After the London Conference on Somalia: Share Your Views

In my opinion the London Conference on Somalia yesterday was a great success. In case you missed any of it then you can find full reports and links here. It was the biggest conference on Somalia, involving the greatest number of senior leaders, from as wide a range of countries and international organisations, as seen in many decades, possibly ever.

The overriding feeling in the room yesterday was that we were at a moment in time in which circumstances had presented Somalis with their best opportunity for many years to make progress and lasting change for the better. As Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday, “let’s make this conference the turning point in helping the Somali people to reclaim their country and with that achieve greater stability and prosperity for Somalia, the region and the world”.

Hopefully the conference demonstrated to Somalis that they had the full support of the international community to continue on what David Cameron called, “the next stage of a long journey for Somalia”. The Conference Communique and its annexes that came out at the end of the day was an expression of the support, agreement and commitment given yesterday and in the weeks leading up to the conference.

The communique focused on seven main areas: political, security and justice, piracy, terrorism, stability and recovery, humanitarian, and international coordination. In all of these areas there is much to do. And in all of these areas it will be important to keep hearing the views of Somalis both inside Somalia and in the diaspora, as well as of other friends of Somalia, just as we have in the run up to this conference.

So I would like to invite you to continue using this blog as a forum to express your constructive views about how the aspirations of this conference and especially of the Somali people can be achieved, building on progress to date. Please leave a comment below, or on our Facebook or Twitter pages.