Event Date: March 13, 2018 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Location: FSS4004, 120 Université Privé
Presented by CIPS and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre
The National Independent Election Commission has the legal mandate to conduct elections in Somalia and has spent the past year putting in place its strategic plan for elections in 2020, registering political parties, conducting by-elections, conducting broad-based consultations on the development of a new election law, and building a gender-inclusive workplace and electoral process. Halima Ismail, the head of National Independent Election Commission in Somalia will discuss managing the Commission over the course of an electoral cycle and the challenges and opportunities of conducting and organizing elections in Somalia. Ismail will also discuss how Canada via the international assistance policy can help foster democracy promotion as part of their global diplomatic engagements.
Halima Ismail Ibrahim is the Chair of the National Independent Election Commission of Somalia. She was born and raised in Mogadishu where she completed a Bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences. She later went on to do her Master’s in agricultural economics and rural development at the University of Turin. Prior to the conflict in Somalia, she was an agricultural sciences lecturer at Somalia’s National University. Following the collapse of Somalia’s federal government, she became involved with civil society organizations and later joined UNOSOM (United Nations Operations in Somalia) where she worked as a political affairs officer until the mission’s 1996 closure.
Following more than a decade abroad, she returned to Somalia in 2007 to contribute to reconciliation and state-building efforts.