Mogadishu, 23 May 2018 – H.E. **Abdirahman Omar Osman (Eng. Yarisow), the Mayor of Mogadishu and Governor of Benadir Regional Administration (BRA) today briefed the SDRF meeting chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and attended by Ministers, members from Federal Member States, Ambassadors, head of development agencies, UN Agencies and distinguished participants.
The Mayor thanked firstly shared his deep concern with respect to the devastating floods that have occurred in Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle regions of HirShabelle State and in recent days in the heavy rains that caused damages both in property and loss of life in Puntland and Benadir.
Eng. Yarisow urged the need of full concerted effort by all partners and stated that BRA quickly responded to the crisis in the capital city and provided shelter; food and medical aid to those effected the flooding. Other updates provided by the Mayor included:
- To help the needy, BRA has launched the Taakulo program to raise funds from communities and are currently distributing cooked food for 15 thousands of families everyday during Ramadan.
- We have also distributed rations for thousands households as well, with the support of OIC and Oman Charity Organization. Additionally, the staff of BRA have contributed % of their salaries to the less fortunate in this month of Ramadan and last month for the flooding in Beledweyne as BRA contributed 100,000 USD for emergency response.
- Since the last SDRF BRA launched the Somali Urban Resilient & Recovery (SURR) Project with the German Embassy and the World Bank in March and are waiting to lay the foundation for community roads in the selected seven districts. BRA is grateful for the SDRF endorsement of the SURR Project in our last meeting.
- We also held BRA’s first Steering committee meeting on EU Re-integ;
- BRA begun to implement the Disaster and Emergency Preparedness project funded by the EU. After the October 14 horrendous Zobe junction attack, BRA strengthens emergency services facilities for the establishment of two centers in order to facilitate for easily access to emergency response. The project team has launched community engagement and participation event on April 11, 2018 in order to highlight the importance for Emergency service response and how the community can collaborate to the project.
- BRA launched 30 days training for fire-fighters and Nurses on 28, April, 2018
- BRA laid the foundation stone of Firefighting and emergency Center in Hodan district and soon will also plan to lay the foundation stones of the firefighting and emergency center in Wadajir District as well.
- BRA reformed its Public Financial Management and introduced a number of measures that increase accountability and transparency.
- BRA established centers of basic service delivery in 7 districts so far and aims to provide basic services at local level, in order to be closer to communities.
- BRA established community engagement and participation and carried out a number of consultations with all segments of the society on a number of issues including elections, review of the constitution. The aim is to fully engage with communities at key issues that matter to them.
- BRA planned and lounged District Council formation process as part of the Wadajir Framework Fabric and stabilization strategy by creating permanent elected local governments in which citizens enjoy the right to elect leaders and hold leadership accountable.
- BRA begun community engagement and participation as well as establishing partnership and consultation working groups with all key institutions such as district administrations, security agencies, civil society groups and all segments of the community.
- BRA established partnership working with security institutions so that we are able to deal with security issues in a strategic manner. As a result of this we prioritized and focused in seven districts entry points of the city (Karan, Heliwaa, Yaqshid, Deynile, Dharkenley, Kaxda and Wadajir).
- BRA is working on the city’s security plan with the help of OPM, MoIS, and Security agencies, the aim is to secure Mogadishu city (17 districts) within 90 days. We hope after 90 days to see more stable Mogadishu.
- Since we started the security operations we are experiencing daily surrendering of AS defectors.
- BRA merged the city’s security plan (90 days of Mogadishu stabilization plan) with Radicalization awareness (PCVE) to reduce the drivers of radicalization and violent extremism to residents in Mogadishu. Hodan and Waberi districts are good example of beneficiaries of this awareness campaign.
- BRA launched Neighborhood Watch program, first of its kind in Mogadishu, whereby every household will be accounted for. Through this program BRA created district based Civil defense forces utilizing youth and women to prevent violence and provide a means of reducing the opportunity for crime to occur through the active participation of citizens in crime prevention.
- With the support of World Bank, BRA begun full assessment in order to develop and implement a master plan on drainage and sewage system in the capital city. So far experts made Site visits on areas prone to flooding in the city
- Carried Situational analysis on causes of flooding and effect to affected areas
- Will Identify possible outlet points subject to development of hydrologic analysis
- Zoning map to distribute the storm-water to possible outlet points
- Challenges – IDPS, youth unemployment, security,
- Lastly, Internally Displaced People (IDPs) require our collective approach in addressing the issues. We plan to establish Durable Solutions Unit that can coordinate and work in partnership with all agencies so that within 4 years will be able to fully resettle IDPs, either to fully integrate with the community or to return to their original homes.
- BRA has released the much-awaited Forced Eviction report on IDP’s and shared with all concerned agencies. We look forward to working with you all on the implementation of the recommendations.
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