---  For documents in support of this Working Group go to Discussion Papers.

June 12, 2009   Joint Venture with the United States Institute of Peace.   10am to Noon.  (Due to a schedule conflict, Mustafa will cover for Larry Roeder)

Preliminary Report

May 12th, 2009:   Larry Roeder, Basant Farag and Khadija Ali met with David Smock at USIP.  USIP is the United States Institute of Peace.  David is USIP's Associate
Vice President for the Religion and Peacemaking program

1. We agreed to develop a joint project which will be a discussion in June that will explore Somali views of the pirate situation.   The event will be filmed by USIP and might create a publication, as is often the case in such situations.  Larry Roeder, Khadija and three speakers will be on the panel.  Also invited will be experts from the Department of State and other federal agencies.  Anyone may attend the event, Somalis and non-Somalis.
2. Separate discussions are also under way for a different event at USIP hosted by Mary Hope  Schwoebel, a program officer in the Education and Training Center/International. She holds a Ph.D. in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University and an M.Ed. in adult and non-formal education from the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation was entitled Nation-building in the Lands of the Somalis and compared three state-building and peacebuilding interventions in terms of how they negotiated Somali, Islamic, and Western models of governance and conflict resolution.
3. Just after the meeting at USIP Larry, Basant and Khadija also discussed the possibility of a peace rally to be held in Washington, DC.  Should this take place, it would be intended to attract Somali Americans from around the country, as well as non-Somali Americans interested in supporting the Obama administration and a peaceful resolution to the pirate situation and Somalia's fragmented governing structure.

May 2, 2009  Town Hall planning meeting  (Note we are are now planning on a meeting at USIP in early June and March for Peace in 2010)

April 26, 2009:   This was a continuation of previous discussions to develop an understanding of the history or the Country, look for a peaceful resolution of the pirate crisis and seek economic rehabilitation for Somalia.  Three deliverables were proposed.

March 14, 2009:    Mustafa followed up his previous discussion on Somalis by inviting (a)  Faduma A. Mohamud (Current Member of Parliament) and Khaija O. Ali (Former Minister of State and Former Member of Parliament) to speak.  At the conclusion, there was a consensus that the group wanted to learn more about Somalia.  Of particular interest was the new government, which some has described as moderate and only recently came under attack by Al-Queda.  The members encouraged more discussions be held on Somali culture and politics and aim for a specific project that will benefit local Somalis.  This will be led by Mustafa and Zahra Omar.  A powerpoint description of the project can be found on this website at  Somali Project

February 22, 2009:  Mustafa presented a detailed PowerPoint and DVD film that illuminated the history of Somalia in order to provide a basic understanding of the current conflict and national character, in particular discussing the variety of national aspirations and challenges faced by Somalis.    The group agreed that further discussion as essential that a pilot project that further refined the nature of the land should be developed.   Many Somali and Somali Americans live in the Washington area, and humanitarian NGOs that work in Somalia are also based here.  Larry and Mustafa were asked to facilitate attracting speakers from those communities.  There was also a long discussion of how US tax dollars are spent in Somalia, which led to talking about CAP, an appeals procedure of the United Nations that can be sued to track how funds are spent and by whom.