Academy for Peace and Development -APD

I would like to thank @AcademyApd and their sponsor @KASonline for hosting a well thought out regional conference on climate change and security. Also, thanks to my co-panelists for offering thought-provoking and exciting insights.  The Horn of Africa has been, and will still be in the foreseeable future, a political arena to both keep the peace and to ensure the world’s economies flourish. The bedrock of security is a functioning economy. Radicals and many terrible actors infiltrate societies when the communities don’t have access to decently paying jobs and livelihoods.  The region has both cultural and historical relationship with the West – unfortunately, that relationship didn’t bear tangible fruits in terms of economic development. The issue could be a number of things – the way funding was deployed and managed, allocating funds to projects that have no tangible impact, and / or a hindering organizational mechanisms that were in place. The region can be part of solving the global shortfall in the minerals that makers of clean-energy technologies so desperately need. It can also help with the diversification of the oil and gas producing markets. The region is also well suited to position itself as the next industrialization and service hub. To unlock a more fair and prosperous relationship, below are some recommendations: 1. The leaders of this region need to realign with their partners in the West to make sure that the interests of both sides are accounted for. 2. The leaders in the West need to redesign their policies and to remove bureaucracies in place that only benefit certain groups and individuals. 3. All sides should think of designing and investing in projects that will sustain themselves economically.