STORY: Key role of Somali youth in peace efforts

highlighted in meeting with head of UN peacebuilding

TRT: 04:08
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LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/SOMALI NATURAL SOUND
DATELINE: 13/SEPTEMBER/2019, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA

SHOT LIST:

1. Close up shot, James Swan, UN Special Representative for Somalia interacting with
youths
2. Med shot, SRSG James Swan interacting with youths
3. Wide shot, members of the Youth Advisory Board for Somalia held discussions
with Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Oscar Fernandez-
Taranco
4. Med shot, youths at the discussions
5. Med shot, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco, James Swan, UN Special Representative for Somalia, and
Abdiwahab Bilal Ahmed, Chairman of the Youth advisory board at the meeting
6. Med shot, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco speaking at the discussions
7. Med shot, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, George Conway, Acting Deputy SRSG and
Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and SRSG James Swan taking notes
8. Close up shot, a participant listening
9. Wide shot, participants at the discussions
10. Med shot, SRSG James Swan and Oscar Fernandez-Taranco taking notes
11. Close up shot, a youth speaking
12. Close up shot, SRSG James Swan taking notes
13. Tilt down shot, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco taking notes
14. Med shot, the youth listening
15. Wide shot, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco speaking
16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General
for Peacebuilding Support
“Not many missions have this type of organized engagement and the fact that you
have been selected to represent the wider constituency, reflects very much the spirit
of how the United Nations, the SRSG and his team together with the agencies, funds
and programs can be benefiting from your wisdom, from your engagement from
your opinions about what it is that the UN is doing and could be doing much better,”

17. Med shot, the youths taking notes

18. Close up shot, Shaima Sallal Mohamed from Somaliland listening
19. Med shot, youths listening
20. Close up shot, a participant taking notes
21. Close up shot, another participant listening as Oscar Fernandez-Taranco speaks
22. Wide shot, SRSG James Swan speaking at the discussion
23. Med shot, SRSG James Swan speaking
24. Close up shot, the youths listening
25. Med shot, SRSG James Swan speaking as Oscar Fernandez-Taranco takes notes
26. SOUNDBITE: (English) James Swan, Special Representative of the United
Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia
“Clearly Somalia is a young country with a significant part of the population that is
youthful and it is important that you be engaged; that we hear from you and hope
that through you, we can have a better understanding of what the youth throughout
the country are thinking and what they believe we should understand, as we are
engaging Somalia officials and trying to make decisions that could affect the future
of the country,”

27. Wide shot, the youth clapping

28. SOUNDBITE: (English) James Swan, Special Representative of the United
Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia
“We also see the Youth Advisory Board as underscoring that the youth are really an
important partner for the United Nations and we want to be sure that our thinking
and our programming and our discussions, are informed by consulting you and
hearing your input,”

29. Wide shot, youths at the discussions

30. Med shot, SRSG James Swan interacting with Shaima Sallal Mohamed from
Somaliland
31. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Shaima Sallal Mohamed from Somaliland
“I am really happy to be part of YAB (Youth Advisory Board), the first YAB that has
been selected to work for the youth of Somalia and I am really proud to represent
my colleagues and other youth in Somalia and be a voice for them,”
32. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Jamila Mohamed Hassan from South West State
“We are happy to be at the decision making table and today we met with delegates
from the UN and discussed a variety of issues including peace building and how
women can participate in peace building. Women are community leaders and they
can significantly contribute to the attainment of peace,”

33. SOUNDBITE: (Somali) Ayub Osman Mohamed from South West State said
“I really feel very glad to be a member of YAB and present the problems that we
have in our society to the UN and at the same time look, together look for solutions
to those problems.”

34. Wide shot, SRSG James Swan interacting with youths at the end of the
discussions

Key role of Somali youth in peace efforts highlighted in meeting with head of UN
peacebuilding

Mogadishu, 15 September 2019 – Somali youth representatives were recently told

of the importance that the United Nations attaches to young people’s role in
national peacebuilding initiatives, and how political inclusion can enhance this.

The members of the United Nations Somalia - Youth Advisory Board were hearing
from one of the world body’s senior officials, the Assistant Secretary-General for
Peacebuilding Support, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, who was in the Horn of Africa
country to see first-hand the linkage between humanitarian, peacebuilding and
development efforts.

“The fact that you have been selected to represent the wider constituency, reflects
very much the spirit of how the United Nations, the Secretary-General’s envoy to
Somalia and his team can benefit from your wisdom, your engagement and your
opinions about what the UN is doing and could do much better,” Mr. Fernandez-
Taranco said at their meeting.

The UN official added that in a country like Somalia – where approximately 80

percent of the population are young, where youth unemployment is high, and where
drought and conflict have fuelled displacement and rapid urbanization – they had a
unique opportunity to shape the delivery of youth programmes.

The Youth Advisory Board was recently established following an open nomination
process. It is made up of 18 young people, nine women and nine men from across
the country, and was created to advise the UN system on youth issues in Somalia.
The Board aims to strengthen the UN’s engagement with young Somalis and their
involvement in political processes and peacebuilding initiatives as part of the world
body’s Youth, Peace and Security Agenda. The Agenda is tied to the UN Security
Council’s Resolution 2250, which was adopted in 2015 and emphasizes the
importance of youth as agents of change in the maintenance and promotion of
peace and security.

Also present at the meeting was the Secretary-General’s Special Representative,

James Swan.

UN benefits from youth

In his remarks, Mr. Fernandez-Taranco told the board members that the UN was
interested in “benefitting from the knowledge that you have from your communities
and the regions that you are coming from, your experience as professionals or as
community organizers.”

During their meeting, the youths raised a wide range of views and recommendations
related to policy and programming in education, women’s empowerment, people
with disabilities and peacebuilding, among others.

Board member Shaima Sallal Mohamed, founder of Golden Girls Sports Centre, an
organization that fights against gender-based violence and promotes the education
of young women and girls through sports activities, said that being a member of the
Youth Advisory Board allowed her to be a voice for other young people in Somalia.

Another board member, Jamila Mohamed Hassan from South West State,
highlighted how women can participate in peacebuilding, noting that “women are
community leaders and they can significantly contribute to the attainment of
peace.”

The need to have a quota for youth representation in Parliament as a way of

including young people in the country’s decision-making processes was also one of
the key points discussed.

For his part, Mr. Swan told the participants that it was important that UN thinking,
programming and decisions are informed by consulting with youth and hearing their
thoughts.
“We hope that through the Youth Advisory Board we can have a better
understanding of what the youth throughout the country are thinking and what they
believe we should understand,” he said.