Somali partnership forum opens in Brussels – The East African

[Deeq A.]

The Somali Partnership Forum, a major conference on the Horn-of Africa state, has opened in Brussels, Belgium.

The two-day forum is jointly chaired by the Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo and the European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Magherini.

The meeting is a follow up to the earlier conferences in London and Mogadishu, respectively in May and December 2017.

Economic recovery

The Brussels meeting is focusing on the Horn of Africa country’s security stabilisation, political development, economic recovery and humanitarian issues.

The Somali government is expected to report on the development strides made since the London conference.

Reports also indicate that there would be three side meetings on investment, the internally displaced peoples and the role of women in Somalia’s peace building.

Financial institutions

Apart from President Farmajo and his aides, the Somali delegation also includes representatives from the federal republic of Puntland, Galmudug, Jubaland, Southwest and Hirshabelle. There is also a large representation from the Somali business community and the civil society.

International investors, financial institutions (chiefly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund –IMF) and international NGOs are also expected to participate in the side meetings.

Somaliland, a breakaway region that unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, has not sent a representation.