Minister of Information hosted UNSOM’s First Anniversary event
Mogadishu, 02 June 2014 – H.E. Mustaf Duhulow, the Minister of Information today hosted the event of UNSOM’s First Anniversary in Somalia and thanked Mr. Nicholas Kay, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Head of UNSOM for his tireless commitment and dedication to support the Federal Government and the people of Somalia in order to bring peace and stability. Participants of the event included H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the President of Somalia, H.E. Ridwan Hirsi Mohamed, the Deputy Prime Minister and H.E. Nicholas Kay, the SRSG for Somalia and Head of UNSOM.
The Minister of Information welcomed all delegates taking part UNSOM’s 1st Anniversary event that took place at the Ministry of Information. There was a photo exhibition which showed the progress made so far in Somalia. “Together for peace in Somalia – UNSOM” film was presented to participants that showed how far we come together towards bringing peace and stability in Somalia.
Minister of Information speaking at the event said “The Ministry of Information is honoured to host this very important event to Somalia. UNSOM has been with us for the last 12 months and we are very grateful to see the remarkable transformation of UN support to Somalia. We now have a dedicated and committed leader who has tirelessly worked with us to galvanize the efforts of the International Community towards Somalia. Mr Kay is leading the way for us to have one door knock to all UN agencies, which is what our President has asked when he came to power in September 2012. Nicholas Kay, has advanced this approach and went the extra mile to galvanize the efforts of the International Community towards Somalia.
“As you can see from the photo exhibition and the film we have come a long way to this date, and we need to celebrate the enormous achievements that we together are making to advance the peace and stability in Somalia.
The Minister of Information speaking on the progress of the Federal Government said “We now have an excellent partnership working with UNSOM, and during the last 4 months we have made remarkable progress to carry out a thorough consultation on Media Law and Telecommunications Law with all key stakeholders, liberating over 10 districts from the tyranny of terrorists, We are stabilizing the country by engaging with communities and providing basic services to people, we have established the Independent Commission on the Review of the Provisional Constitutions and appointed 5 respected and well known individuals from all walks of life representing all regions to lead this process, We established ministerial sub-committees in order to streamline the function of the government and implement good governance, We have developed our Strategic Communications, which will help us to better coordinate our messaging, We have established the joint security operation centre and we now have excellent partnership working with AMISOM, our leaders visited regions with a view to reconcile with communities, our Public Finance Management is progressing very well, as we now have Board of Directors, Governor and Deputy Governor to our Central Bank that came through competitive recruitment process with the help of World Bank. Similarly we now have Auditor General and Accountant General that came through competitive recruitment process. We have achieved all the above despite the enormous challenges that exist.”
The Minister concluded his remarks and said “I have no doubt that UNSOM will continue to work with the Federal Government on key priorities, such as review of the Provisional Constitution, the establishment of Federalism and the democratization process in order for us to hold fair and free elections by 2016. UNSOM is now in a position to understand the competing priorities and challenges that we face, which include the fragmentation of the society, bringing peace and stability while we are at war with terrorists, the lack of resources, and other challenges that exist. A year ago, Nicholas Kay, had little information on Somalia, but today, he is one of the experts that can really sympathize and understand the difficulties and the challenges we confront on a daily basis. The best way to come out of the current morass is to fully empower the Federal Government as it is the only institution that is fully representative by all people and all walks of life in Somalia. It is also imperative to support all activities in Somalia through the Federal Government, which is the legitimate institution in Somalia that can safeguard the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country. I hope that next year we will celebrate the 2nd Anniversary with more progress on the ground and I wish you all every success. Thank You.”