London high level forum to chart Somalia's future

Thursday, May 12, will be an important day in the history and future of Somalia. A high-level partnership meeting will take place in London to discuss the country’s future. The London Conference, will be hosted by the United Kingdom government, the United Nations and the Federal Government of Somalia. Among those expected is the UK Prime Minister Theresa May and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo will also be present.

The meeting will attract lots of interest from partners and donors if the roundtable summit in Mogadishu on drought in Somalia is anything to go by. At that meeting more than 50 countries and donors came together to pledge more than $450 million in March 2017. Last year, a similar meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkey building upon the New Deal Compact document produced in 2013. The deal provided for political, security and development architecture framing for relations between Somalia, its people and the international community. The High-Level Partnership Forum attracted representatives from more than 50 countries and 11 international organisations.