Preception of youth on somali post conflict process

Perception of Youth on Somalia’sPost-conflict Process

Youth Are the Solution, Not the Problem

Perception of Youth on Somalia’sPost-conflict Process

Copyrights © The Somali Youth Rearch Society May 2016

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Perception of Youth on Somalia’s Post-conflict Process

www.syrs.so | [email protected] | @syrs2015

TABLE OF CONTENTSExecutive Summary ...............................................................................................3Introduction 4Background of Somali Youth ...............................................................................5Methodology ..........................................................................................................6Limitation of the Study ..........................................................................................7Key Terms &Concepts of the Study .....................................................................8Analysis of the Findings ........................................................................................9

Youth Perception on the Present and Future of Somalia .....................................9Interaction of the Youth .....................................................................................10Confidence & Trust between Youth and Policy Makers ....................................12Youth & Somalia’s Political Process ..................................................................13

Critical Challenges Youth facing Today .............................................................16Conclusion ............................................................................................................18Policy Priories.......................................................................................................19Notes & References..............................................................................................20


2 www.syrs.so | [email protected] | @syrs2015

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This study was intended to examine the perception of youth on Somalia’s post-conflict process. By examining key question like: Does youth have a clearly defined role in the social, economic and political rebuilding of Somalia? Does youth understand their role in rebuilding the nation? Does youth have positive perception and belief in current process of state building and direction of the country? The study aims to contribute to youth and peace building literature, and overall to the nation building.

The study draws attention to the fact that contrary to today’s bigoted attitudes of the elders and political elites towards youth, which has been manifested from the period of state collapse in 1991 to present, there exists a number of historical evidence that Somalia’s youth have been an integral part of—if not the driving force behind—the historic founding of this nation. And today’s state building process is another turning point to utilize and make use of the critical youth power. The study found out that over 60% of the youth trust the current situation of the country is or much better according to some years ago. Likewise over 79% of the respondents indicated they are optimistic about the country’s future; and things will get improved in the near future. In relation to the interaction of youth from different regions/clans, which is critical for the re-unification of the disintegrated society, the study found out that over 45% of the respondents have argued the interaction among youth from different regions/clans is relatively poor or non-existent. In addition, the study found out the typical interaction among Somali youth from regions/clans can be characterized to both positive and negative as roughly 55% of the respondents indicated so.

In relation to youth and policy makers, more than 60% of the respondents argued the confidence and trust between youth and the policy makers, regardless state or national level, are poor or non-existent. The youth believe they contribute minimally to the Somalia’s political process as 56% of Somali youth argued. However, over 90% of the respondents agreed and confirmed their willingness to becoming involved in dialogue processes since no meaningful change can be achieved without the youth, the backbone of the country. In addition, As Somali becomes a federal state; the youth expressed and hoped it creates more opportunities for them. Almost 60% of the respondents have corresponded and affirmed with the hypothesis of the instant relation between youth empowerment and the governance system of the country.

This study argued that Somalia’s youth are in a highly uncertain situation given their numbers (75 percent of the population) as well as their creative energies and proven track-record in Somalia’s journey to independence in 1960. Therefore, it is recommended to develop the essential policies and programs to empower them and make them part of the process. To make sure this, establishment of an independent, professional body to craft, sell and coordinate youth development agenda at the national and local levels is recommended.

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INTRODUCTION According to a recent population survey presented by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation of the Federal government in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Somalia is a youthful country with 75% of the total population is below 30, and almost half (45.6%) is below the age of 15 years which indicates the importance of engaging youth in Peace and state-building. Considering these facts, policymakers need to develop strategic national policies to direct, educate and utilize the positive capacities of youth.

Youth represents the backbone of any society as it constitutes significant and greatest number of the population and determines the future trajectory of nations. Throughout history, the youth has played a decisive role and led social and political revolutions in countries. Today, as Somalia rebuilds the state once again, which necessitates the engagement of all citizens in building social cohesion, economic prosperity, and political stability, the youth involvement in the process is a critically decisive for the quick recovery and successfully rebuilding the state. To understand the role of Somali youth in peace and state building, this study aims to answer key questions like Do youth have a clearly defined role in the social, economic and political rebuilding of Somalia? Does youth understand their role in rebuilding the nation? Does youth have positive perception and belief in current process and direction of the country? By elaborating the answers of these questions, the study aims to:

• Contribute to the national state building agenda by providing factual understanding about the potentiality of youth for shaping the course of the nation and society.

