Mr. Chair, Mr. President, Distinguished Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to address on behalf of the Federal Republic Government of Somalia, this 36th Session of Governing Council of IFAD. First of all, on behalf of my government, I wish to congratulate Mr. Kanayo F. Nwanze on his re-election as President of IFAD for a second term.

Somalia experienced one of the worst humanitarian crises in the second half of 2011.  Although the situation is actually improving and the alarming food shortage across the country is getting better, it is not yet over. As the security situation is improving in large parts of the country, many people in the IDP and refugee camps are now willing to go back to their homes. The prolonged stay of refugees in such camps comes with a tremendous social cost and undermines the ability to rebuild the country’s economy which is strongly based on agro-pastoral activities. In this regard, our Government is willing to increase its efforts in partnership with the International community, and specifically with UN organizations to empower these people so that they can return to their communities. This challenge will require increased resources, equipment and technical assistance to ensure that the displaced population is able to regain their livelihood.

Somalia also faces other challenges in terms of food security and self-sufficiency. Over the last two decades, because of a mixture of factors like conflict, natural disasters, lack of resources and opportunities, a generation of young Somalis has abandoned agro-pastoral activities in the rural areas and moved massively to urban areas. These youth are often driven by poverty to activities which undermine the stability we seek to solidify.

Our commitment is to give them back their life, dignity for themselves and their families. It takes more effort and appropriate measures to improve on the livelihoods of poor rural people. This could be done by providing new opportunities to increase rural employment thus guaranteeing social security. These vital elements together form the foundation of economic recovery and development. The aim is to create steady and sustainable rural development which could give them an opportunity to become agro-pastoral entrepreneurs of the future. We could therefore focus on a mid and long-term development and resilience-building efforts  through investment in agriculture.

In this context, President H.E. Hassan Sheekh Mohamud, together with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, recently called for new and innovative ways to encourage the diaspora to invest in rebuilding Somalia. Somalis living abroad send home well over one billion dollars in remittances every year, the equivalent of half of Somalia’s GDP.
It was our pleasure to take note last week of the fact that IFAD’s first project under the Diaspora Investment in Agriculture Initiative will focus on Somalia and Djibouti. Few realize that four times as much money is invested in agriculture through remittances than through official development assistance. We believe remittances are a powerful tool for change and an innovative form of financing development. The Federal Government of Somalia will follow the DIA initiative with great interest.

Mr. Chair, Mr. President and Distinguished Governors,

I would like to take this opportunity to extend an official invitation, on behalf of the Somali Government, to the President of IFAD, Mr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, to visit Somalia in the near future to personally verify the socio-economic situation of the country and to assess the needs of the Somali population.

Thank you for your kind attention.