About Myself: I am British-Somali and have lived and worked in Somalia for the last seven years. Since August 2019 I have been the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the UN Peacebuilding Fund Somalia.

 My Work at the Peacebuilding Fund in Somalia: Currently, the PBF Somalia Secretariat is compromised of myself and the PBF Coordinator. As the M&E Specialist, I support project teams on project evaluations, reviewing progress reports and evaluation reports, tracking portfolio level results, conducting monitoring visits, and responding to information requests from HQ. I also do other duties as and when needed.

Currently, we are busy with completing the consultation process for defining new peacebuilding priorities for Somalia as part of renewing Somalia’s eligibility for Peacebuilding Fund support for a further five years.

Peacebuilding in the time of Coronavirus: All of our project’s activities have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Scheduled Project evaluations have had to change their methodology by adhering to social distancing measures.  All projects planned trainings, consultations, workshops, and meetings have had to be postponed, stopped, or resumed while adhering to social distancing mitigating measures.

My work situation these days: There no children in my household, so I think this helps with keeping a quiet working space. It still feels strange working from home, I think I’ve realized I definitely prefer an office environment, this helps me mentally differentiate between work and leisure.

My daily routine these days: I am currently working remotely from London. I live with my immediate family, Mum and two younger siblings. There are no distractions in my household, so this helps me focus when I am working. It’s also Ramadan now, so as well as working, I am also trying to fulfill spiritual duties and cooking lovely iftar meals with my mum! I am grateful for this.

The pandemic has really taken its grip in the UK and the whole population has been affected. Friends in Somalia have also been affected. I think the hardest thing is the uncertainty of when we can go back to resuming our normal routines. I miss sunny Mogadishu! It helps to spend time with family and for this reason, there's no place I'd rather be right now. I also regularly video call faraway friends and family - this helps keep my spirits high!

Finding ‘peace’: My daily walks help a lot. We are allowed to go out once for exercise under the lockdown, and this helps me keep my sanity while being stuck inside.