H.E. Abdirahman Omar Osman (Eng. Yarisow), Minister of Information, Culture & Tourism of the Federal Republic of Somalia provided an update on the progress of the media development in Somalia to Strategic Communications teams of UN agencies working for the country.
Minister Eng. Yarisow briefed officials from UN agencies, in particular strats comms teams and stated that Somalis are an oral society, therefore, media plays a pivotal role to the development of the society and the urgent need for UN agencies to empower government institutions with regards to the development of the media.
Minister Eng. Yarisow said “I thank you for your important role as strategic communications experts of UN agencies working in Somalia and your efforts to publicizing the progress that each agency is making to help Somalia. However, your efforts must be inline with strategies and plans of the Federal Government of Somalia, so that people will understand the governance is the alternative to the chaos and lack of functioning institutions.”
UN agencies held two days retreat to discuss about their strategic communications plans for the year and invited the Minister and government advisors on strats comms. Minister Eng. Yarisow praised UN agencies’ efforts to galvanize international support towards Somalia and for providing basis services to the people, and urged them to closely work with their respective institutions within the Federal Government in order to empower government institutions.
Minister Eng. Yarisow finally provided a comprehensive update towards the media development, plans and strategies of the Ministry of Information of the Federal Government of Somalia and urged them to work with the ministry more closely in order to streamline all media development efforts of the country.