The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and IOM are joining
forces to tap into key technical expertise among the Somali
diaspora in a bid to help rebuild key governance foundations in
parts of the country.

Somalis with professional expertise in policy and legislation,
human resources management and public financial management living
in North America, the UK and Scandinavia will be targeted for
temporary return for an average period of six months to provide
on-the-job peer-to-peer training in their respective fields in
northern Somalia initially, including Somaliland and Puntland.

Better management of public finances is just one of the areas
that need to be urgently targeted given that decades of conflict
have left an almost entirely informal economy with a lack of most
of the structures needed to handle donor inflows, collect taxes,
pay security forces or even to maximize the potential of the
estimated one billion US dollars in remittances the country
receives each year.

Initially, there will be six diaspora expert missions. UNDP,
which is funding the programme, hopes to eventually facilitate
between 200-300 missions in three years to all three geographic
zones of Somalia, including Somaliland.

The programme builds on the achievements of UNDP's Qualified
Expatriate Somali Technical Service (QUESTS) project over the past
four years.

IOM will implement the programme, using the experience and
expertise it has developed through its Migration for Development in
Africa (MIDA) initiative, and its network of missions in countries
where Somalis with appropriate skills reside.

For more information please contact IOM at "paragraph-link-no-underline" href="mailto:quests-mida@iom.int"
target="" title="">quests-mida@iom.int.