The purpose of this is to share development & innovative Ideas for the betterment of people. The aim is also to inspire & motivate each other. We can provide website links, books, videos, images etc. Your contribution can even be from thread discussions here on somalinet.
This is a collection of links and information that have been posted and complied by many members of Somalinet over the course of time.
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This is a discussion about the Somaliland GDP. Members discuss corruption, problems and solutions for Somaliland . I found this below to be the most interesting post in the thread.
X.Playa wrote:
Our first priority should be food security and we should beging with livestocks in the next 10 years we should phase down our live export to Saudi Arabia and completly stop it . China and Iran and much of the Asians are consuming more meat se we should slaughter our own animals and export meat only and make use of the bi-products. Screw these Arabs , they buy cheap and make a kill selling our animals and at the slightest suspecion they refuse an entire cargo of tens of thousands of head that die and has to be thrown into the sea.
Second , our major food stable is rice and flour , we should look for an alternative and maybe choose a diet like the Ethopians (teff) or the Sudanis/Egptian "fuul", we have enough sorghum and we could make use of "teff" also it makes a good laxoox. What is left is vegetables and oil and those 2 we can produce locally, we can plant olive trees any where in somaliland. As far as tea , screw it we should switch to coffee , its cheaper for us and we can buy it from Harar and Gima the best coffee in the world. Now sugar could be imported from the rest of Africa , and also we can suppliment that with sorghum cyrup ( made from Quwaax). Now that can't be done if all these prodcuts are comming to our markets and are undercutting the local produce, a goverment intervention is must a tariff should levied on all non local produce. Yes, the free-market nuts will pressure us and maybe scale down their NGO but screw them we can do it.
Now in terms of small industry , we can begin with making our cloths , you guys may now how the African cotton farmers are undercut by US heavily subsidized agriculture , we could make a deal with some African country/farmers for both cotton and sugar and thus make our own cloths, of Mawacs, pants, t-shirts, shirts etc. Next we can make our own shoes from our own local hides.
All that can't be done without the goverment intervention and the cooperations of the local fat cats, they can do it but they need a carrot and a stick at the same time, they should be warrned bringing in basamti rice and taking our hard currency to the outside. In 10 years we can get rid of all NGO's who taught our people nothing but the "art of beggin" seminar this , workshop that , 2 weeks tarining for this and that bull shit.
gurey25 wrote:solar cookers are a good idea, but what we need is also better more efficient charcoal cookers that produce little smoke.
they exist and are easy to build locally.
Somalia/land should have a massive reforestation plan, and in the mean time use fast growing hemp and bamboo to turn into charcoal,
and acre of hemp will produce enough charcoal for a few hundred homes literally thousands of people, and will grow in 3 -4 months.
bamboo will produce more as it has more biomass and grows faster in 2 months, some species can grow 7 ft in month.
all you need is water, which there is plenty of underground.
with catchment dams, and irrigation tunnels to direct rainwater back to to the aquifers to recharge we can increase the amount of cultivated land but 10-20 times the current size.
all those 60-70% unemployed somalis chewing qat, waiting for the $100 to be sent from overseas relatives could be employed for this.
you dont need allot of equipment just lots of manpower, picks and shovels and sweat.
In the chapter about wild grains and how they used to makeup a large part of the diet and income of people in the sahel, before
desertification and population/livestock growth reduced them to a marginal level.
Apparently they used to be more popular than Finger and pearl millet and even fonio.
Some of these like some panicum species are all over somalia but we never used them.
Imagine if these like Drinn and panic species could be encouraged to grow, even the driest parts of somalia and the ogaden are ideal for them, they could provide a boost to the economy.
I came across this and found it interesting.
There are allot of indegenous african crops and south american crops that are suitable for our climate.
drought resistant, and pest resistant and able to grow in low quality soil.
I am most facinated by the Marama plant, and bambara bean, the african potato
I tried egusi in nigeria, its an everyday meal,
they make it in a soup or sauce it tastes wierd and smells wierd but you get used to it.
Large amounts of money that are required for development projects can easily be raised from the diaspora/locals. The best way to spend that money, if it is raised, is by investing it in projects that (a) create sustainable jobs and (b) provide a sustained return on investment in perpetuity, the proceeds from which can then be reinvested. Resources are scarce and projects have to be prioritised to projects that create sustainable jobs, improve people's quality of life and provide a high return on investment, in perpetuity.
- Invest $25m in a fishing fleet transportation; storage, freezing, processing and transportation facilities. Create jobs. Earn hard currency though exporting the catch. The government can tax the operations of the entity. Revenues can be re-investing in either enlarging the operations of the entity, improving the technologies and operational methods, branding & marketing, entering new markets or in new industries altogether.
