Acknowledgements

We are profoundly grateful to the over 1000 Somali individuals we consulted in the production of the six baseline studies that accompany this national human capital development strategy (HCDS), without whose participation and support this research would not have been possible.

This initiative benefited from the support, guidance and contributions of six key federal ministries and their leaders: Minister of Planning, Investment and Economic Development, Ambassador Gamal Hassan, and his team; the former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Salah Jama (currently Constitution Minister) and the former Labor and Social Affairs Minister, Sadik Warfa, and his team; the former Minister of Education Abdirahman Dahir Osman and his team; the Minister of Health Dr. Fawziya Abikar and Vice Minister Mohamed Said and their team.

We are thankful to the ministry of Education leadership: Minister Abduallahi Godah Barre, State Minister Abdirahman Mohamud Abdulle (Jabir), Vice Minister Faysal Omar Guled, Director General Ahmed Yusuf, Director of Planning and Budget Khadija Abdullahi Jimale, Director of TVET Abdiaziz Nor Mohamed and senior advisors Ibrahim Ahmed Mohamed and Dr. Abdullahi A. Omar. Special thanks also goes to the Federal Vice Minister of Finance, Dr. Abdullahi Sheikh Ali “Qaloocow” for his support of the consortium’s work as well as his participation in the Human Capital Development Multi- stakeholder Forum held in Mogadishu on 29 April 2019.

We also extend our appreciation to all former and current Federal Member State presidents who supported and facilitated access for human capital development field research in their respective states. These include the current Southeast State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagren and the former President Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan; the President of Puntland Said Abdullahi Deni and the former President Dr. Abdweli Ali Gaas; the President of Jubaland Ahmed Mohamed Islan; the President of Hirshabelle Mohamed Abdi Waare and the Deputy President Ali Abdullahi Guudlaawe; and the former head of the Galmudug cabinet Sheikh Shakir Ali Hassan. President Abdiweli Gaas of Puntland was gracious enough to invite consortium researchers to address his cabinet on the importance of human capital development.

We are profoundly grateful to senior ministers who attended the HIPS Annual Forum for Ideas (AFI 2019) held in Djibouti in December 2019 where human capital development was the main theme. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ahmed Ise Awad, and the Minister of Finance, Abdirahman Duale Beileh, served as keynote speakers. We are also thankful to the Ministers of Constitution and Education Salah Jama and Abullahi Godah Barre for their endorsement of the human capital development initiative.

We are thankful to all the senior officials at the Planning, Investment and Economic Development ministry led by Permanent Secretary Abdikadir Adan. We are also grateful to the planning ministers of the Federal Member States, particularly former Jubaland Minister of Planning Adam Ibrahim Aw-Hirsi; the Southwest Minister of Planning Ahmed Madoobe Nunow; the Puntland Minister of Planning Shire Haji Farah; the Hirshabelle Deputy Minister of Planning Abdihamid Mohamed Ali; and the Galmudug Minister of Planning Abdikafi Mohamud.Ministers from the regional education, labor, health and women’s affairs ministries helped with the research and participated in the multi-stakeholder forum in Mogadishu.

We are thankful to Jubaland Minister of Health Mursal Mohamed Khalif; Galmudug Education Minister Ahmed Deeq Falko; Jubaland Education Minister, the late Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamud; Southwest Education Minister Abdirahman Osman; Hirshabelle Deputy Minister of Education Moumin Tourre Abdullahi; former Southwest Minister of Education and current Minister of Interior Mohamed Abokar; and former Southwest Minister of Interior Mohamednor Madowe Nunow.

Special thanks go to Federal Member State ministers who participated in our inaugural multi-stakeholder forum in Mogadishu: Jubaland Minister of Education (the late) Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim; the Hirshabelle Deputy Minister of Women and Human Rights, Halima Ali Said; the Southwest Minister of Labor Faisal Abdullahi Ibrahim; the Hirshabelle State House Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Addow; the Hirshabelle Deputy Labor Minister Abdikarim Mohamed Dirie; the Southwest Vice Minister of Women Shamso Mohamed Yarow; and the Puntland Vice Minister of Health Abdinasir Haji Yusuf. We are also grateful to the Jubaland Minister of Women Qamar Deeq Haji Khalif, whom we interviewed in Kismayo and the former Puntland Vice Minister of Women’s Affairs Maryan Ahmed Ali.

Representatives of Somalia’s civil society, private sector and academia were instrumental to our data collection. We are grateful to Hormud Group CEO Ahmed Mohamud Yusuf (Ahmed-Saudi) for an extended discussion on job creation and challenges facing the private sector. Chambers of commerce at both the national and regional levels were also supportive of our efforts and we express our appreciation to the Vice President of the Somali Chamber of Commerce Abdirashid Ainanshe; Chairperson of the Puntland Chamber of Commerce Mohamed Aided; Chairman of the Southwest Chamber of Commerce Haji Ahmed Isak; Chairperson of the Hirshabelle Chamber of Commerce Xaliima Fiidow; and Deputy Chair of the Jubaland Chamber of Commerce Mohamed Sharif.

We also are grateful for the support of our academic partners, particularly those from universities in Mogadishu, Kismayo, Baidoa and Garowe. These included Abdulkadir Hikam, the former President of Kismayo University; Mohamed Haji Hussein, the President of the University of Southern Somalia, Baidoa; and our colleagues at Puntland State University (PSU), East Africa University, Mogadishu University, City University of Mogadishu and Banadir University. We would also like to thank the leaders of Mogadishu’s education umbrella organizations particularly Professor Abdulkadir Hassan Ahmed (Kadle) for providing invaluable inputs throughout workshop discussions, secondary data collection and validations.

Representatives and advocates for people with special needs also played an important role in this research project. We are thankful to: Mohamed Harun Mohamoud, who was a consultant for the consortium and has written extensively on disability issues; prominent disability issues activist Abdirahman Mohamed Farah (Lunge); and Ahmed Mohamed, the Special Needs Director of the Galmudug Ministry of Education who offered valuable insights and contributions to this study.

The project was both conceived and funded by the Somalia Stability Fund (SSF) and would not have been possible without the support and leadership of the entire SSF team, particularly investment managers Ibrahim Abdi and Fatuma Abdullahi and SSF team leader Vishalini Lawrence. We are also thankful to SSF consultant and human capital development expert Lee Sorensen who supported the consortium in every stage of the development of the baseline study. Lee authored the rationale section of the HCD that focused on global benchmarks and lessons learned from other contexts.

We are very thankful to our HIPS’ core funders SIDA (Sweden) and SDC (Switzerland) without whose support the institute would not have been able to contribute to the transformation of the policy environment in Somalia.

Special gratitude also goes to the government of Djibouti, especially H.E. President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who sponsored the 2019 Annual Forum for Ideas where human capital development was the key theme and preliminary results of the baseline studies were presented.

Last but not least, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the HIPS and City University of Mogadishu researchers, academics and support staff whose dedication and service was instrumental to the completion of this project.

Abdulkareem H. Jama
Vice President and Provost
City University of Mogadishu
HCD Project Director

Professor Abdi Mohamed Kusow,

Iowa State University and Senior HIPS Research Methodology Fellow