About - Center For Social Development (CES), Somalia

Center For Social Development (CES)

Center for Social Development (CES) is a non-profit seeking, non-partisan and non-governmental organization which works to address the underlying causes of poverty and promote peace, governance and social development, through research, training and interventions.

The organization is headquartered in Garowe and has an office in Mogadishu, Somalia. It was founded in 2021. The CES focuses on capacity-building programs for government institutions, local municipal institutions, youth, social groups, and start-up non-profit organizations where guidance is required. It also identifies economic factors that could educate new generations to become community leaders, offers consultancy services to small businesses, and provides conflict resolution capacity-building training to Somali elders, peace committees and networks.

This has allowed the CES to establish close working relationships with local
Somali academic and research institutions – including the signing of Memorandums of Understanding with key Universities in Somalia and UK. The Center has also signed memorandums of understanding with the relevant ministries of the Federal Government of Somalia and Puntland. They include the Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women Development & Human Rights, Ministry of Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation and Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for partnership and collaboration.

Our Vision

The vision of CES is to Empower Somali People through research, entrepreneurship and financial literacy training, civic education, poverty reduction, strengthening human rights, and leadership development.

Our Mission

To promote the economic and social development of Somalia through consulting services, training, research, and policy analysis

The Executive Secretary

Mr Roble Dahir

Peace/State-building and Reconciliation Expert having MA in Peace and Governance, served as Advisor to the Ministry of Interior of Somalia, co-authored the National Reconciliation Framework of Somalia and has many academic and opinion articles on reconciliation and peace-building matters. He Contributed many polices, frameworks for building institutions and governance structures in Somalia. He was once appointed as a member of the late ad-hoc integrity committee for 2016/17 elections in Somalia, and currently as Roster Member of IGAD regional group of Mediators. Mr. Roble built the capacities of hundreds of CSOs, government entities, youth networks and women in Somalia for dialogue and sustainable peace.

Key Advisory Board Members:

Prof. Dr. Abdisalam Issa-Salwe,

Dr. Issa-Salwe is currently the Vice-Rector of East Africa University and Professor of Information Systems. He previously worked as an assistant/ associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Taibah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In his early academic life he has been a lecturer in Information Management at Thames Valley University in the United Kingdom, and between 1992 and 2003, he worked as an Information Technology tutor/ instructor at the Training and Employment Section of the British Refugee Council. Issa-Salwe earned his PhD in Information Management at Thames Valley University, UK. His published works include academic papers and a few books. He also earned masters in MSc (Computing and Information Systems, Greenwich University, London, UK) and MA (Political Studies, Greenwich University, London, UK). His published works include both academic papers and a few books. He is currently the Vice-Rector (Vice-Chancellor) of East Africa University and Professor of Information Systems.

Dr. Ali Ahmed Abdi (PhD),

Dr. Abdi is the former President of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC), and is the winner of the David N. Wilson Distinguished Service Award from CIESC. Currently, he serves on the UNESCO Chair Advisory Board in Global Citizenship Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also a National Advisory Committee Member for the UNESCO Chair in Democracy, Global Citizenship, and Transformative Education at the University of Quebec. He has conducted funded research on education and human development in Canada, Somalia, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia.

He is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, and Cofounding Editor of Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry. The contents of these two academic journals are freely available to all who can access them electronically. Presently, he is serving on the editorial/review boards of such academic journals as International Journal of Higher Education Teaching and Learning; Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education; Curriculum Inquiry; Ivorian Journal of Comparative Studies; Malta Review of Educational Research; and Postcolonial Directions in Education. His academic publications include, as author/co-author/editor/co-editor, over 20 books including Social justice education in Canada (2023); Palgrave handbook on critical theories of Education (2022); Educating for democratic consciousness (2013); Educating for human rights and global citizenship (2008); and African education and globalization (2006).

Prof. Dr. Jutta Bakonyi, Professor in Development and Conflict, Durham University

Professor Jutta Bakonyi’s main research interests are on the causes, actors and dynamics of violence and war, orders of violence beyond the state, state dynamics and international interventions. She is also interested in the relation between cities and states, the link between displacement and urbanization and the political economy that links displacement with urban reconstruction. Her main area of research is the Horn of Africa.

Before Dr. Jutta joined Durham University in 2012, she worked as conflict manager for GIZ in southwest Somalia (2004/2005) and as manager of a civil peace service project in Kenya (2009-12).

HE. Daud Mohamed Omar,

Co-founded Puntland’s East Africa University, one of the established, accredited and recognized Universities in Somalia| Served as a Minister in several portfolios in Puntland and the Federal Government of Somalia and as MP at 10th Parliament of Somalia.

Mr. Yasin Mohamud Jama,

He is a well-trained Somali-American entrepreneur, established successful businesses in USA and Somalia. Mr. Yasin serves as an Elder (Nabadoon) who then experienced in resolving protracted inter-clan conflicts in Mudug region.

Become a volunteer