- Invest $35m in mechanised abattoirs & tannaries on the outskirts of the major cities, storage, freezing, processing and transportation facilities. Create jobs. Earn hard currency though exporting the products. The government can tax the operations of the entity. Revenues can be re-investing in either enlarging the operations of the entity, improving the technologies and operational methods, branding & marketing, entering new markets or in new industries altogether.
- Invest in $25m in farming in fetile parts of Awdal/Waqooyi galbeed/the South, significantly increase the land under cultivation, drill wells to irrigate those farms, get the universities & professionals with the requisite technical knowledge to improve agricultural methods; bring in drip irrigation, bring in fertilizers and encourage import substitution of whatever produce can be produced domestically. Improve food security, reduce food prices, improve peoples quality of lives, create jobs. Earn hard currency though exporting the products. The government can tax the operations of the entity. Revenues can be re-investing in either enlarging the operations of the entity, improving the technologies and operational methods, branding & marketing, entering new markets or in new industries altogether
.- Nationalise all universities (ban all non-government owned universities) and create a government funded independentuniveristy. Invest $50m in a proper university/research institute that has a modern campuses, is fully equipped and that employs the most qualified, experienced and talented members of the Somali diaspora. The university should have faculties for applied sciences/technology/engineering/medical sciences&technologies, medicine/nursing/midwifery, economics/business/sociology, religious studies/Somali history/Somali literature. This university/research institute should: provide excellent teaching, free of charge, to all qualified students. This university should also conduct cutting-edge problem-solving based research to address the technological/economic/social/health issues within the country and come up with practical solutions and authoritative recommendations. The university should have close links with and directly work with companies/industry/schools/hospitals/government departments.
- Invest $50m in light manufacturing of imported consumer goods that can be produced or assembled within the county even if we have to import the required raw materials e.g. shoes, clothes, furniture, construction materials, foodstuffs (flour, edible oils etc.)
- Invest $115m in a small power plant, dramatically bring down the price of electricity and encourage light manufacturing. Build power lines to the major cities, with the support of donors/friendly nations.
There is no strategy, no vision, no plan and no prioritising. We are talking about a place that has almost no industry to speak of, that produces no goods of its own and that exports very little, that has no formal economy or jobs to speak of, that has no tax base. We need to invest in projects and initiatives that will result in currency inflows, job creation, taxation income and other forms of return on investment, in perpetuity, which xould then be utilised to invest in either in infrastructure projects or more revenue-generaring investments. Government can't invest in infrastructure if it has no way of generating revenue because there is no tax base, because there are no formal jobs, because there is very little in the way of formal economic activity. Solution? invest in revenue generating job creating projects.
As I suggested in my above comment S/L needs a fund of this sort. But overseen by an independent technically qualified panel and audited by an international audit firm.
Agaciro Development Fund collections at over $30m)
Novemeber 14 2013
Over Rwf20.2b has been collected by the Agaciro Development Fund (AgDF) as of November 12, the fund managers revealed in a statement yesterday.
The initiative, which was launched in August last year, is Rwanda’s first sovereign fund based on voluntary donations by Rwandans of different walks of life and corporate companies. It is aimed at making Rwanda self-reliant as far as funding development initiatives is concerned.
“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would like to thank Rwandans and friends for their generous contributions to the Agaciro Development Fund. Your contributions to the fund have so far grown to a total of Rwf20,237,733,062,” the ministry said in statement posted on Twitter yesterday.
It added that plans were in progress to invest the money in projects that contribute greatly to the development of the country. In September, the fund was at over Rwf19.7b.
We certainly have an immensely arduous task before us if we truly want to be relevant and important in the world, but I do not think that accomplishing this task is impossible, though It will take a lot of work.
Somalis will certainly not be relevant in world politics and economic because of economic size, military size/capability or land area. But with hard work, perseverance, good strategy, strategic partnerships and positioning, we can be relevant through leveraging qualitative aspects which they can develop and later turn into quantitative advantages.
I have a different vision of and for our people and our country. I see a country that invests heavily in education and research and the practical application of that education and research in industry, governance and social policy. I see a country that is resilient and that can absorb external shocks. I see a country that invests in its ability to be and remain independent and sovereign, through food/energy/water/medicine security and the ability to produce and manufacture key products domestically. I see a country that invests in its ability to trade with other nations and through other nations and thereby increases its relevance in the world; in particular I am thinking of owning assets/companies in other African countries, importing and processing materials that we cannot source domestically, expanding our large companies to be active in non-domestic markets.
