Somalia, UNHCR Agree To Strengthen Cooperation on National Development Priorities

GOOBJOOG NEWS | MOGADISHU: The Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development and the UN refugee agency UNHCR have agreed to strengthen strategic cooperation and align humanitarian programmes with Somalia’s national development priorities.

Planning Minister Mahmoud Abdirahman Sheikh Farah met UNHCR Deputy Representative and Acting Representative Jing Song in Mogadishu, with discussions focusing on planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of UNHCR programmes under Somalia’s National Transformation Plan (NTP).

The two sides also agreed to deepen cooperation on data and evidence to support more reliable planning and evidence-based decision-making.

They said they would develop a new cooperation framework setting out priority areas, coordination mechanisms and the respective roles of the ministry and UNHCR.

The meeting also discussed a special event to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, to be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The agreement comes as Somalia seeks to better integrate humanitarian, development and displacement-related programmes into longer-term national planning, amid continued displacement and refugee movements in the region