President Hassan “It is essential that pledges are honoured in order to sustain confidence in the New Deal.”
Mogadishu, 24 February 2014 – H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the President of Federal Republic of Somalia today chaired the first High Level Partnership Forum with the United Nations Special Representative for the Secretary General, H.E. Nicolas Kay. Participants included the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Security, Finance, and Interior & Federalism, Special Representative of the AU,President of Galmudug, the Mayor of Mogadishu, representatives from Jubba Administration, Civil Society Groups, Ambassadors and representatives of International Community,
The President first expressed his condolences to the families of those who have lost loved ones during the terrorist attack in Villa Somalia. The President said “I would ask you very carefully not to take these occasional acts of terrorism, however, large scale they may appear, at face value. They are designed to fool everyone into thinking everything is ruined in Somalia. That is not the case.”
The President continued to say “Everyone in this room today knows how much progress we have made in the past two years. That is one reason we are all here to discuss the process by which Somalia is rebuilding its security, it’s political systems and laying down the foundations for future economic development and prosperity.”
The President speaking on the issue of the Arms Embargo said “The Federal Government of Somalia has fully cooperated with the UN Monitoring Group during their assessment mission. We have since responded to the UN Security Council and sent concrete evidence to address the discrepancies highlighted in the UN Monitoring Group -a matter that could have been easily avoided if the Group posed their questions and concerns to us. We also have measures to address weapons and ammunition management, including the establishment of a multilateral committee, targeted technical training for armoury specialists and improved reporting standards.”
The President highlighted the importance of ACTION and DELIVERY of the pledges that was made in Brussels on 16 September 2013, as our people are anxiously waiting the promises from our International partners. The President said “the Government took initiatives to establish a Financial Governance Program that would provide greater oversight, transparency and accountability to our financial institution. We have opined our doors and laid down our financial institution to open scrutiny to an independent panel. We the government and the International donors need urgently to ACT and DELIVER? It is time for the COMPACT to be operational. Our people were given high hopes, which must be delivered on the ground.”
“It is essential that pledges are honoured in order to sustain confidence in the New Deal. We must demonstrate unequivocally to Somalis that the progress they deserve is coming. We cannot afford to fail in this joint endeavour.”
The President concluded “We are now ready to move beyond words and process, however essential, to ACTION and DELIVERY.”