to documentation and information, the process to obtain refugee papers, as well as issues of personal security, said Caux. Grandi’s visit came after some refugees and asylum seekers, including women and children, protested in front of UNHCR offices in Cape Town and Pretoria earlier this month. The protesters accused the South African government of ignoring their plight, not only in Johannesburg where recent xenophobic attacks occurred but also in Cape Town. Many refugees, mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Nigeria, Somalia and Pakistan, have asked the UNHCR to help them leave South Africa for fear of xenophobic attacks…….
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Recently, CDI applied for and was awarded a Rural Community Development Grant from the USDA for $215,000 over two years, to train more nonprofit, community-based organizations in co-op development.29 Six different groups, including Somali-led organizations and coalition members, have participated in the training program—coordinated by CDI and the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI), a national nonprofit30—where they learn how to develop co-op structures, business plans, and culture.”
15 October – Source: Non Profit Quarterly – 1969 Words
Across the United States, hundreds of cities have struggled after the industrial decline. Some have seen their downtowns gutted. A few have experienced rapid gentrification as the towns have been rediscovered by tech companies, developers, and others. But some cities follow another, more grassroots, community-based path. Such is the case for Lewiston and Auburn, twin cities on the Androscoggin River in Maine. Here, community organizations, economic development organizations, refugees, and long-time residents have come together to develop a new vision-based in collaboration and cooperation.
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Enter a new wave of immigrants, this time from Somalia. The first arrivals came to Lewiston in the early 2000s—some directly from refugee camps in Kenya, while others first went elsewhere, such as Atlanta or Syracuse, but moved to Lewiston after hearing that it was a small, safe city with plenty of housing. While some local residents welcomed the newcomers, the city government did not. In 2002, Mayor Laurier T. Raymond Jr. wrote an open letter to the Somalis of Lewiston, asking them to stop other Somalis from coming. Neo-Nazis from Illinois saw this as an opportunity to organize in Maine, and they planned an outreach meeting in Lewiston. But the mayor’s letter and the Neo-Nazis’ plans backfired, with only forty-five supporters showing up to the outreach meeting and over forty-five hundred people protesting the meeting or joining in a celebration of Lewiston’s new residents.4 During this time of division and conflict, new connections and collaborations started to grow and led to a blossoming of community-based development today.
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Today, residents and leaders of the Raise-Op include First Nations people and other long-time Mainers, as well as immigrants from Quebec, Djibouti, Congo, Angola, Somalia, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe. One of those buildings also became home to the Raise-Op’s office and to the Somali Bantu Community Association (SBCA).9 Saddlemire said, “We are creating affordable, inclusive, and democratic homes for our people. Through our organization, residents are also able to become more civically engaged, and many are leading neighbourhood redevelopment projects, educating their neighbours about cooperative economics, and finding strength in collective action. We are bringing self-determination and community control back to the residents and, most importantly, treating housing as a human right to be protected, rather than a commodity to be exploited.”10
Since moving to Lewiston, the Somali community has been steadily developing businesses, farms, and organizations that are meeting community needs. In early 2002, Fatuma Hussein worked with community elders to form a small nonprofit, United Somali Women of Maine, to increase community engagement and provide services for the growing Somali population.11 Hussein increasingly became a spokesperson and connector for the community. This organization later became the Immigrant Resource Center as it expanded its mission and reach.12 A few years later, members of the Somali Bantu community—from Southern Somalia, and culturally distinct from the ethnic Somalis—started their own association (the Somali Bantu Community Association [SBCA]), and a youth soccer program that later became Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS).13
SBCA began by offering cultural programs to support its community. After hearing from community members that they wanted to access farmland, SBCA started a community farming program in 2012, which now supports two farms in Lewiston and Auburn, with over one hundred farmers, and is seeking to purchase permanent farmland for its farmers. Other Somali refugees have started farm businesses, aided by an incubator farm program called the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project (NASAP).14 Originally a project of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (also known as CEI)15 —a statewide community development financial institution (CDFI)16 it later was adopted and operated by Portland, Maine-based Cultivating Community.17
Dozens of predominantly Somali farmers gained access to land, training, and markets so that they could work as farmers, as many had in Somalia. MEIRS expanded its services to support youth, juvenile justice, citizenship programs, and English classes. Lisbon Street, once the bustling main street of Lewiston, had become largely shuttered in the 1980s and ’90s. Somali refugees saw opportunities in these low-rent storefronts, and soon opened halal markets, cafés, and clothing stores that met community needs and breathed new life into this neighbourhood. In 2013, the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center and Bates College’s Harward Center began a community food assessment, which sought to better understand food insecurity and the food economy in Lewiston.18 The report’s recommendations led to the formation of the Good Food Council of Lewiston-Auburn (GFCLA), which advanced a vision of a sustainable food system.19 In 2016, GFCLA launched the L-A Community Food Charter—which both Lewiston and Auburn city governments, as well as 270 individuals and organizations, signed on to—to affirm their right to good food…… |
