DAWLADDA PUNTLAND EE SOOMAALIYA PUNTLAND STATE OF SOMALIA

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SPEECH BY HIS EXELLENCY ABDULLAHI YUSUF AHMED, PRESIDENT OF PUNTLAND STATE OF SOMALIA,

Honorable Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me from the outset, take this opportunity to welcome you on behalf of the Government and people of Puntland State of Somalia, wishing all a comfortable and memorable stay, and refreshing working sessions throughout your deliberations.

Please make sure that you set aside sometime to break out and visit some of the most refreshing scenes and places to view and witness the peace and stability people of Puntland State enjoy today. I am pleased to note the enthusiasm with which you all have joined us to make the occasion in deed a successful one.

Turning onto this occasion, I recall with a lot of nostalgia now the humble beginning and attempts to create an orderly situation in our social sector. I believe and hope that all of you agree with me that no state is worth its name unless it can ensure peace and provide adequately for the social development needs its people.

It is now almost two years since the Directorate of Health in the Ministry of Social Services embarked upon the high road to reconstruction, reorganization and orderly re-structuring in the delivery of health services to my people. This has run concurrently with similar efforts in other sectors such as public education, water supply and commercial sectors.

I note with admiration that the draft ‘Health Policy and Strategy Framework Document that you prepared at your workshop in October last year, in the spirit of a fully participatory workshop held in our lovely town of Quardho that was facilitated by the War-Torn Society Project in which all communities in Puntland were represented by the grass-root leadership. This one was a clear and transparent response to the recommendations made by the participants at Quardho workshop.

To come up with realistic health plans require a lot of time, effort and expertise. But the prerequisite for successful implementation is even a bigger challenge that requires active and proper coordination of all stakeholders in the health sector.

Puntland is a newly emerging State with limited resources and cannot afford to provide free medical services like many governments in the world, including the former administrations of Somalia. It is for this reason that my government is convinced that the only way we can tackle with the huge expenditure in the health sector is through full community participation in management and co-financing of the health budget by such methods as cost sharing.

I would like to inform you also that the second session of Puntland Parliament has approved the Public Health Act, which has been published in the official government gazette No 6. This Act makes the directorate of health the agency that is fully responsible for health service organization and delivery in Puntland State.

It will not be acceptable therefore in future that independent agencies conduct health program activities without knowledge or the approval of the Ministry as a regulatory body.

Finally, I would like to thank all the international organizations, non-governmental organizations, bilateral and multilateral development partners and friendly countries of Europe and the United States of America who through their international agencies and representatives came to our aid. We thank particularly their staff, which sacrificed the security, and comfort in their countries to come and facilitate the delivery of badly needed assistance and relief to sustain life and health of my people. To all of you, we say thank you very much indeed and God bless you all!!

Let me once again wish you fruitful deliberations. We pledge the Government support and full cooperation in that regard.