And even militarily we need not be a small player, at least regionally. With a strong economy, it would currently be just about feasible to maintain a military of about 100,000 personnel (max). Though in the long term we need to take the Djiboutian route of hosting American/Chinese bases. We need to invest heavily in our intelligence capabilities and we need to maintain a proactive rather than reactive in our foreign policy & international relations. In particular we need specialist units/squads who are able to deal with issues or problems as they develop, but before they reach crisis levels. We need to create mutual interdependency with powerful nations or nations who are friendly with powerful nations, through having shared interests that need to be protected (and there are many ways to do this).
But I am concerned by the lack of a sense of urgency among our people. And it is the responsibility and duty of each and every one of us to ensure that we instill a sense of urgency among our people.We need development now. We need good leaders and politicians now. We need food/energy/water/security/healthcare/education/jobs now. Not in 10 years time. Not after another election. Not after S/L is recognised (which may well be never). But now. And I just don't see that happening because there is no sense or urgency at all. For goodness sake Somaliland has existed for 30 years and it still does not have pavements, let along paved roads, power stations, sewage systems or effective healthcare/education etc. What is the point of Somaliland existing if it does not fulfil the needs of its citizens?
Last edited by Octavius on Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Just off the top of my head, here are some practical steps that we can take.
1. We need good leaders back home, with the passion, determination and vision necessary to take out country/people to new heights. We need the educated diaspora to return, but not so that they can chew qat or sleep day and night but so that they can lead the country to catch up with the rest of the world.
2. We need to hold our politicians account by creating a system that requires them to plan, to implement development projects and that holds them account to the election pledges that they make.3. We need to reform our legal and judicial sectors and we need a lot of new laws, which also need to be accessible and clearly communicated to clarify and establish the rights and responsibilities of the general public/politicians/government employees/investors/owners/employees/government in relation to each other.
4. We need to establish a functioning financial system so that individuals and organisations can deposit funds, borrow and invest excess capital.
5. We need to reform our education system by routing out all the fake universities that are extorting money from students without providing them with high quality education that is commensurate to the money that they have paid. We need to invest in research that adopts a problem-solving approach to find practical solutions to the social/economic/environmental/political issues that we face. We need to establish various professional institutes so that we can regulate, manage and effectively utilise the skills and knowledge within our country; in particular we need doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses/midwifes, surveyors, accountants, lawyers, academics, scientists etc.
6. We need to restructure and reform all our public sector institutions to ensure that they are effective, transparent and that they are fulfilling the job for which they were established.
7. We need to take action to diversify our economy by putting the diaspora's funds into productive use, rather than consumptive use. We need to control the expenditure on imports and in particular qat, agricultural produce and consumer goods which are haemorrhaging cash out of the country/economy; one way we can do this is by investing in our ability to produce these goods domestically. We need to support out private sector and entrepreneurs so that they can do what they do best and so that they can expand into other African countries.
8. We need to improve our ability to pay taxes, collect taxes and put taxes to effective and transparent use.
9. We need to invest in infrastructure, energy production, roads, ports, airports, airports, communications technology etc.
I personally recommend that Somaliland farmers should explore growing teff, which is the traditional grain of Ethiopia. Teff germinates quickly and is usually ready for first harvest at the early boot stage 45-55 days after planting. Subsequent cuttings are usually ready for harvest in 28-35 days, depending upon growing conditions and region grown. It is very suitable for Somaliland's various climate conditions from the far east to the Haud hinterland.
It is not only good for food for people but it yields amazing grass that is suitable for animals too. So you can kill two birds with one stone.
We need to better utilise the "rivers of the north" that stretch from the Gacan Libaax & Sheekh mountains to beyond Daallo & Las Surad... every year millions of litres of water run off into the Gulf of Berbera. We can capture that water, store it and utilise.
to minimise charcoal trade and cutting of trees we must be beekeebers, we will never understand the importance of trees unless we start large scale beekeeping in somaliland.
What ever happened with coming up with original and rudimental methods instead of exhausting and securitizing debilitated ideas.
I believe the word innovation is one of the signs of a dying civilization that has outlived it creative period
Innovation is tired lazy man’s terminology; it’s a cowardly word with no bravery or honour in it.
The reason why the word innovation is so fashionable is that the brilliant minds are endangered species, especially in the west were we are living of the work of previous great minds.
mid 16th century: from Latin innovat- 'renewed, altered', from the verb innovare, from in- 'into' + novare 'make new' (from novus 'new').
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"Allah does not erase knowledge (from earth) by erasing knowledge from slaves (hearts). Rather, He erases knowledge through the death of scholars. When He leaves (earth) without scholars, people will take the ignorant as leaders (and scholars). They (the ignorant) will be asked and then give Fatawa without knowledge. Then, they will be lead, and will lead astray." [Ahmad]
