Somalia and the UN have launched the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund, to help support the country’s peace building with focus on state-building projects.
Peter de-Clercq, Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General and UN Resident Coordinator for Somalia made the announcement on Tuesday in Mogadishu.
De-Clercq said the fund would support five new projects focusing on stabilisation, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and reconciliation and state-building processes.
Others are land for peace and the leveraging of the contribution of women to peacebuilding as well as promoting gender sensitivity in the national programme on disengaged combatants.
“These programmes are intended to be catalytic, which means that we are trying out risky approaches towards peace-building, especially where donors would not necessarily put their money because they think it is too risky to invest,” de Clercq said.
The UN and Somalia has earmarked 14 million dollars for support of new state-building projects in the country.
De-Clercq noted that the fund was intended to provide a coherent and coordinated approach by the government, the UN and other partners to provide durable solutions to a number of problems caused by conflict and extreme weather conditions.
He said there is a need to support the stabilisation and reconciliation efforts in Somalia by comprehensively tackling the problem of displacement.
“This country is fast urbanising not just in Mogadishu but in other towns like Baidoa and Bosaso, and it is very important that we support that urbanisation process fueled by IDPs, either as a result of drought or as a result of conflict,” he added.
The fund aims to address Somalia’s peace-building priorities as outlined in the Peacebuilding Priority Plan, the National Development Plan, the National Stabilisation Strategy, the Wajadir Framework and the National Reconciliation Framework.
Abdi Sabrie, Minister of Interior Federal Affairs and Reconciliation, said Somalia had more than 2.5 million IDPs, most of them living in the major cities, who need help to access basic necessities like food, water and shelter.
Xinhua/NAN