• Identify the issues related to perceptions and beliefs of youth in the direction of the country in order to inform the national agenda setting and policy making of the national goals.

• Promoting youth empowerment and youth engagement programs to make awareness about their role in peace building and state building and ensure youth participation in the state-building process.



BACKGROUND OF SOMALI YOUTH Contrary to today’s bigoted attitudes of the elders and political elites towards youth, which has been manifested from the period of state collapse in 1991 to present, there exists a number of historical evidence that Somalia’s youth have been an integral part of—if not the driving force behind—the historic founding of this nation. Throughout history of Somalia, the youth have played an active and decisive part in the socioeconomic and political make-up of the society. The corrosive remapping of the country during the late 19th century saw both Britain and Italy compete and establish colonial dominance. However, the Somali Youth league (SYL); the first political part in Somalia; played a critical role in re-establishing the independence and thus changing the course of the nation’s history. SYL not only played a key role in instigating the country’s independence, but it also helped carve the way to establish the foundations of the Somali state building anchors and played a leadership role in the policy setting of the country.

During the Military regime (1969-1991), the youth in some way maintained their role, despite political and social rights restrictions from the regime. Following the collapse of the central government in 1991, through dysfunctional leadership, the Somali youth was used as catalysts in fueling clan-based conflicts and effectively led the disintegration of the country’s state institutions. The anarchy has also caused Somalia to suffer from inter-clan conflict, whereby youth and children under 18 are bribed or forcibly taken from their homes, schools, and the streets to serve as soldiers.

While the Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed the Convention of Child Rights on 20th January 2015, to protect and promote Somali child rights , however, child soldering and abusing children, globally ranks among the worst. In addition, about 5,000 young boys live on the streets of Mogadishu according to the Somali government estimates. As Somalia steadily recovers from a prolonged civil war which claimed the lives of innocent people including a large number of young people of the society, the state institutions are now slowly rebuilding. However, the political and civic engagement of the Somali youth; which is noteworthy in peace building process, is considered to be missing. To understand this phenomenon, this research will study the perception of youth in Somalia’s post-conflict process by examining interactions, perceptions, trust and confidence among youth, and their role in peace, and political rebuilding of Somalia.

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METHODOLOGY Two methods have been used to carrying out this study. First: an in-depth interview was held with the relevant Ministerial level of the Federal Governments, exclusively, the Ministry of Youth & Sports to recognize the government’s programs and policies to empower Somalia youth. Secondly, a survey design was employed as a tool to collect data from the youth in different regions of Somalia. 21 guided questions have been developed and asked the youth of five geographically different cities across Somalia, namely: Mogadishu, Kismayo, Baidoa, Growe, and Adado. Apart from Mogadishu, the capital city and the center of the federal government, the other cities represent the official or temporary capital cities of the regional federal states. Selecting these cities has been guided by the assumption of having different opinions considering the status quo of the political structure of Somalia.

To collect data from the relevant cities, 7 enumerators had been hired; one for each city with the exception of Mogadishu with 3 due to it’s the large respondents. The enumerators were provided one-day training in handling and collecting the questionnaire to directly ask and interview the youth. The survey was conducted between 10th of January to 10th February of this year. Out of the 384 respondents, 124 (32%) were from Mogadishu and 65 from rest of each other city. Leading positions in the Somalia society are mostly occupied by men, therefore, Somali Youth Research Society (SYRS) found it important to ensure as balanced representation of women as possible. Therefore, 59% of respondents were male while 41% were female. The ages of the respondents were between 15 to 35 years old as directed by the adopted definition of youth in this study and almost 51% of the respondents were between 18-25 ages. The second highest was between 30-35 ages representing 26%. In terms of educational background, 29% of the respondents were secondary level educated youth, 31.6% were above secondary level education, and 32.6% were below secondary or had informal education while the rest (9.4%) were illiterate. To make sure to capture diverse views, 45% of the respondents were youth activists who are one way or another engage in youth and civic activism while the rest represented the vast majority young generations of the society.



LIMITATION OF THE STUDY There are number of challenges encountered while carrying out this study, here are the most pressing:

• Limited prior research studies on the subject of Somali youth. Normally prior research studies form the basis for review and help lay a foundation for of the research problem. While much ink has been used to enlighten the problems facing the Somali youth in a number of reports, however, most of these accounts have less focused on scientific research to construe to the puzzle. Therefore, the study faced some sort of scientific scarcity about Somali youth literature to cite, and sees an opportunity for the further research in the field.

