President of Somalia Somalia
Description of Work:

He graduated at Somali National University in 1981 and was employed in the Ministry of education as a teacher / trainer Lafole Technical Secondary School where he taught students and trained artisans.

In 1984, he joined Technical Teachers' Training College as a lecturer and in 1986 became head of department before he traveled to India to attend a master of technical education program offered by Bhopal university in India.

In 1988 upon his return to Somalia, he was selected as a counterpart to a group of international experts working on Upgrading Technical and Vocational Education of Somalia - a project implemented by UNESCO.

His main area of concentration in the project was undertaking the research component of the project where he extensively travelled throughout Somalia.

After the collapse of the Somali state, he worked with UNICEF as education officer in south and central zone of Somalia in 1993. This task mainly involved in reviving education sector in this zone.

He travelled extensively in the zone researching the magnitude of the collapse in the education sector and consulting the people on how to revive the sector as a community based endeavor After the departure of the UNOSOM in 1995, he was mostly involved in civic actions such as forming pressure groups on the political factions to reconcile.

The main activities engaged were attempting to open channels of communication between and among the faction leaders in Mogadishu.

Later on, this became the seed for the formation and strengthening of the Somali civil society. As a result, networks, coalitions and professional associations emerged in Mogadishu one after the other.

After the Cairo agreement of 1997, he was member of a team that negotiated and successfully dismantled the GREENLINE that divided Mogadishu into north and south after the disastrous war of 1992.

In the last part of the 1990s, the conditions of the Somali youth was very critical. Those graduated from the secondary schools were having limited opportunities for higher learning and professional career development.

As a member of ex university lecturers' forum, they conducted need assessment survey in the market and identified the importance of establishing technical and vocational centers which some of them later on became higher learning centers such as universities.

As result, he became one of the founders of Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development (SIMAD) in 1999. It was the first institute of its kind since the collapse of the Somali state.

The main purpose of SIMAD was to produce mid level management and administrative technicians for the post conflict reconstruction of Somalia. He became the first dean of the institute until he resigned in 2010.

Currently SIMAD is a leading university in academics, consultancy, research, and training in Somalia. Close 4,000 student are registered in its undergraduate programs as of September 2011 and more than 1,500 students graduated since 2002 at diploma and bachelor's degree in various disciplines.

In 2001, he joined Center for Research and Dialogue (CRD) as a researcher in post conflict reconstruction of Somalia. He extensively traveled in south central Somalia conducting research in the post conflict reconstruction issues and local peoples' priorities.

Later on he became a principal researcher. In 2004, CRD appointed me as a focal point for the issues related to the civil society strengthening.

In consultation with other prominent civil society members, he worked in establishing the Mogadishu monthly forum, which became the first open neutral space for the public to express their views regarding the pertinent issues of the time.

In late 2005, he became program coordinator in CRD. The civil society in Mogadishu collectively appointed me to lead the formation of Somali civil Society Forum - a conglomerate of networks, coalitions and action groups engaged in different sectors. Since then the forum became a unified voice for the Somali Civil Society.

In 2009 - 2010, he worked as consultant in the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC), Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in establishing Somali Aid Coordination and Management Unit within the Ministry.

Mohamud was born in 1955 in the farming town of Jalalaqsi, in the central Hiran region of Somalia, where he completed his basic religious and secular education. In 1978, he left his small community and moved to the Somali capital of Mogadishu for post-secondary education. He is a member of the Abgaal Hawiye clan.