Somalia launches Centennial Vision 2060 development plan
Somalia’s leadership and the UN’s representatives met at a Mogadishu forum for the hopeful launch of ‘Centennial Vision 2060’, an ambitious roadmap for Somalia’s development, Africanews reported on the 24th of June.
Announced in 2023 by President Mohamud, CV2060 provides guidance for an economic and institutional renaissance of the country. It promises to transform Somalia into a stable middle-income nation in a turn of a generation.
Somalia’s National Economic Council (NEC) names the country’s governmental instability and poor infrastructure as the main culprits obstructing economic development. These in-turn cause poor food security, environmental degradation, high unemployment, internal displacement, a negative net migration, and all-around poor economic and social indicators.
In 2023, the NEC outlined the 3 phases of Centennial Vision 2060. Near-term goals (2023-2025) are based on stability, eradication of terrorism and finding solutions to humanitarian issues. Eradication of terrorism, for one, is evidently being addressed. In April, African leaders agreed to deploy a peacekeeping force to help mitigate Somalia’s terrorist insurgency, Maghrebi reported.
Mid-Term Goals (2025-2040) are to build institutional capacity, reform government structures, and ensure good governance. Finally, the long Term Goals (2035-2060) are to focus with emphasis on economic development, raise living standards, and facilitate social integration.
At the forum, President Hassan Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Barre listened to the UN’s Executive Secretary of the ECA (Economic and Social Commission for Africa) Claver Gatete, laud the prospects of the framework. He said “This Vision is more than a policy document: it is a declaration of confidence, resilience and ambition by the Somali people. As such, the ECA reaffirms its steadfast commitment to accompany Somalia… …Vision 2060 will not just be imagined; it will be realized.”
He went on to propose his own nation, Rwanda, as an exemplar for the success of such schemes. Rwanda was decimated economically, politically, and socially by a series of genocidal conflicts in the 1990s. However, today it is a poster nation for the successful application of political reform and development economics.
Gatete explains his nation’s ascendancy so “It is important to stress that Rwanda’s success did not come from chance. It was the product of long-term strategic planning, institutional reform and an unshakeable commitment to people-centered development. Somalia, too, possesses that same potential. So why not Somalia? And why not now?”
Africanews, Maghrebi.org, SONNA Somali National News Agency
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