Founder and Managing Director of Sabi Insight Ltd. Sabi is a specialist research firm focused on the Horn of Africa, East Africa, and Nigeria. We work with clients from the not for profit, government and private sectors to understand these fast changing countries, to evaluate the success of their projects, and to better achieve their goals.

Fellows of the RVI are specialists in the Eastern and Central African region, drawn from Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. They include practitioners, activists and academic experts in the fields of human rights, history, anthropology, political science, economics, aid and development, conservation, media, diplomacy and law. Fellows are elected by the body of existing Fellows, proposed and seconded by two existing Fellows.

I lead Conflict Dynamics’ Somali program to support Somali led efforts at reconciliation and governance building. This includes support to the Somalia-Somaliland dialogue process, the formation of Federal Member States, the review of the national constitution, and local reconciliation efforts. I manage our programme implementation across Somalia and Somaliland; I am responsible for budgetary planning and oversight and for the professional development of our team.

I led on the research and development of options for governance and political process arrangements. My work also included managing my team, managing donor relations, implementing a monitoring and evaluations strategy, and fundraising. I led our engagement with Somali civil society partners, including assessing their capacities, developing joint project plans and supporting the implementation of agreed plans.

As the Policy Lead for Oxfam’s Somalia Programme I led on all policy, lobby, advocacy and campaign issues. Our team’s work in Somalia had both a strong humanitarian and developmental focus. We engaged with governments, donors and policy-makers at a senior level. Our engagement was further directed at the highest levels within Oxfam and the wider NGO community.My day-to-day work included drafting, editing and publishing lobby briefings and reports. I produced bi-weekly analysis of the political, security and humanitarian situation in Somalia as well as briefing papers and lobby notes. I led on work that aimed to rethink how Oxfam engaged with Somalia in order to achieve a more lasting impact. I commissioned and managed a project to explore how women engage in peace building and peace maintenance in Somalia - and how in turn the outcomes of peace processes can produce better results for women. The research was designed to look beyond superficial and short-term approaches to provide the basis for approaches to peace that lead to genuine improvements in women’s lives. I led our successful lobby effort to introduce a three year consolidated appeal process for Somalia and was heavily engaged with various advocacy groupings to maximise Oxfam’s voice in the international policy and development arena. I developed and begun the implementation of a new three year advocacy strategy for Oxfam’s Somalia work.

I focused on the politics of the Horn of Africa, African Peace and Security Architecture, and Africa – EU relations. I published reports, articles and papers, provided briefings for governments, NGOs and business, and gave extensive media commentary. I designed and implemented multi year, and short term, projects and carried out fund raising and project oversight. I commissioned and edited others’ work. A selection of projects that I led or was involved with are highlighted below: Horn of Africa – Economics of Conflict, a three year project that looked at the impact of economic factors on conflict and cooperation in the Horn. I led on project design, fund raising , selection of research topics, editing and redrafting of seven briefing papers. I organised events and conferences connected to the project including a major conference in Djibouti. The Somalia Futures Project aimed to encourage new thinking on Somalia’s transition beyond August 2012. It involved high-level roundtable meetings to discuss the future of sub-national entities in Somalia and how international partners should approach this trend. EU Mediation Study - for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, the report (June 2011) examines the ability of the EU to make a positive impact in conflict areas through mediation. Our research also investigated the way in which the new external relations architecture of the EU could best be used, or improved, for advancing conflict resolution and prevention.Through workshops and information provision, the Sudan after 2011 Project project aimed to build common understandings of post 2011 issues between the NCP and SPLM leaderships. My work on piracy from Somalia, ongoing since 2008, sought to highlight the consequences of international failure and inaction in Somalia.

Research work on humanitarian crises, maintaining the website and providing content for ‘Media Watch’. I handled relations with member NGOs and contributed to daily editorial meetings.

Taught English to students of all ages.