Events

Our Security on the Move project ran for 19 months from September 2017 to April 2019. On this page you will find updates and media related project events, including details of all of the photo exhibitions and panel discussions held in the research cities and internationally.

15 November 2019: As part of King’s College London’s Africa Week, Jutta Bakonyi and Pete Chonka presented the Security on the Move research findings on a panel at the closing conference. The team were also able to put up the project’s photovoice exhibition in King’s Great Hall, the venue for the main event. The theme of Africa Week this year was African agency in the Greater Horn of Africa, and the Security on the Move team is grateful to the organisers for the opportunity to discuss the ways in which displaced people respond to transnational influences in Somali cities. A video of the talk is available here. (Photos: https://www.davidtett.com/)

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1 October 2019: Representing the wider research team, Pete Chonka presented the Security on the Move project methods and findings to the Somali Society at King’s College London. The event was very well attended and Peter’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion featuring Fatima Hajji (Organiser of Somali Week in London) and input from students at King’s. Many thanks to the King’s Somali Soc for the invitation to take part in their ‘Broad Horizons’ event series!

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1 August 2019: The Security on the Move research team has been deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Eng. Abdirahman Omar Osman ‘Yarisow’, the Mayor of Mogadishu. Eng. Yarisow succumbed to wounds inflicted in an Al Shabaab suicide bombing at his office in Mogadishu a week ago. He has become the 7th fatality caused by this attack. The Mayor had attended and participated in the Security on the Move photo exhibition held in Mogadishu in January 2019 (see below). The research team would like to offer their condolences to Eng. Yarisow’s family, and to all those affected by this attack. 

 

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The final Security on the Move photo exhibition and panel dicussion was held in Nairobi at the British Institute in Eastern Africa/Rift Valley Forum on 3 April 2019. The pictures and testimonies of the displaced people who participated in the research were displayed, and our invited panelists discussed their work and related issues with the audience. This panel featured Maryam Abdi (commmunity safety programme manager, Saferworld), Fathi Egal (legal expert on land issues, UNHABITAT), and Omar Degan, architect from Mogadishu.

 

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14 March 2019: The London leg of the Security on the Move exhibtion took place at The Africa Centre in mid March. Alongside the display of the displaced people’s photographs and testimonies, a panel discussion was held on the themes of the exhibition and the related work of organisations active in the region. The panel featured: Hannah Stogdon (Programme Manager, Rift Valley Institute); Dr Muna Ismail (Programme Manager, Initiatives of Change UK); Dr Nick Bass (Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Global Health East, London NHS Foundation Trust); and Rubbina Karruna (Cities Advisor, UK Department for International Development).

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28 February 2019: The first European exhibition of the Security on the Move photographs and testimonies was held in Oslo, with the audience having the opportunity to see the pictures taken by the displaced people involved in the research project, and read their personal experiences and perspectives. As with the exhibitions held in January in the four Somali cities, the Oslo launch event also featured a panel discussion where the research team and invited specialists spoke about their work in the region and their reflections on the themes raised by the exhibition. Alongside Dr Jutta Bakonyi from the research team, the Oslo panel featured: Safia Y. Abdi Haase, nurse and advisor with the Amathea foundation in Oslo, also working with displaced people in Mogadishu; Stein Erik Horjen, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Development Agency for Development Cooperation; Martin Suvatne, Director Core Competencies, Norwegian Refugee Council/Flyktninghjelpen; and Dr Abdirashid Ali Warsame from Oslo University Hospital and a founding member of the School of Public Health and Research at the Somali National University in Mogadishu.

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31 January 2019: Of the four cities where the Security on the Move research was conducted, Baidoa was the final venue for the traveling exhibition of the displaced people’s photographs and personal reflections. The event featured a panel discussion in which the Mayor of Baidoa, the Regional Commissioner for IDPs and Returnees, and a representative from the International Organisation for Migration responded to the issues raised by the exhibition, and engaged in stimulating dialogue with the audience.

Local media coverage on KGS TV:

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27 January 2019: The traveling exhibition reached Mogadishu, the Somali capital, and provided another opportunity for the display of the IDP photographers’ pictures and public discussions of the Security on the Move research findings. The mayor of Mogadishu participated in the event and was given a tour of the exhibition materials.

Somali National TV coverage of the event (Somali):

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23 January 2019: The next stage of the traveling exhibition was held in Bosaaso, again featuring photographs and testimonies from the displaced people who participated in the Security on the Move research project. The Mayor of Bosaaso attended the launch event and addressed the invited guests. A technical panel gave their views on the exhibition themes and engaged with questions and comments from the audience that included displaced people and their representatives. The panel consisted of members of Bosaaso Municipal Government, a representative of the Puntland Ministry of Interior, scholars from the city’s Red Sea and East Africa Universities, and a local staff member from the International Organization for Migration.

Local media coverage of the event (Somali):

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17 January 2019: The research team launched the first exhibition of photographs and testimonies from displaced people in Hargeisa (Somaliland). The exhibition was held at the University of Hargeisa and attending guests included the Director General of Somaliland’s Ministry for Employment and Social Affairs, along with the Head of Somaliland’s National Displacement and Refugee Agency. The event featured an open discussion between the audience and a panel of technical specialists from humanitarian organisations and local government agencies working on displacement, city planning and IDP resettlement.

The event was covered by local media, including Horn Cable TV:

Project participants built a buul (hut) outside the Hargeisa venue to show exhibition guests the living conditions for many displaced people in the city. Here’s a video of the construction process:

 

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December 2018: Jutta Bakonyi and Abdirahman Edle presented preliminary findings of the Security on the Move project at the Impact Initiative’s ‘Power of Partnership: Research to Alleviate Poverty’ Conference in India on the 3-5 December, 2018.

Here’s the project poster on preliminary findings presented at the conference:

(Poster pdf available here: SOTM poster FINAL)

 

See Jutta and Abdirahman talk about the impact of the project here:

 

December 2017: Our project was launched at a stakeholder conference hosted by the Rift Valley Institute in Nairobi on 5th December 2017. With this event we established contact with stakeholders working on issues of security, migration and urbanization in Somalia. The aim was to foster early cooperation between partners to foster sustainable city-development in Somalia and improved livelihoods of IDPS, and to explain and discuss our research objectives and design. The report from the launch of the project at this stakeholder meeting is now available:

Migration and Security, 2018-02-22