Sunday, July 24, 2022

Mogadishu, Somalia

AMBASSADOR ANDRE: Good afternoon everyone. My name is Larry Andre. I am the United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Somalia and it is my honor, my team and I, to host today, our Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development Samantha Power. She is a key adviser of President Biden. She is formerly the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. She sits on our National Security Council and has a rich experience in humanitarian issues especially, but also development issues worldwide. So again, it is my honor and pleasure to invite to the podium Administrator Samantha Power.

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Good afternoon everybody and thank you for being here. I would like to thank President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed and the people of Somalia for hosting me here in this country. It is my second trip only to Somalia. And I hope to take many more trips in the future. I am grateful for the chance to be here now, especially, so as to gain a better understanding of the unprecedented drought that is afflicting so many families, so many communities across the country. It is a drought the likes of which Somalia has never seen, having four consecutive failed rainy seasons. Now predictions of a fifth failed rainy season. It is essential that we, the United States, come together to hear what more we can do to help meet the needs of these very, very vulnerable communities. 

The situation as you all know is dire. In Somalia, 7.1 million people, close to half the country's population, are feeling the impacts of this drought. More than 3 million livestock have died, and 1.4 million children are facing acute malnutrition through the end of the year. Such widespread hunger catalyzed by back to back drought seasons, and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which seems never to go away, has only been aggravated by President Vladimir Putin's reckless decision to violently invade Ukraine. That war has caused food and fuel prices to spike. It has devastated Ukrainian farms and communities as Putin’s bombs fall on farmlands, railways. And as he weaponized his food, this is a country, Somalia that receives more than 50% of its wheat from Ukraine. And we really hope that the Somali government and its representatives will join us in urging, pleading, demanding, President Putin to let the grain go. To let the wheat come here to Somalia to bring down the prices globally and here, when consumers and citizens so desperately need it. As you know, a UN-brokered agreement seemed to offer some promise that in fact, those grains that have been trapped by Putin's blockade would be able to move, but Russian forces’ decision yesterday to bomb the Odesa port infrastructure that can play a critical role in moving these grains, of course, casts doubt on the sincerity of the Russian Federation's intentions and agreements. And shows the continued cold indifference to the misery not only of the Ukrainian people, he's causing, but also to the lives and livelihoods that Russia's invasion and this blockade have destroyed around the world. 

The urgency of this moment is undeniable and bold action is needed, or else this food crisis that the Somali people are facing, can become a food catastrophe, a human catastrophe. That is why we need everyone from the Somali government, to the private sector, to humanitarian organizations, to individuals to do as much as they can to help. I have met with individuals leading the efforts on the ground. I spoke to members of Somalia's vibrant private sector, which, led by Hormuud Telecom Hormuud Salaam Foundation, has donated more than $2 million that they are distributing to hard hit communities in southern Somalia. They are raising additional funds, not only here in the country, but also from the diaspora around the world. And that diaspora, as you all know, contribute over a billion dollars in remittances every year, and we are hopeful that more will be contributed in light of this crisis facing the Somali people. 

I just met with representatives of international humanitarian organizations like the World Food Programme, UNICEF, I met with James Swan, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General. But also humanitarian partners who are Somali-led. We know that it is Somali organizations and individuals who are on the frontlines of getting food and other assistance to people in need.

We held a meeting earlier that I want to describe because it underscores the importance, not only of the American mobilization of resources, not only in the diaspora mobilization, of private sectors mobilization, but the need for other countries, other donors to do far more to help the people of Somalia in this great hour of need. So under SRSG Swan’s leadership, the Ambassador and I met with heads of mission from UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the European Union to discuss the urgent needs. Many of these countries have done an enormous amount when Somalia has faced prior food crises, prior severe droughts and we are very hopeful that far more resources can be mobilized by those same friends of Somalia that have done so much in the past.

My first meeting of the day was with President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed, and I'm grateful to him for making time. One of his first moves as president, as you know, was to appoint Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame as Somalia’s Special Envoy for the drought response. That was recognition by the federal government of the emergency that this is. This is not a time for business as usual. Every procedure that impacts importation and humanitarian assistance is one that needs to be optimized to get food and other resources to people in need. I pledged America's continuing commitment to work with the government of Somalia to mitigate the impact of the drought and to coordinate decisions and modalities around humanitarian assistance. 

