Somaliland needs recognition, says leader

Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo said problems in Somalia should not be allowed to hinder Somaliland's development

By Simon Allison|AFP

The leader of Somaliland has called on the international community to give the breakaway state the recognition it “deserves” as it marks 20 years since a unilateral declaration of independence.

“It’s high time the international community gave consideration to the efforts of the people of Somaliland, and gives the recognition that the people of Somaliland need and deserve,” Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, the self-styled president of Somaliland, told AFP in an interview.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia proper in 1991, the year in which the Horn of Africa nation started its long descent into violence and chaos with the overthrow of strongman president Mohamed Siad Barre.

Somaliland, which has had two decades of relative stability, last week celebrated the 20th anniversary of its “independence” declaration although it remains part of Somalia in the eyes of the international community.

Silanyo argued the impending recognition of South Sudan would strengthen Somaliland’s case for recognition.

“One problem with the African Union has been the idea that African borders should not be changed … But that argument does not hold true anymore,” said Silanyo, pointing out that in contrast to Sudan, which was a single country in colonial times, Somaliland was already separate from the rest of Somalia.

Silanyo said the problems in the rest of Somalia should not be allowed to hinder the development of Somaliland.

“The international community can see that the possibility of change in Somalia does not even appear on the horizon and that there is no reason why we should be held hostage for solutions to be found for Somalia,” he said.

“We hope that the international community will find solutions for Somalia, and we support the efforts of the international community in this regard, but certainly that should not be at our cost.”

Silanyo said that not having international recognition deprives Somaliland of its “rightful seat in the UN and AU” and means it receives no development aid.

On the various secessionist movements operating from within Somaliland — specifically those in the Sool and Sanaag regions — Silanyo said: “There are protests all over the world … We are no exception.”

He argued Somaliland is the most peaceful part of the region and that it has gone a long way towards establishing a democratic and participatory government. “If there are complaints here and there, so what?” said Silanyo, who is Somaliland’s fourth president since the territory uproclaimed its independence.

Silanyo, who has a degree from the London School of Economics and runs the Kulmiye party, took over from Dahir Riyale Kahin after winning the June 2010 polls. The vote was held without violence and the outgoing president gracefully conceded defeat.

Many voters and politicians voiced the hope that such a smooth transfer of power would once again prove their democratic credentials and strengthen their territory’s case for international recognition.

Some Western countries argue Somaliland deserves to become a fully-fledged country and thus gain access to more aid but the African Union is wary of setting a precedent they fear could spur secessions across the continent.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/somali-breakaway-state-needs-recognition-says-leader-085338990.html

Healthcare and education gains as Somaliland marks 20th anniversary

WE'LL NEVER GIVE UP: President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Siilanyo

Republic of Somaliland has made key improvements in sectors such as health, education and infrastructure in the past two decades, its leaders say, despite its lack of international recognition.

“One of the main obstacles for Somaliland is lack of recognition, but my government will never give up trying to gain it,” President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Siilanyo said on May 18, when the region marked 20 years since declaring unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia.

Efforts in reconciliation, nation-building and drafting a new constitution have helped promote peace in the region, Siilanyo said.

“We have put in place a new currency and passport, encouraged democratisation and multi-party elections; improved access to healthcare and education, respect for human rights, freedom of expression, and facilitated a free market,” he said.

“[The rest of] Somalia has been in lawlessness during the last 20 years, and I am calling on the Somali politicians to look after their citizens and consider the problems they are living under, and resolve their differences so as to give peace a chance.”

Nimo Hussein Qawdhan, deputy health minister, said increased provision of healthcare services – by the government and private sector – was one of the developments made since 1991.

Qawdhan said Somaliland had also made gains in the fight against malaria. The past two years have seen the region become almost malaria-free, Qawdhan said.

The region has also de-mined large tracts of land mined between 1981 and 1991 during the war between the Somali National Army and the Liberation Movement for Somaliland, as well as during the war between Somalia and Ethiopia over the Ogaden region (now known as Somali region in Ethiopia).

“Literacy rates increased from 20 percent [in 1991] to 45 percent [in 2010],” an official from Somaliland’s Ministry of Education said.

“We had only a total of 219 primary, intermediate and secondary schools in 1991, but now we have about 506 primary schools throughout the country.”

A 2010 Millennium Developments Goals report for Somaliland put the region’s literacy rate of the population aged 15 years and above at 26.9 percent in 1999.

Besides education gains, Somalilanders also believe they have matured politically.

“The people of Somaliland have mastered how to overthrow their leaders through the ballot, not through the bullet,” Ahmed Yasin Sheikh Ali Ayanle, an opposition member of parliament, told IRIN.

Ayanle added that Somaliland’s first president, Abdi-Rahman Ahmed Ali (1991-1993), and his successors, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal (1993-2002) and Dahir Rayale Kahin (2002-2010), had helped establish peace and a respected constitution. “We hope [current] President Siilanyo will keep these efforts going.”

Some of those who fought in Somaliland’s 1981-1991 war said they were pleased with the progress the region had made.

“During the war, our mission was to overthrow [Somalia’s President Siad] Barre and give the people a chance to decide their future. It is the people who decided to dissolve Somalia’s unity, hence the creation of Somaliland,” Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, a war veteran, said.

IRIN

Money man serves the Somali diaspora

Money man serves the Somali diaspora

Steeped in the community: Abdirashid Duale says his family has built the business through understanding its customers and developing a network of outlets

By Katrina Manson

Aged eight, Abdirashid Duale would rush back from school to take his place in the family’s small shop in Burao, a dusty livestock trading town in Somaliland, selling everything from clothes and shoes to flour and sugar.