• The data has been only collected from five different cities of Somalia and the criteria of the selection have been guided by the new geopolitical regions resulted from the adopted federalism system. However, the study omitted Hiran/Shabelle regions, as they are in progress and yet to form their state. The study has faced the dilemma to collect data from Jowhar city (which the state building process is taking place) or from Bulo-Burte as designated the capital city of the state, which however inaccessible due to security and logistic concern, especially during the study period. The Somaliland is another exceptional case, however; the findings of the study provide general information about the whole country.

• The answers of some of the closed-ended questions (such as strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree) were a little bit difficult to understand by some of the respondents especially the illiterate. Therefore, this may have an impact on the results of the study, however, the enumerators were trained enough to make sure to clarify to the respondents.

• The access to such significant people in the government, and some necessary documents (such as budgets & planned programs) was also another limitation as it was denied or hard to be reached.

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KEY TERMS &CONCEPTS • Definition of youth term: The

United Nations defines youth as «those persons between the ages of fifteen and twenty four years age”, without prejudice to the definitions of other member states. The African Youth Charter defines youth as «every person between ages of 15 to 35» . While it has yet to set out its own youth definition, however, according to the Federal Ministry of Youth, Somalia confirms and validates with the African Youth Charter’s definition which is «every person between ages of 15 to 35». Therefore, this study adopts the definition of the African Youth which is adopted by the Somali government as working definition.

• State building: While the term ‘state building’ touches a wide range of activities from peace building, political process and rebuilding state institutions, this study concentrates peace building, political process, and rebuilding state institutions as a center of its analysis. The discussion of the study will be widely circulated in youth role in political and state building process, and their perception in the country’s direction.



ANALYSIS OF THE FINDINGSAs the young people played role in Somalia’s civil war and the devastation of the country, the media has been habitually portraying them in an overwhelmingly negative light. Media coverage of youth and conflicts and the frequent portrayal of frightening suggest that young people are increasingly viewed as criminals and negative to the peace building process. However, on the other hand, the youth perception literature is a relatively under-researched area, with the little systematic attempt to define and measure youth opinion about the direction of the country. The study will examine in the following sections, the perception of youth in the present and future of Somalia by exploring different subjects of the matter.

YOUTH PERCEPTION ON THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF SOMALIAAs Somalia slowly recovers from the ashes of the civil war and state institutions are steadily rebuilding, many Somalis have great hope in the country’s future once again. Examining the situation in Somalia and the peace/state building process, over 60% of the youth trust the current situation of the country is or much better according to some years ago. While many challenges are still persistent, which hinder the relative state-building progress; the youth has very much hope for the country’s future.

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Likely, another sign of hope is that the youth is very much optimistic about the future of the country despite the challenges. According to the findings of the study, over 79% of the respondents indicated they are optimistic about the country’s future that situation will get improved; while only 20% indicated that they are worried about the country’s future.

INTERACTION OF THE YOUTH The civil war, which devastated the country’s state institutions, has also caused the disintegration of the society. Consequently, this has affected the interaction of youth from different clans and/ or regions as it is relatively poor. Over 45% of the respondents have agreed the interaction among youth from different regions/clans is relatively poor or non-existent

TThe main rationale that could attribute to the poor interaction among youth from different regions/clans is the mistrust and ambiguity created by the civil

war and the disintegration of the country into autonomous regions. As study examined the perception of trust among the local youths, likely, the youth believes they have minimal confidence and trust among them. Almost 53% of the respondents argued the youth have less confidence and trust in them to contribute to the nation building process.

During the study, the research teams realized that youth is organized very differently from regional state to another and to the capital city. While this study does not aim to provide a background of the youth organization in Somalia, it nevertheless sketches out noteworthy commonalities and differences. In



general, formal youth associations are linked to the state-level “Ministry of Youth & Sports”. Youth Associations might be registered with the Ministry of Youth, however, certain times are not, and oftentimes there are links between youth associations at state and federal levels. In some states and cities (such as Mogadishu) the study found out that apart from the youth organizations, there is very active Civil Society Organizations (CSO) focusing on youth. While there is a National Youth Council in Mogadishu, which exist to promote youth empowerment and represents as an umbrella for youth associations, the Ministry of Youth assured a more integrated council with representation from all regional states will be established following the finalization of the National Youth Policy. On the other hand, Most of Mogadishu youth organizations are registered (not officially) at the Ministry of Youth & Sports of the federal government1 .

