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| Justin Brady |
Justin Brady interviewed by RBC Radio in Mogadishu on
11th February, 2013. (photo credit; Abdalle Ahmed)
Mogadishu (RBC) The head of Somalia office for the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Justin Brady has
emphasized the need for relocating UN agencies from Nairobi to Mogadishu in
order to increase accountability and improve humanitarian activities within
Somalia, a country that has been wracked by civil wars and extremism for more
than two decades.
RBC’S Abdalle Ahmed has interviewed Justin Brady in
Mogadishu, where he is now serving as the first head of office for UNOCHA based
in Mogadishu for more than eight months.
Here is a full, lightly edited transcript of the
interview conducted on Monday.
RBC Radio: There was a call recently that the UN agencies
were planning to move back to inside Somalia and particularly to Mogadishu, can
you just tell what are the reasons for such relocation at this time?
Justin Brady: Sure.
First we should clarify that it is not that UN solely based in Nairobi
trying to work in Somalia and relocating into Somalia. The UN has been present
in Somalia all along, in some places with only national staff but there was
always international staff somewhere based in Somalia. The push now is to relocate more people and
high level into Mogadishu [the capital] but also into the regions,.. and I came
here in the beginning of June 2012 as the first head of any UN agency based
here in Mogadishu and others have planed to move. Why are we doing that?
I think, that is almost should be an obvious
question; You know it is so difficult to
work on a country from far and you need to be here to understand the problems,
concerns and to engage with all stakeholders be it government, be it local
partners.
RBC Radio: You said you came here before eight months as
first head of any UN agency based in Mogadishu and it seems that is a good
example and you are going to be a role model for other UN senior staff who are
insisting to be in Nairobi. But as UNOCHA, a humanitarian coordination body
also responsible for gathering humanitarian information and data, can you tell
me what are the near future plans for the humanitarian activities inside
Somalia in this period of recovery after the end of emergency period?
Justin: Sure, First no one is insisting on staying in
Nairobi. Nairobi has been necessary due to security situation and infrastructure
we have here and we now have an opportunity given an improvement of security
situation to bring more colleagues here and to have the decision makers here
and I think everybody who works for UN agency is looking forward to that
opportunity. I find frustration with my colleagues in Nairobi who are still
trying to find opportunity to come here.
The plan for this year, as you say is we have had a good
during season and good harvest and nothing improves the situation in Somalia
unlike a good rain. We can do a lot as humanitarians and as government
officials, but the rain drives everything- If there is a good rain things could
be good and if there is not enough rain we see the situation like in 2000 and
2011. So we do see this as a window of opportunity getting beyond just life
saving is still fundamental work.
We have now two operation objectives; one is to increase
our accountability- being here allows us much better oversight and understand
better the impact of intervention we have. The other objective we have is to
link together our activities.
RBC Radio: The interior minister of Somalia government is
planning to move the IDP populations from inside Mogadishu to the outskirts of
the city, are you involved in this relocation, and what is your role?
Justin: It is interesting the Federal Government in
Somalia when we interacted with them about the situation of the IDPs [Internal
Displaced People] in the city. It was offering the impression of the job of the
UN and the NGOs was something to do with about them, the government coming with
the plan and saying this is our responsibility please assist us. First and
foremost it is the responsibility of the government. The government’s
objectives are two; to improve security and to improve the humanitarian
situation.
The [relocation] plan has a lot bit of opportunities into
it but also there are a lot of threats. It is very ambitious timeline and so I
think as we engaged with them on how we might assist, we are trying look ways
of that we can improve the plan with
them so that those are voluntarily movements by the IDPs and their situation
does not improve. We have a situation right now where we have nearly hundreds
of small settlements within the city and inefficient to try and provide them
assistance so there are opportunities of having larger settlements where we could
provide services.
RBC Radio: We have some IDPs complaining that the
identified areas are far away from the city and will be difficult to earn for
their living and also some fear of insecurity activities in the outskirts of
the capital, so why don’t you think relocating IDPs to their home region
instead of Mogadishu outskirts?
Justin: A lot of people think Mogadishu as a home. To ask
to go back to farmers they ay they were never been farmers but their parents
were or their parents herded livestock but they have lived and grown in the
city. A lot of areas that people might
go back remain insecure, they have very little assets to take back back with
them so that they could build their lives. We want to look how things might be.
RBC Radio: There was about US$1.3 billion humanitarian
appeal launched in December last year and there was a report from your office
indicating that the overall humanitarian situation in the country has improved.
Does this mean the reported improvement change your overall humanitarian
strategy and priorities for 2013?
Justin: If we go back to the plan. The plan is not simply
like life saving. Safety is building resilience, We have a population of a good
number of people have moved out of crisis but they still need assistance to
build their resilience. So the targets have changed quite bit I think from
those needed life saving has immediate intervention to having a focus more on
people requiring resilience and safety assistance.
RBC Radio: Recently when I interviewed the social development minister of Somalia
and she suggested that UN and other agencies should follow the rules of the
country and to address more on what the government demands to do instead of
doing their own plan, so how do you see this suggestion?
Justin: The government is the serving government of
Somalia. But surely we need to recognize that there areas that are currently
still not the control of the government and there are situations where we have
to be flexible, I think we are working with the ministry to establish norms
that should followed by everybody whether you are in or part of Somalia. One of
the biggest and tough conditions we are facing as humanitarian community is
that some areas that are referred as “recovered areas” we are facing some local
administrations demanding taxation on humanitarian assistance and that is
essentially taking food out of the mouth the needy children and putting into
the pockets of local administrations and I see that Something unacceptable.
RBC Radio
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