2019

SIDRA has conducted a short study on “the role of the education system in nurturing youth in leadership”. The study sought to highlight how the education system shapes the attitudes, knowledge, skills and competences of young people in leadership and examined the understanding of students in secondary education about leadership skills and characteristics. The policy brief reports the absence of youth leadership education in Somali education system and calls for discussion and debate on education reform to promote youth leadership in primary and secondary education. It presents practical recommendations for the development and integration of youth leadership education and leadership opportunities for young people in Somali education system.

The urgent call of action to implement the SDGs demand the development of strategies and plans to help translate the goals into sustainable, affordable and effective development objectives and measurable outcomes at the national and local levels. While national governments focus on setting national agenda and establishing global partnerships to achieve SDGs, it is the local authorities, businesses and the civil society that play the most critical roles to localise and implement the SDGs. This policy document outlines the crucial role of civil society in the efforts to localise and implement SDGs and provides practical recommendations to promote their active and greater participation in all phases of SDGs.

An idle youth with chronic unemployment is a ticking bomb and a danger to the nation as they are attracted to join dangerous groups to do harm, terrorist and violence acts. These dangerous groups exploit the youth to utilize them as means to kill, maim, rob and rape, and thus destroy the future of the next generation. If given the right opportunity, Somali youth have the potential to reinvigorate and become the saving grace of the nation. Reeling from a battered self-defeat of war and its aftermath as a country embarking on restoring Somali youth to become productive citizens should be given a priority. There is the potential to inspire the Somali youth to pursue education, employment and creative means to contribute peace and security as well as the development of the country.

This policy paper will examine rape culture in the context of traditional norms, historic nature of rape, rape as a weapon of war and the manner in which rape has climaxed in recent years. The aim is to analyze and dissect how powerlessness, inequality, entrenched cultural perception of gender and women’s place in society and the breakdown of social norms due to the Somali state failure are contributing to the increase in the incidences of sexual violence against Somali women, leading to horrific cases of rape on Somali women and girls. The policy brief will inform the impact of intersectionality of patriarchy, objectification, gender stereotypes, and normalized rape culture all precipitating the onset of rape and subsequent lack of reporting and criminalization.

On 5 April 2019 the President of the Federal government, Mr Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, has called for a meeting of the National Security Council, inviting the presidents of the Federal Member States to Mogadishu on 19 – 23 April 2019. Notwithstanding the suggestions that this NSC meeting is convened at the behest of Somalia’s international partners ahead of a crucial meeting to review Somalia Transition Plan for Security late April 2019, there is a concern that it may have been organised to shelf the Garowe conference.