Hiiraan Online
Friday, January 16, 2015
Kigale, Rwanda (HOL) - The Office of Diaspora affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotion, together with the African union mission in Somalia conveyed a consultative diaspora policy conference in Kigali, Rwanda.
Held in Kigali from the 12 -16th of January, the conference brought together over 90 participants from North America, Australia, United Kingdom, Somalia, Malaysia, Sweden, Norway to find unified diaspora policy framework.
The Participants included representatives from the Somali government including Mr Ali Omar, the Chief of staff office of the president, representatives from the Rwandan government’s foreign ministry office and Ambassador Maman Sidikou the African union special representative for Somalia.
The conference was divided into two session the first session was focused on the drafting and discussion of a diaspora policy and the latter part was focused on fieldwork in regards to learning a lesson from Rwanda.
Representatives from the Somali government briefed the participants on two vital organs of the government, the Aid coordination unit and the stabilization unit. The participants were arranged into groups to discuss three main pillars with each pillar focusing on several thematic issues within the diaspora. The task assigned to the groups was to identify and influence a policy on the role the diaspora will play in the rebuilding of Somalia.
Pillar one focused on the building of a cohesive Somali diaspora community with regards to a creation of the global community of Somalis abroad and the creation of coordination mechanism among local groups to reach out to Somali diaspora. Pillar two deliberated about the diaspora community being equipped with accurate information about Somalia with a focus on diaspora mapping exercises, data collection and outreach. Finally the third pillar was on the creation of conducive channels for Somali diaspora to contribute to the socio economic development of Somalia with health, education, business entrepreneurship, investment opportunities and environmental awareness at the focal point of the discussions.
The second part of the conference was dedicated to learning lessons from Rwanda. Rwandan officials made presentations explaining the practicality of various government offices that were formed as a result of the genocide these offices were, the national unity and reconciliation commission, national commission for the fight against genocide and the directorate of the Rwanda community abroad.
Participants were later taken to many field sites that include, among others, the parliament house that still has bullet-ridden building from civil war in 1994, which served a good reminder for participants, the genocide memorial, and community centres that aim to de-mobilization and reintegration for ex-combatants.
This showcased how the Rwandan government dealt with preparatory. The last of the trips was to the one-dollar campaign village which is an initiative founded by the Rwandan diaspora – an initiative that has inspired to participants.
The conference concluded successful, and proceeding communiqué was released.