The American commitment, to be clear, is a long standing commitment. Just last year, the United States provided almost $420 million in humanitarian assistance to Somalia, making the United States by far the largest donor. This year, I am pleased to announce that we are doing even more. USAID today is committing an additional $476 million in critical humanitarian and development aid to the people of Somalia. That brings the U.S. total assistance for this year, for 2022 up to almost $707 million. The bulk of this additional funding is going to go of course to emergency humanitarian assistance. This will cover everything from food supplies, to direct cash assistance, life-saving ready to use therapeutic foods to treat malnourishment in children. Clean water, and emergency health care to combat disease, and special protection for women and girls who are disproportionately impacted by drought. But we've also allocated funds – and this is very important for the longer term interventions, helping farmers buy the seeds and the tools that they need to withstand the drought, and fundamentally to withstand the changing climate that now is with us. To help them maintain and expand canals that help water crops, and to improve storage and processing facilities to prevent food waste, because so much food, even in times of scarcity, is wasted every year. This commitment is a mark of the United States' continuing commitment to the welfare of the people of this great country. And we urge other partner governments to join us in significantly increasing their own commitments to prevent widespread famine and millions of deaths. 

With that I look forward to taking your questions. Thank you.

REPORTER: [Off-mike]

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: In the hands of corrupt officials. Thank you for the question. I think there are a number of concerns that we have, of course about where assistance will end up in any situation, especially when there have been significant challenges with the rule of law over time. But also in circumstances where there is conflict and there are armed factions. So these are concerns we have in many, many theaters in the world. And we have developed modalities to build in safeguards, and oversight, and third-party monitoring to do everything in our power to ensure that the food gets to the people who most need it. And again, I want to stress, this is both to avoid corruption and the siphoning off of resources, to individuals who put their own welfare above those of starving people. Any person who would think about doing that needs to look at themselves in the mirror at this time, of all times. But also, of course, with the access challenges that we face here in Somalia. The presence of al-Shabab, and the control of al-Shabab over parts of the country where there is very significant food need is something else, of course that that is a significant impediment. Right now, we are working with trusted partners who we've worked with, against the backdrop of these very difficult circumstances for a very long time. This is obviously not the first drought that Somalia has faced even just in my time since I first joined the Obama Administration in government. It was the drought in 2011, where we mobilized a very, very formidable response, as well more recently in 2017. 

So I think we have trusted networks on the ground. We work with large international organizations, but they themselves also have developed a network of local organizations who get food to the people who need it. And we count on those third-party monitors, we count on reporting from beneficiaries, and from whistleblowers to alert us to any diversion of funds. Again, every dollar that is mobilized globally needs to find a way to fund the provision of humanitarian assistance given the scale of the need. And so I think the media has a critical role to play as well, in covering and investigating any allegations of that magnitude and certainly that accountability is central to what USAID does around the world.

REPORTER: [Off-mike] 

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: The money will go through the implementing agencies. And again, I think that's very important so that we have the mechanisms in place for accountability, particularly in a situation like here in Somalia, where U.S. officials are not moving around with the mobility that we are able to have in other circumstances. And so working with those trusted long-standing implementing partners is very, very important. That said, as I mentioned, and as I talked to the President about today, the dialogue between the government and its team that is mobilizing in response to the drought, and our team with the implementing partners is absolutely critical. Whether it's the federal government or state authorities, fundamentally there is knowledge about where the priorities should exist that lives out in the fields. And we believe, as President Sheikh Mohammed takes on his political and economic reform agenda, while he, as he puts it, tries to work toward a Somalia that is at peace with his neighbors and itself, that we want to have very, very close dialogue as we think about how to expend these very precious resources given all of the need across this country. So that the decisions about resource allocation are going to be made in very close consultation with the government.

REPORTER: [Off-mike] 

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I heard the first part, the second part of the question? 

REPORTER: [Off-mike] 

AMBASSADOR ANDRE: What happened in Bosaso, we're getting very different stories from different parties in that brief conflict. It's true that it was around the delivery of aid, and there were political issues that were allowed to interfere with that. So this was aid being delivered through the United Nations. And we noticed that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General went up to Puntland shortly after to review that situation, amongst other issues, to make sure that there was not another occurrence. 

There was tragic loss of life, and we do not expect such a thing, a gunfight in the airport. Puntland prides itself on being one of the more settled, peaceful parts of the country and this was a wound that was inflicted on Puntland by Puntland forces themselves fighting each other. Most unfortunate, and we and other partners are urging the authorities to never allow such a situation to arise again.

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: And maybe I'll just add in terms of our general approach, to be very clear. USAID provides humanitarian assistance on the basis of need. We are motivated by humanitarian imperatives. We have seen individuals like Vladimir Putin use food as a weapon in some larger warped strategy. We have seen the denial of humanitarian access in places like Syria, in places like Ethiopia, and that should never happen. No government, no armed factions should ever use food as a weapon of war, and international organizations operate by humanitarian principles in order to provide aid impartially on the basis of need. And here in Somalia, unfortunately, tragically, there is so much need right now, because of these four failed rainy seasons consecutively, that we will do absolutely everything in our power to ensure that that humanitarian aid, again, is delivered impartially to those with the greatest need.

Thank you. 

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