Somalia with the support of the World Bank is making huge progress in managing its own funds and its own reforms

Visits: 624
(Rating 0.0/5 Stars) Total Votes: 0
0 0
Share via Social Media

Somalia with the support of the World Bank is making huge progress in managing its own funds and its own reforms

The Ministry of Information, Culture & Tourism of the Federal Government of Somalia with the support of the World Bank launched strategic communications initiative and held two days workshop to focus on the latest Multi-Partner Fund progress repo

Share

The Ministry of Information, Culture & Tourism of the Federal Government of Somalia with the support of the World Bank launched strategic communications initiative and held two days workshop to focus on the latest Multi-Partner Fund progress report (MPF), showing development of fifteen Somali projects. The aim of the two-day workshop on 22nd and 23rd of August 2017 was to make our civil servants, our media and our civil society understand and communicate how the Somali Government is managing its own funds and its own reforms.

The workshop was opened by the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, H.E. Abdirahman Omar Osman (Eng. Yarisow), Abdullahi Hamud, State Minister, Office of the Prime Minister and Ahmed Ainte, Director of Aid Coordination Unit. Attending from the WB were Puteri Watson, Senior Operations Officer & MPF Manager and Matthias Mayr, Program Officer, Somalia.

Minister Eng. Yarisow, in his opening remarks said "I hugely thank the World Bank for their understanding on the importance of strategic communications in order to reach out to public, so that Somali citizens will be better informed to analyse, to provide feedback, comments and to hold accountable to government institutions for implementing projects and service delivery. The excellent work of our civil servants needs to be known by our people, and this workshop signals a move towards communicating these Government efforts more effectively to our citizens. "

The emphasis of the two days workshop was Somali ownership and leadership to the use of the country systems to implement reforms, fighting corruption, improving security and boosting economic growth.

One of the key supporters of these reforms is the World Bank through the Multi Partner Fund, or MPF. The main benefit of the Government’s work with MPF is that all the reforms are designed and implemented by the Government through country systems, such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning, and Office of the Prime Minister.

The main objectives of the Government’s work, which is supported by the World Bank are to:

• Strengthen Somali institutions (to fight corruption and promote professionalism and transparency)
• Create jobs and investment opportunities
• Improve infrastructure

This far in the Government’s work, supported by the World Bank, we have seen the Government’s ability to pay salaries regularly, create a system where the entire budget for Somalia is available online, and rehabilitate infrastructure all over Somalia

Minister Eng. Yarisow concluded his remarks and said "It was of significant benefit to hold these events within the Ministry of Information, both to illustrate the FGS/WB partnership that was part of the discussion in the workshops and in particular because The Ministry of Information is the appropriate institution in which to discuss Government/World Bank communications. The workshops were productive and have increased understanding, coordination and future cooperation among the focal points of the MPF-supported Government projects and Somali media and civil society.”

END