Tubta Toosan Initiative on Building a Strategic National Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) Response for Somalia

____________________________________________________________________________

Nairobi 04 August 2016 – Tubta Toosan Initiative today concludes a three days consultation on Building a Strategic National Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) Response for Somalia. H.E. Gamal Hassan, Somali Ambassador to Kenya, H.E. Michele d’Urso Cervone, EU Ambassador to Somalia, Hon Mustafa Duhulow, CVE Coordinator for Somalia and Hussein Sheikh Ali, Senior Advisor to the President of Somalia made opening remarks on 2nd of August 2016. Tom Vens, the EU Deputy Ambassador to Somalia and Hon Duhulow today made the closing remarks and thanked participants and organizers of the three days consultation meetings.

Participants of the three days consultation were diverse from representatives of line Ministries of the Federal Government of Somalia, CVE Coordinators from Puntland, GalMudug, South West, Jubbaland and Benadir region as well as civil society representatives including women, youth, religious leaders, business community and all segments of the society.

Hon Mustafa Duhulow, CVE Coordinator for Somalia hugely thanked participants of the three days consultation, the European Union and Blueprint Somalia and said “We are very thankful for the support of the European Union and Blueprint Somalia for sponsoring the three days consultation meetings. I am also grateful for the time, efforts and commitments of participants and without their active and full participation the consultation would not have achieved its aimed objectives such as the review of the draft of the P/CVE Strategy. I also thank in particular the role and the input from religious leaders, youth and women during the three days for their very important contributions as they outlined the best methods and ways to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism in Somalia. Religious leaders also made presentations and their inputs will be included in the draft of the P/CVE Strategy.”

Abdirahman Omar Osman (Eng. Yarisow) made presentation during the consultation on the Tubta Toosan Initiative program and introduced to the participants the first draft of the National P/CVE Strategy while updating the strategic approaches during the last 10 months on how Tubta Toosan Initiative arose and evolved, the significance of its name, the political and technical progress of the draft National Strategy and process for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE), and the timeline for its continuation. Eng. Yarisow also updated participants on how and in which contexts civil society, private sector, and religious actors have been consulted so far, as well as the necessity of their inclusion in this exercise.

Hon Mustafa Duhulow appreciated the role of participants for their review and discussions about the context for which this Strategy and process are intended. Hon Duhulow said “It was very important for participants to identify the complexities of the current threat environment—noting where Somalia may be vulnerable to violent extremism, as well as potential entry points for interventions to address and/or counter these threats. Key questions considered during the discussion included, are there factors, dynamics, and/or grievances that pose a threat to security? Are there certain populations more significantly affected by insecurity than others? What are sources of resilience within Somalia? How and when do they prevail? “

During the workshop participants discussed the many roles that civil society actors—as well as private sector leaders play in P/CVE, as well as how they can best foster resilience. Discussions had a particular emphasis on the roles of women, youth, and families and highlighted specific examples from various country contexts that illustrate how civil society actors have contributed to government-initiated P/CVE efforts, as well as independent civil society-led initiatives. The core constituencies addressed included those outlined in the Coordination and Assessment Section of the Strategy – youth, educators and students, women, private sector, civil society, diaspora, traditional and religious leaders.

Finally Hon Duhulow emphasized the important of the drafted plan of action for coordination between government and non-governmental actors and participants made valuable contributions on how such cooperation would occur in the face of insecurity and violent extremism.

_________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________