The Government of Wales Has Selected Somaliland Lesotho For its African Link Develo

[Jacaylbaro]

The Government of Wales Has Selected Somaliland & Lesotho For its African Link Development

 

Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 08, 2007 (SL Times) - A delegation from the Cardiff based `Wales Somaliland Communities Link' (WSCL) organization have been holding week long consultations with various Somaliland government, local authorities and civil society institutions and organizations in order to identify partner organizations in Wales who can meet their development needs and requirements.

 

Abdikarim Abdi Adan, the director of WSCL and Harris Nyatsanza, the link development officer of WSCL arrived last Saturday from the UK to conduct an 11 day project mission to Somaliland as part of the Government of Wale's `international sustainable development framework' launched in 2006 by the Welsh assembly. The framework is part of the Welsh government's initiative for working towards the Millennium development goals.

 

Harris Nyatsanza said that “the Welsh government has earmarked for its Africa link development framework two African countries, Somaliland and Lesotho.” Mr Nyatsanza further explained that the “WSCL is an organization created specifically for the Somaliland development framework and had secured funds from the Welsh government to link institutions and organizations in Wales with those in Somaliland who will work together in partnership to meet the Millennium development goals.”

 

WSCL is managed by the Cardiff `Somaliland Progressive Association' and was one of over 200 organizations in UK who responded to the Welsh government's consultations for its `international sustainable development framework'.

 

Speaking to SL Times at Maansoor Hotel in Hargeysa on Friday, the director of WSCL, Abdikarim Adan revealed that "WSCL has established a pool of Welsh government, local authorities, education and health institutions and organizations ready to meet Somaliland's institutions and organizations development needs and that the purpose of our visit is to identify partner institutions and organizations in Somaliland who will benefit from development assistance and projects Offered by their Welsh counterparts."

 

WSCL's development officer, Harris Nyatsanza briefly outlined WSCL's project objectives in Somaliland: "basically, we are identifying Somaliland institutions and organizations working in health, education, women and youth groups and also government, local authorities, media, legislature, and we have been looking at their needs so that we can identify possible partners for them in Wales.”

 

Regarding their reception in Somaliland, Mr Nyatsanza said, “We have been warmly welcomed by everyone in Somaliland. We have seen the president, vice president and all the ministers and heads of departments in the various ministries. In particular, we have had long and constructive consultations with the ministries of Education and Health, and have finalized a number of initiatives, whereby, we will be facilitating for primary teachers and health professionals in Somaliland to spend three months learning and getting training in Wales which will be provided by their partners in the Welsh health and education institutions.”

 

Responding to whether `WSCL would continue to play a role once partner organizations and institutions in Somaliland and Wales are linked’, Nyatsanza said: "that's a very important question. Our role is to facilitate. I have been using the analogy that we are like the midwife who helps deliver the baby but we are not the ones who are carrying the baby [funding projects]. We help identify partners in Somaliland and Wales and will help them to come together, sit down and define with them areas where they can work together as well as helping them to negotiate a memorandum of understanding.”

 

Mr Nyatsanza continued, "if there is ever a problem to arise in future partnerships among institutions and organizations in Somaliland and Wales whose partnership we facilitated, we will be accessible to both parties to help resolve such complications."

 

Asked if WSCL will be funding projects in Somaliland, Nyatsanza said: "No, we will only be facilitating institutions and organizations in Wales find their counter partners in Somaliland. Similarly, we will help institutions and organizations in Somaliland to find partners in Wales to fund their development needs. WSCL is taking the lead in community development by solely concentrating on the important things on the ground and identifying the needs."

 

Mr Adan elaborated on this issue: "WSCL's chief priorities are to facilitate the link needed to get those in Somaliland to have direct contact and cooperation with their Counter-organizations in Wales. A good example is when we arranged for the Somaliland parliament speaker and his two deputies to come and see how the Welsh parliament operates and participated with the help of the Welsh assembly to take part in their chamber deliberations."

 

Adan stated that they met the Lower parliament chair committee and discussed areas where they need capacity building assistance in their parliamentary functions. Adan added, "We have already a couple of initiatives from the Welsh Assembly which will assist Somaliland MPs to visit the Welsh assembly and get help in resolving particular legislative problems and procedures. Another initiative which we have formulated with the Welsh Assembly is the possibility of inviting to Wales the Somaliland parliament house select-committee chairpersons, eight in total, to spend a short period of time working with the Welsh Assembly's in house standing select-committees."

 

"We have also discussed with the local Hargeysa government authority measures which have already begun in Cardiff linking Hargeysa with Cardiff, the capital of Wales. WSCL is a committee member in a board in Wales created to oversee Hargeysa and Cardiff becoming sister cities. In this board, the Cardiff local government authority, the Welsh and UK national local government association, and member Welsh organizations of the Somaliland community in Cardiff all sit on this board which is working to twin the two capital cities of Somaliland and Wales," said the director of WSCL.

 

Adan underscored that they plan to travel next week to Borama, Berbera and Buroa to hold talks with the regional authorities, schools, hospitals and civil societies in these towns, so as to include them in their Somaliland link development project and program.

 

The Welsh Assembly is the only body in the world which has formally given Somaliland full recognition status. Even though the Welsh body is a devolved assembly with power to make some legislation in Wales, however, it is subject to the veto of the UK Secretary of State or Parliament.

 

In the Commonwealth Debate of the Welsh Assembly in 2006, it was discussed by the assembly members that Somaliland be the recipient African country to get their `international sustainable development framework', Lorraine Barrett, assembly member had this to say:

 

“I wish to give my support to Lesotho. I have already had some involvement in helping Dolen Cymru. However, today, I will speak briefly about a country that is technically not in the Commonwealth, but which should be. Somaliland was known as the Somaliland Protectorate until independence in 1960, when it became the Somali Republic. Over many years of conflict, culminating in the civil war during the 1980s, the people of Somaliland withdrew from the union with Somalia, and eventually formed their own Government in 1991.

 

There is a strong historic link between Somaliland and Cardiff, and I was delighted to welcome the speaker of the Somaliland Parliament, Mr. Abdillahi, to our new Assembly building recently. He was very proud to be part of our official opening on 1 March, and I thank you for that, Presiding Officer. Somaliland is struggling. While it has managed to build health centers and a new hospital in Hargeysa, as well as schools and two universities, it needs a lot of support from the international community. It desperately needs international recognition. Somaliland has achieved peace and has established a government and relative stability, only 20 years after experiencing the most devastating civil war, when its capital, Hargeysa, was literally flattened.

 

Members of the Somali community in Cardiff are doing what they can to help their homeland, many of whom came here when that homeland was destroyed. However, they, and the Somaliland Government, need our help. I am not sure whether it is possible for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association here to give support to Somaliland, but I would ask us all to consider ways in which we can help this brave country help itself".

 

Source: Somaliland Times