1There is no exact number of youth organizations exist in Mogadishu, or in Somalia at large. The Ministry of Youth & Sports is currently attempting to mobilize and register youth umbrellas and associations according to interview with the Ministry.

However, according to the findings of interview with the Director General, the Ministry hasn’t formed yet any direct relation with youth and civic organizations in regional states as it gets through the regional Ministries of Youth.

In addition, the study found out the typical interaction among Somali youth from regions/clans can be characterized to both positive and negative as roughly 55% of the respondents indicated so; however, 16% claimed the youth interact unconstructively. This study shows despite minimal communication between youths from diverse regions and clans, their interaction can be

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attributed to being constructive, helpful and unfavorable at certain time.

Another equally significant segment of the Somali youth is those live in Diaspora who started to return steadily back to the country and engage in the nation building process. The Diaspora youth is believed to be contributing to all works of life; by bringing news skills, experience and raising the awareness among the local youth to be agents for peace and engage in the process of state building. While a healthy collaboration between the two groups is very critical for skill transfers, exchanging constructive ideas and values to mutually benefit, however, the study found out that the two group’s interaction is relatively insufficient. According to the results of the study, 52% of the local youth argued the interaction among youth from the Diaspora-locals is relatively poor, while more or less 38% of the respondents disagreed and claimed the interaction is either sufficient or good.

Moreover, in spite the relative poor communication of both groups, the locals recognize the Diaspora-local youth interaction is mainly positive and constructive as 58% of the respondents argued.

CONFIDENCE & TRUST BETWEEN YOUTH AND POLICY MAKERS While the Somali government and other regional federal member states are doubling their effort to educate and empower the youth, however, according to the findings of the study, the youth has little confidence in the national and policy makers, this is may be of the limited government capacity to deliver tangible programs and strategies to develop the youth. Asking the question of confidence and trust between youth and state/national government reveals that the general level is much lower compared to trust among youth. As the



youth are the first segment of the population to blame on the insecurity of the country, the study found that more than 60% of the respondents argued the confidence and trust between youth and the national/state policy makers are poor or non-existent.

In addition, While the Somali government and the regional states are struggling with tremendous security and political challenges, a less focus has been given to the drivers and agents of the peace and stability of the society; the youth. Accordingly, Youth mobilization in peace-building efforts is more likely to be successful if young people’s trusts with the government are built, however, according to the findings of the study; the relation between the Somali youth and government is not supportive enough as most of the interviewed youth argued. More than 40% of the youth claimed the Somali government’s relation with youth is poor while another 22% augmented and further rated to bad relations. To avoid this, the interviewed youth considered the creation of effective channels of communications between youth and the government, which would avoid miscommunication, heals the mistrust among both groups and also raises awareness.

YOUTH & SOMALIA’S POLITICAL PROCESS Having the ambition and desire for stable Somalia, the young generations aspire to participate in the country’s state and peace building process. One questions asked if the youth interested in engaging in dialogue aimed at creating a peaceful future for Somalia, over 90% of the respondents agreed and confirmed their willingness to becoming involved in dialogue processes since no meaningful change can be achieved without them, the backbone of the country. Studies conducted in different cities of Somalia had recognized as an outcome that youth can play a fundamental role in a successful peace-building effort as their capacity to be autonomous social agents to make changes. As the Somali youth played a major role in the destruction of the country’s state institutions for the last two decades, the images of youth and violence have become predominant as they are targeted because of fear of threat they pose to the stability.

Regarding youth and the political process, most of the interviewed youth recognize they have a critical role to play in designing, planning and in implementing strategies for their country’s national development and decision-making process. The youth attempted to amplify their voice through collective youth organizations and also civic institutions. For instance, In December 2014, the first Somali Youth Parliament was established in Mogadishu comprising 275 youngsters between the ages of 16 and 30. The move of such initiative was intended to raise awareness and promote youth empowerment and national

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development actions. On the other hand, the federal government of Somalia has made some sort of efforts to empower the young educated people, for instance, in 2014, the all 16 districts of Banadir regional administration was nominated to young intellectuals studied in or outside Somalia. Such a move is also critical to hearten the many ambitious educated youths who are eager to save the nation.

