15/03/2012
DROUGHT, HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AND CONFLICT IN SOMALIA
Time: Wednesday April 18, 2012 at 12.30-17.00
Venue: Arppeanum, Auditorium, Snellmaninkatu 3, University of Helsinki
Organizers: Finnish Somalia Network and the Governance of Transnational Islam Project,
University of Helsinki
Registration: By April 10, 2012 at https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/34184/lomake.html
Information: [email protected] / 040-7474474
PROGRAMME
12.30-13.00 Registration
Chair: Dr. Marja Tiilikainen
13.00-13.20 Opening
Professor Tuula Sakaranaho, University of Helsinki
Mrs. Saido Mohamed, Finnish Somalia Network
Director, Ulla-Maija Finskas, Unit for Humanitarian Assistance, Ministry for
Foreign Affairs
13.20-14.05 Lower Shabelle Region – from Breadbasket to Famine
Abdi-Rashid Haji Nur, Country Director, Concern Worldwide (Nairobi)
14.05-14.20 Questions and answers
14.20-14.50 Coffee
Chair: Dr. Mulki Al-Sharmani
14.50-15.35 Famine Response and the Politics of Counter-Terrorism and Islamic
Mobilizations in Somalia
Ken Menkhaus, Professor, Davidson College (NC, USA)
15.35-15.50 Questions and answers
15.50-16.20 Commentary: Islamic NGOs, humanitarian aid and development
Abdalla Duh, PhD Candidate, University of Helsinki
16.20-17.00 Discussion and conclusion
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Mr. Abdi-Rashid Haji Nur has lived and worked in Somalia throughout the civil war. He has
been working with Concern Worldwide, a Dublin-based non-governmental humanitarian
organisation since May 1992 holding different positions. Currently, Abdi-Rashid is the
Country Director of Concern Worldwide responsible for the management of Concern’s
operations in Somalia/Somaliland which includes a multi-sectoral development programme
covering areas such as education, livelihood security, water and sanitation, health and
large scale life-saving humanitarian interventions.
Dr. Ken Menkhaus is professor of Political Science at Davidson College, where he has
taught since 1991. He received his Ph.D. in International Studies in 1989 from the
University of South Carolina. His subsequent specialization on the Horn of Africa has
focused primarily on development, conflict analysis, humanitarian response, peace
operations, state failure, state-building, diasporas, and political Islam, involving both
academic research and policy work. In 1993-94, he served as special political advisor in
the UN Operation in Somalia, and in 1994-95 was visiting civilian professor at the US
Army Peacekeeping Institute. He regularly serves as a consultant for the UN, US
government, non-governmental organizations, and policy research institutes, and has
provided expert testimony on five occasions before Congressional subcommittees. Menkhaus
is author of over fifty articles, book chapters, and monographs, including Somalia: State
Collapse and the Threat of Terrorism (2004), “Governance without Government in Somalia”
in International Security (2007), and “Stabilisation and Humanitarian Access in a
Collapsed State: The Somali Case” in Disasters (2010). In 2011 he co-authored a UN study
of the Somali diaspora’s role in relief and development in Somalia entitled Cash and
Compassion. He has been interviewed on BBC, CNN, FOX, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” the
Voice of America, and other media on the crisis in Somalia. He is currently a visiting
scholar at the US Army Strategic Studies Institute for 2011-12, where is he researching
the role of African militaries in African politics.
PhD Candidate Abdalla Duh graduated from the faculty of Social Sciences, University of
Helsinki, where he studied Development Studies, Sociology and earned Master of Social
Sciences (M.Soc.Sc). His research interests includetransnational Islamic NGOs’
Development interventions, poverty reduction strategies, development cooperation, Islam
and socio-economic development. Abdalla worked as a University lecturer from 2008-2010 at
the Department of World Culture, University of Helsinki. For over ten years, he served as
a professional teacher working with immigrant children in the city of Espoo, Finland.
Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political and Economic Studies,
University of Helsinki. His PhD research project focuses on transnational Islamic NGOs
and Development: Conflict or Cooperation? Cases: North Eastern Kenya and Puntland region
of Somalia.
The seminar is supported by official development aid from the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs in Finland and by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
