SOMALIA: Somali Youth and Women Learn to Mitigate and Manage Conflict

Ninety Somali youth and women successfully concluded six three-day workshops held August 3-9 to increase their understanding of conflict in Somalia and strengthen their skills to help avert, manage and mitigate conflicts, particularly clan-related conflict, in their communities.

The women and youth, who come from the three zones of Somalia, analyzed the nature and roots of conflict in their regions and methods to promote peaceful solutions to them. Through interactive exercises and discussions, participants developed leadership, communication and team-building skills that can be used to promote peaceful solutions to conflict.

The training was supported under USAID/East Africa's 20-month Uniting Communities to Mitigate Conflict program, implemented by IREX in South-Central Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland. The program's objectives are to: (i) enhance conflict mitigation skills among women and youth, (ii) develop media products promoting peace and mediation, and (iii) engage and provide forums for communities to discuss sources ofand solutions to clan-related conflict.

Participant Ahmed Yousuf Soofe from the Somaliland training said, “Before I received the training, I wasn't familiar with conflict mitigation skills, but now it has given me self-confidence on mapping, analyzing and resolving conflicts.”

Equally enthused about the training and the opportunities for youth to play a central role in peacemaking, Khadar Farah Hussein commented that “the leadership session was very impressive and it enlightened me on the need for youth leadership and my role as a leader in the community.”

In the upcoming months, Uniting Communities to Mitigate Conflict will work with a smaller group of these women and youth participants to complement their new peace-building skills with training on media products that effectively promote peace and mediation in Somalia.