H.E. Dr. Farah Mohamed, the Vice Minister of Health for Puntland, Somalia made a short visit to SLU on 27 February. This was in conjunction with the dialogue with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) about the coming Swedish bilateral strategy for Swedish support to Somalia. The Somali representatives identify SLU as an important potential partner to develop the important animal production sector in the country.
Contacts between SLU and Somalia have been very limited, but the intention for engagements has been there since long, as exemplified by SLU’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). In the region, sparse interactions exist between SLU and the IGAD Sheikh Technical and Veterinary School on animal production and entrepreneurship in agriculture.
Both parties felt this meeting was helpful to understand limitations and potentials for cooperation. For Somalia, there is not a case for traditional large academic capacity development programmes yet. Rather, the discussions during the visit was about smaller attempts for example with teacher's education and the development of curricula in the animal production sector. For SLU, this may be interesting to test how to contribute to conflict- and conflict-torn countries in a meaningful way, from a regional hub, from Sweden and/or on web-based distance support.
About the Somali State of Puntland
Somalia is a federation of states. The Somali State of Puntland is a state situated on the very Horn of Africa with coast both towards the bay of Aden to the north and the Indian Ocean to the east. It is a relatively more stable part of Somalia.
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