Abdullahi Addow is a civil servant for the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources in Somalia. He is a senior technical fishery professional, and he currently serves as the Director of Planning, Policy and Economic Development at the Ministry. Abdullahi is a strong advocate for sustainable fishery development and for combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities in Somalia. In his current capacity, he plays a key role in coordinating donor-funded projects in the fisheries sector. Abdullahi was a key government counterpart who collaborated with an USAID-supported project to help local fisheries gain Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point certification. Additionally, he played a key role in managing the relationship between the federal member states and the federal government on the fisheries revenue sharing agreement. He is also the point of contact at the Ministry for the fisheries component of the EU-funded Inclusive Local Economic Development project that is implemented by active members of USAID-chaired Fisheries Donor Working Group. 

IVLP Impact Award Project: Combating Illegal, Unreported & Unregulated Fishing through Intergovernmental Mechanisms and Fishery Governance

Somalia, with 3,333 km of coastline facing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, has the longest coast in continental Africa. The coast is an important feeding ground for many fish species and has a narrow but productive coastal shelf. In addition, over 10, 000 km2 of inland water area with the Jubba and Shabele Rivers support an optimistic forecast for future potential in-land fisheries. Therefore, fisheries can serve an important role to not only in Somalia itself but the wider Horn of Africa region in improving food and nutrition security, supporting economic growth and stability and increasing resilience to threats and crises. However, this requires fishery governance and management systems to be in-place and for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and piracy to be ended. Until now, Somalia could not fully benefit from its marine fishery resources in a sustainable manner.

The project's main activity was a consultation meeting in Mogadishu where it had two main objectives. The first objective was discussions on intergovernmental mechanisms to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and fisheries governance. The second objective was to create recommendations and lessons learned from the IVLP Program on the way forward. The meeting brought together a total of 20 participants including fishery experts, coastal community members, academics and state government members from 6 Federal member states. A two-day participatory consultation meeting gathered federal level institutions and other fishery stakeholders, and it focused on the existing options for fishery governance models and the best ways to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in intergovernmental mechanism efforts.

"This platform shall be a permanent platform to develop a new strategy to combat IUU in Somalia." - Project Participant

IVLP Exchange Experience 

Abdullahi was a participant in the IVLP Project Building Capacity to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing in Somali Waters, organized by the U.S. Department of State and Meridian International Center.

Abdullahi's exchange experience led to the development of his IVLP Impact Award Project: "Participating on my first International Visitor Leadership Program was an important milestone in my professional career and in my future vision of my leadership journey."

U.S. Communities Visited Virtually

Denver, CO; Washington, DC; Miami, FL; Boston, MA

Country: Somalia

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