While these initiatives and optimism of activists exist, however, according to the study, the youth perceives the policy makers failed to take their views into account in policymaking and setting priorities for the country’s peace and state building process. The youth believe they contribute minimally to the Somalia’s political process and consequently, 56% of Somali youth consider they have limited or no contribution at all. Only 27% said the youth are quite or very active in Somalia’s political process. The study showed the perception of youth on this differed from region to region; the respondents of Mogadishu interviewed youth claimed more activity to the contribution of the political process compared to other cities in the country. This is may be the proximity to politics and the federal government in Mogadishu might have contributed to a high percentage

of positive views, but possible frustration with the way politics are being made might have also prompted some negative views. In addition, most of the interviewed raised the influence of social structure (clanism), and political culture to diminish the involvement in the political process to some degree. Meaning, following the state collapse in 1991, most- if not all- transitional and current governments’ parliament have been selected by traditional elders using



a 4.5 formula; a clan power sharing, likewise all other significant government institution. According to the survey, the current political structure/culture in some degree discourages youth to join the process.

Generally, mistrust and the poor relation between youth and policy makers as indicated in the study ultimately have an impact on the level of participation in political processes.

On the other hand, while certain policies and programs have been developed toward youth by either the federal government or the regional states, the study found out the majority of the youth perceive they are not included and empowered enough to be part of the state building process of the country. Thus, more than 90% of the youth argued and agreed that Somali youth hasn›t yet obtained from the government the essential policies and programs to uphold and empower them.

Despite the critical challenges, the Somali youth has optimism and believe the situation will improve in the near future. For instance, it is exposed that young intellectuals are empowered with the newly emerging states by giving the opportunity to be members of parliament, ministries, and Director Generals. As a result, as Somali becomes a federal state, the youth expressed and hoped this creates more opportunities for them. Almost 60% of the respondents have corresponded and affirmed with the hypothesis of the instant relation between youth empowerment and the governance system of the country. Meaning, as Somalia becomes a decentralized federal state, more opportunities will be created and the youth will be more empowered, according to the findings of the study.

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CRITICAL CHALLENGES YOUTH FACING TODAY As the state collapsed in 1991, the Somali society, particularly the young generation, faced hardship caused by the lack of effective government. However, the most frequently mentioned challenges by the interviewed youth across all regions of Somalia are insecurity, unemployment and lack of effective government policies and programs toward youth. 30% of the respondents listed insecurity, unemployment and lack of effective government policies and programs altogether are the most critical pressing issues youth are facing today, while more than 25% indicated a lack of effective government policies and programs are the center of the today’s youth problems. The rest provided diverse views; lack of effective government policies and programs were considered by 26%; insecurity alone identified by 17% as a source of the problem, and unemployment argued by almost 22% of the interviewed youth.

Unemployment, which was ranked the second among the most critical challenge, was an important concern given high unemployment among youth in Somalia. Although there is no accurate survey about the rate of youth unemployment in Somalia, however, not exercising a job generates the possibility of youth to engage in violence or expose themselves to the risk of

immigration. The non-existence of a functioning economy is a legacy of the long years of no effective government in the country. The prime employment sectors for the educated youth in Somalia for the last two decades are the UN, the international/local NGOs, as well as the government, however, yet the



private economy still needs to develop in order to significantly increase employment levels.

It is interesting to see that a need to develop effective policies and programs toward youth was considered by a bulk of the interviewed participants as it is rated the third critical challenge youth are facing today. The government is urged to develop integrated youth policies and programs to engage youth. The first of such is the National Youth Policy which is yet to be finalized. The Ministry of Youth & Sports which was only reestablished in May 2014 as a separate Ministry after serving under the Ministry of Social Service strives to develop and finalize a National Youth Policy, and National Youth Council. The development of the policy started on 15th May 2014 in collaboration with international and UN Agencies. In a serious of consultations with all different stakeholders including concerned federal and regional ministries, youth and civil society organizations; Diaspora and locals, the policy is about to be finalized during this year of 2016, according to the Ministry’s leadership. The Ministry afterward will commence the formation of the national youth council, and also Sports Policy.

As the Ministry of Youth & Sports of federal government of Somalia is attempting to finalize this significant National Youth Policy, however, according to the study, only 29% of the interviewed youngsters have said they are aware of the underdeveloped national youth policy, while almost 70% of the youth argued that they haven’t heard about the policy. This is may be the policy is yet unfinished task, however, due to its significance, a lack of effective awareness and public outreach from Ministry could be argued to missing.

