Mogadishu, 9 November 2020-- UN-Habitat through the Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralization (JPLG) in partnership Somalia’sMinistry of Interior, Federal affairs and Reconciliation (MoIFAR) successfully completed 20 days Local Leadership Management (LLM), Conflict Management (CM) and Gender Mainstreaming (GM) training for Federal Member States and Benadir Regional Administration (BRA) in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The integrated training which is aimed at creating a cadre of trainers at the state level who can facilitate similar trainings at the district level was delivered to the trainees selected by the State Ministries of Interior and Local Government (MoILG) and BRA.
“This training was timely in that a number of Federal Member States are currently forming local councils, Afmadow in Jubbaland and Southern Kismayo in Galmudug, being the latest. The new councilors will therefore need a good understanding of local council functions and the different roles they are supposed to take up in order to improve local service delivery” Abdirahman Mohamoud, Human Settlement Officer ,UN-Habitat.
In his opening speech, Mr. Ali Mohamed Osman, MoIFAR’s Director General encouraged the trainees to deliver similar trainings in their respective States adding that “MoIFAR will organise field visits as a follow up to these skills transfer which are aimed at improving service delivery”.
The training creates an experience sharing platform for the State Ministries’ of Interior and Local Governments leaders who share and learn from experiences drawn from real life work environments. With the resultant enhanced skills is a team of well-equipped local trainees who are confident to further train councilors in the federal member states with the aim of strengthening their service delivery to enable them carry out their mandate effectively
UN-Habitat through the Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralization (UNJPLG) has played important role in ensuring local government institutions contribute to peace and stability by effectively and accountably responding to the needs and rights of community. In achieving this, diverse interventions have been put in place including capacity building trainings to respective ministries and local government departments to ensure they acquire the relevant skills and knowledge to foster better local government management. UN-Habitat’s ToT approach is also an alternative option to bolster capacity of local communities in holding their local leaders accountable.
JPLG offers training that are organized in a sequenced manner to maximize the impact, strengthen relevant government entities such as Local Government Institute and localize the knowledge by creating a pool of local professionals who can be easily deployed to run such training programs
The training delivery was guided by COVID-19 councilors guide which is built on guidance from dedicated health institutions mainly WHO, Ministry of health COVID -19 protocol, MoIFAR and UN-Habitat’s COVID-19 policy and program framework.
“This training is very important for MoIFAR and we encourage the team to continue their commitment to ensure the initiative is fully supported to achieve its objectives” Local Government Initiative (LGI) Director Mr. Omer Yousuf said.
Somalia has seen a rise in the inclusion of young people in local leadership from cognizant of the fact that they represent the largest segments of the population, are the most influential Their inclusion is critical not only as the beneficiaries of services rendered by the local government but also as people who serve their community as representatives of local government and ministries in their respective districts.
This programme is fully funded by; the European Union(EU), the UK’s Department for International Development (UK-DFID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Norway, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) , the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).