Solar Power and Environmental Peacebuilding in Somalia

 The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published in February 2025 a policy brief titled "Solar Power and Environmental Peacebuilding in South-Central Somalia" by Ann-Sophie Bohle and Kheira Tarif.  

The policy brief explores how the International Organization for Migration's approach to solar power and the facilitation of local public-private partnerships can support environmental peacebuilding at three levels: the community level, the local business level, and the district council level.  

Status of China's 2015 Commitment of $60 Billion for Africa

Brookings published on 30 January 2018 an analysis titled "China's Engagement in Africa: What Can We Learn in 2018 from the $60 Billion Commitment?" by Yun Sun.

During the 2015 FOCAC summit in Johannesburg, China announced a $60 billion package for Africa that included $5 billion in grants, $35 billion in concessional loans and export credits, $5 billion each for the China-Africa Development Fund and the Special Loan for the Development of African Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises, and $10 billion for a China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation Fund. The goal was to complete the commitment by the end of 2018. The author has found that it is difficult to obtain precise figures for funding so far on each of these programs but believes China is on track for meeting most of the $60 billion financing commitment

Somali Solutions for Somalia

I recently ran across a series of papers published by the National Civic Forum in 2011 titled Somalia: Exploring a Way Out. The European Union and Heinrich Boell Foundation funded the project. The authors include Osman Farah Abdulkadir, Abdurahaman Abdullahi (Baadiyow), Yusuf Nur, Abdurahman Wandati, H. A. Dirie, Ibrahim Sh. Ahmed Mohamed, Ibrahim Abikar Noor and Abdirizak Mahboub.

The papers deal with the following topics:

--Does civil society in a stateless environment hinder or help in reestablishing the state?
--Formal and informal mobilization of the Somali diaspora.
--Abandoning comfort for an unknown cause: a lesson from missing Somali-American youth.
--The roots of the Islamic conflict in Somalia.
--Somalia: conflicts, interventions and reconciliation.
--Public-private partnerships: the way forward for reconstructing the Somali economy.

Click here to access the papers.