Insecurity resulting from all sorts of incidents and caused by inter-clan conflicts, and government-rebels clashes, is also another strong concern to the youth as it is ranked third of the most critical challenge youth are facing today. The youth recognizes that insecurity prevents them from fulfilling their daily aspirations; to acquire education, move freely to work and more importantly to flourish their entrepreneurial endeavor. .

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CONCLUSION This study argued that Somalia’s youth are in a highly uncertain situation given their numbers (75 percent of the population) as well as their creative energies and proven track-record in Somalia’s journey to independence and state building in 1960. However, as Somalia recovers from the ashes of the civil war, the inclusion of youth and making them part of the process is fairly underprivileged matter according to the perception of the youth. As the Somali youth played a major role in the destruction of the country’s state institutions for the last two decades, the images of youth and violence have become predominant as they are targeted because of fear of threat they pose to the stability. Therefore, theorizing youth and peace and developing aspects of peace education, remain underdeveloped in the country. Hence, there is a need to re-conceptualize these traditional views about youth and peace to create programs promoting youth as agents of building peace. The study also found out that distrust among the Somalia’s political leaders and the status quo of the political structures/culture of the country has led to poor interaction among Somali youth from different regions/clans and also with the policy makers. This has also partially led to the limited contribution of the youth to the country’s post-conflict political process.

The study showed a number of critical challenges encountered by the youth which hinders their aspirations. The most critical and most frequent mentioned challenge was the lack of government policies and programs to genuinely engage and develop youth. Therefore, genuine efforts aimed at promoting youth, which targets and prioritize the design and implementation of youth development policy that is both coherent and integrated is highly recommended.



POLICY PRIORIES1. Throughout history, the Somali youth proved to be animated significant

segment of the society, as they played an active and decisive role in the socioeconomic and political make-up of the country. However, with state the collapse and emergence of civil wars, prejudiced attitudes towards youth by the elders and political elites have come out. These attitudes created negative perception on the part of youth toward the process of peace and state building process. Therefore, the civil society and youth associations as well as regional and federal states need to use the rhetoric of the historic youth achievements to light up today’s youth to pursue their goals peacefully.

2. As youth represent 2/3 of the Somali population, the national government and federal member states need to seriously think about this huge force by creating programs and allocating enough budgets to engaging and developing the youth.

3. The civil war and clan conflict of the Somali people has caused the disintegration of the society into clans and also into autonomous regions. Accordingly, this has helped hand the poor interaction and minimal confidence among youth from different regions. Therefore, to avoid this, the regional states and federal government should create integration and interaction programs promoting the experience of belonging and ownership to one nation. The Ministries of Youth & Sports at federal level should communicate with those youth in regions through state Ministries to share the initiatives of development programs, forums for discussion and sports events as well.

4. In order to effectively coordinate youth development agenda, an independent, professional body to craft, sell and coordinate youth development agenda at the national and state levels should be established.

5. As the Somali youth played a major role in the destruction of the country’s state institutions for the last two decades, the images of youth and violence have become predominant as they are targeted because of fear of threat they pose to the stability. Therefore, the federal government and regional member states should theorize youth and peace and develop aspects of peace education into the curriculums. The traditional views about youth and peace should be re-conceptualized by creating programs promoting youth as agents of building peace.

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NOTES & REFERENCES Federal Republic of Somalia and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “Population Estimation Survey 2014: for the 18 pre-war regions of Somalia”, Oct 2014.

US State Department of labor’s bureau of international labor affairs, findings on the worst forms of child labor on Somalia, 2012.

UNICEF Unite for children, Background note on Somalia’s ratification of the convention on the rights of the child, 2015.

Al-Jazeera English, “The lost boys of Mogadishu”, 12th July 2015, retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/07/lost-boys-mogadishu-street-children-homeless-150709080041333.html on 30-12-2015.

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-definition.pdf

African Union Youth Charter, retrieved from http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/treaties/7789-file-african_youth_charter.pdf

Interview with the Director General of the Ministry of Youth & Sports

United Nations Inter-Agency network on Youth Development “YOUNG PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATION IN PEACEBUILDING: A PRACTICE NOTE”, Jan 2016



Somali Youth Research Society (SYRS) is non-profit and non- governmental research institution founded in Mogadishu, Somalia, with the aim of serving as a resource center for Somalia youth and society issues to contribute to knowledge building and youth development in Somalia.

Address: Mogadishu-SomaliaPhone: +252-615-503202Email: [email protected]

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Preception of youth on somali post conflict process