AFT 2015 Special guest: Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed, former prime minister of Somalia

Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed is a Somali economist and politician. A Diaspora member, who lived in Canada, and held leadership positions in a number of international organizations, including World Bank, USAID, African Union, Bank of Canada and the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah.  His recent post was being a prime minister of federal government of Somalia.

Mr. Ahmed is now a leader of a political party that has a potential to lead Somalia in the future. HIRDA advocates for issues such as; gender equality, girls education, abolishing FGM and women political participation. 

During the opening Ceremony in his speech Mr. Ahmed highlighted the importance of sport, as he acknowledge its binding factor of Somali youth. He praised HIRDA for its work in sport and youth engagement. He said ’11 years of the existence of this tournament says a lot about commitment of HIRDA’.

He handed awards to Somali upcoming Somali athletes who were at the event to receive encouragement award. These athletes who participate in HIRDA runs and have a good potential to become professional athletes.  He also participated in HIRDA Achievement Award ceremony.

Mr. Ahmed met with number of Somali community in the Netherlands, who also work toward the development of Somalia, Somali politicians like former mayor of Mogadishu, Ahmed Nur Tarzan . He encouraged Somali Diaspora to contribute to the development of Somalia and return to the country.

In the closing ceremony Mr. Ahmed gave the winning team the trophy and urged the youth to work together. Mr. Ahmed expressed his satisfaction with his visit to the Netherlands and he thanked the participating teams, the guests and the organization team.