Today he divides his time between London and Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia that declared independence in 1991, and is the chief executive of Dahabshiil, a global money transfer company that operates through 24,000 outlets in 144 countries. Dahabshiil also offers debit cards, reward points and SMS notification services and, soon, Somaliland’s first fully operational bank which is currently under construction in the capital.

“From a very early age I got used to talking to adults … while other friends or even my brothers used to play football, for me my fun was to stay in the store, and sell people goods,” he says. He even drove his father’s car, at age 13. “I was in competition with other people who were working for my father, so I wanted to be useful and serve him,” he says, speaking in the garden of a Nairobi restaurant.

In four decades, Dahabshiil has evolved into an internation­al bus­iness that uses the most modern technology. However, working in Somalia, a failed state, means danger has never been far away: in 2009, two workers were killed in an attack by al-Shabaab, an Islamist group, forcing the business to close half its 50 or so Mogadishu outlets. To this day, the company sometimes transports cash hidden in cars. Mr Duale thinks the company’s best protection is its local approach: “We are ‘money without borders’ – people need us. Customers see us as a part of them. We’re bringing money to them, not guns, so they will look after us.”

The business was transformed from the shop of Mr Duale’s 1970s childhood into a global business by finding opportunities in a string of calamities that have befallen Somalia – from poverty to war and terrorism.

For the family’s story is also the story of the Somali diaspora. Poverty and trade first sent Somalis to Yemen, Dubai and the Middle East. In 1991, the capital Mogadishu was overwhelmed by fighting between rival groups, earning Somalia its label as a failed state. Perhaps 1m Somalis scattered throughout east Africa but also to the Middle East, Australia, Europe and North America. “After 1991 all the Somalis were displaced in a way,” says Mr Duale. “I’m one of them, so we know where they live, how to communicate with them and serve them.”

Mr Duale says his company handles remittances of $200m a year to east African countries outside Somalia, and that the company also remits a large proportion of an estimated $1.6bn sent back to Somalia every year, making it the largest money-transfer service in the Horn of Africa.

Yet Dahabshiil started by default, a device to overcome one of many challenges in running a business in Somalia. In order to stock the latest shoes from Milan, Mr Duale’s father, Mo­hamed Saed Duale, needed hard currency for purchases from the trading hub of Yemen. Meanwhile, the Somali diaspora was keen to send money home, so Mr Duale’s father would collect hard currency from them in Yemen to buy the shoes, then hand the money over to the “lenders’” family members in Burao in local currency, making an additional cut on the exchange rate. Remarkably, rather than pay interest, he had found a way to turn a profit on borrowing.

That sideline would become the heart of the business. But it was not always clear it would be that way. Mr Duale can still remember when a liberation force invaded one day in 1988, and the defending regime res­ponded with bombs: “There was blood everywhere – we couldn’t stay. We left our car, our shop, our house, everything.”

The family fled to live among nom­adic herdsmen and eventually his father reached the Ethiopian border, found Somalis in desperate need of sending and receiving money, and set about making it happen. The business model soon changed, as no one want­ed rapidly depreciating local currency. Instead, the company made a double cut by charging a commission and operating a currency exchange service situated in its outlets, a model it keeps to this day.

Getting money back to Somalia was often risky and, in some countries, restricted. “You can manage to hide $200,000 yourself if you know the technique,” says Mr Duale of people’s ef­forts to secrete cash.

Another hurdle to expansion was regulations. When Mr Duale registered as a teenage sole trader in London’s East End, home to waves of immigrants over centuries, to set up the first European branch of Dahabshiil, he met an alien way of doing business: “I knew Somalis, I knew how to serve them, but I did not know about formality – in Burao you don’t need accountants, lawyers, a bank.” Despite his unsteady English, he found an accountant, bought a guide to doing business in 12 European countries and began unravelling the red tape, working seven days a week.

Dahabshiil has been so good at complying with host countries’ regulations that it won customers when al-Barakat, one of its Somali competitors, was shut down by the US after the September 11 2001 terror attacks. Mr Duale insists that no money within Dahabshiil funds pir­acy – an­other Somali blight – or terrorism, and regularly co-operates with international agencies when asked.

The father-and-son team plays to its strengths, especially when it comes to understanding the culture in which the company operates. Mr Duale looks after the western side of the business and his father, now chairman, looks after Africa. The strategy has helped the company keep up with developments: today, funds can be transferred online in minutes, and it uses Facebook and Twitter, alongside developing its banking and tele­coms operations as part of Dahabshiil’s expansion.

Although they work as a team and, as a boy Mr Duale hankered to be like his father, relations are not always straightforward: “Sometimes you don’t know – are you talking to your boss or are you talking to your father? When he tells me my mistakes is he talking to his son or to his staff? Sometimes you would like things to be a little bit separate.”

Doing business in hard places

Abdirashid Duale learnt how to expand the family business amid war, poverty and even the strictures of doing business in the west.

● Start young. “In Burao [town], you can take more responsibility from a very early age: you become more mature by doing this kind of activity. It was job training from a very early age.”

● Serve your community. “Without knowing your people as your customers and your staff, and them trusting you, you cannot be in business. I knew Somalis, I knew how to serve them, so it was not some sophisticated customer I had to find.”

● Adapt. “I could have said ‘I don’t want to expand in Europe – it’s too much, it’s not easy to be in that field with a different language’ but I didn’t. I said: ‘I have to get used to it.’ And then I came back to Somaliland … and I had to re-educate myself.”

● Market yourself. Dahabshiil took on a UK public relations agency to deal with international press interest when the company issued its first debit card in Somalia, which was – and remains – a failed state.

● Do what you love. “It’s by feeling passionate about it that you expand your business.”

FT.com :-http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afae0e64-8630-11e0-9e2c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1NVRiWgK9