Public Consultation on the second draft of the National P/CVE Strategy

Mogadishu 27 August 2016 – Tubta Toosan Initiative today launched an online 2 weeks public consultation on the second draft of the National Strategy on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) in Somalia. Tubta Toosan Initiatives understands the importance of engaging with communities so that they will be given opportunities to take part decision-making processes on key issues that matter to our community such as P/CVE, so that citizens inside and outside of Somalia can provide their views, comments and feedback.

Hon Mustafa Duhulow, CVE Coordinator for Somalia emphasised the importance of public consultations and an inclusive process and said “For the last 10 months we successfully implemented an inclusive process to devise a comprehensive National Strategy on P/CVE for Somalia and engaged with all segments of the society including women, youth, religious and traditional leaders which resulted on the draft of the P/CVE strategy. Therefore, in order to enhance the engagement with communities and to provide an opportunity for everyone, we are very pleased to have launched today an online two weeks public consultation. We want every citizen to take part the discussion, debate and consultation whether those inside the country or outside the country.”

Abdirahman Omar Osman (Eng. Yarisow) urged all citizens to take advantage of the opportunities provided to them and said “Tubta Toosan Initiative’s approach on devising the comprehensive National Strategy on P/CVE for Somalia has always been Somali led, Somali owned process and that is why for the first time in Somali history we now have a national strategy through an inclusive process. The online 2 weeks public consultation, which is the first time in our history is an opportunity for Somalis inside the country and in the Diaspora to take advantage of the opportunities provided to them, in order to provide their feedback, comments and amendments that they would like to see in the strategy, so it will be a strategy that belongs to all citizens of our beloved country.”

Hon Mustafa Duhulow stated that the inclusive process attempted to reach out to all segments of the society, however, due to challenges such as security and resources we were unable to reach out to everyone. Therefore, we decided to this online two weeks public consultation in order to reach out to all. During the inclusive process we established a committee consisted of representatives from 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. Despite of all the efforts we made during the last 10 months we realized that we needed to do more in engaging with communities and that is why we decided to the public consultation, which is very important to the national strategy on P/CVE. Religious Leader’s role is vital therefore, we urge them to take time to review the strategy, as we believe that Religious Leaders can do more to stop the Violent Extremism.

Finally Hon Duhulow asked all citizens to take part the online public consultations for the next two weeks as the deadline is on 9th of September 2016. Therefore, it is imperative for everyone to exercise their democratic rights to fully participate the discussion, debate and consultation on this very important issue to our community. Please take time to read the below strategy within the two weeks consultation period. We also want everyone to share with all, so that we will be able to reach out to all. I know our civil society groups, including organizations that advocate for youth, women, human rights, and our friends in the media can really help us to reach out to every citizen inside and outside of the country. Therefore, your support and assistance in this area is very much appreciated and we look forward to hearing from you all.