Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has had mixed success in the past two years, but has earned a fair score in the mid-term assessment, compared with his predecessors. Since his election on February 8, 2017, President Farmajo has performed well on economic recovery and has mobilised the public behind the government in a way that previous administrations were unable to.
But his score on national security is very low, with the jury is still out on the fight against corruption, according to the latest policy briefing by the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a non-profit organisation based in Mogadishu.
The institute says that the Farmajo administration’s delivery on what it presented at the May 2017 London Conference is far below expectations, taking into account that the government is operating in an extraordinarily complex environment combined with meagre resources. The institute judged President Farmajo based on the four pillars he presented at the London Donors Conference in May 2017— improved security, political stability, a revived economy, reduced corruption and positive engagement with the international community.
The report says that together with Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, Farmajo’s administration has made sustained progress on the debt relief process, robustly re-engaged with international financial institutions, increased revenues and maintained public confidence and unity of purpose among the government’s executive branch — the president and the prime minister.
On economic recovery, the agreement reached in London focused on four strands: Debt relief and re-engagement with international financial institutions, increasing domestic revenues, implementing the current National Development Plan and exploiting and managing natural resources responsibly.
The Farmajo government has accelerated the process of debt relief and in two years, it has managed to successfully pass the third Staff Monitoring Programme, a technical process with the International Monetary Fund intended to whip poor countries into a strict financial management and economic development regime.
