Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed

Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed (Cabdiweli Sheekh Axmed, عبدالولي الشيخ أحمد; born 1959), also known as Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed Mohammad, is a Somali economist and politician.

He has held leadership positions with various international organizations, including the World Bank, USAID, African Union/IBAR, the European Union, the Bank of Canada, COMESA, and the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah.

Ahmed was born in 1959 in Bardera, situated in the Jubaland state of Somalia.

He belongs to the Marehan Darod clan.

From 1984 to 1990, Ahmed served as the Director-General of the Livestock Marketing and Health Agency in Mogadishu.

Ahmed later moved to Canada when the civil war broke out in 1991.

He holds dual Somali and Canadian citizenship.

In addition to Canada and Somalia, Ahmed has lived and worked in several other countries, including Ethiopia, Djibouti, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Kenya, and Malaysia.

He is multilingual, speaking Somali,

Arabic,

English, and Italian fluently, and also has a good command of French.

Ahmed is married and has children.

Ahmed earned a degree in economics from the Somali National University (SNU) in Mogadishu.

He later studied at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, where he received a diploma in computer programming.

Ahmed subsequently matriculated to the University of Ottawa, where he earned an M.A. in economics.

He pursued doctoral studies in international trade and development at the same institution.

Ahmed also holds several professional diplomas from U.S. and other government agencies, including a diploma in project management from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a diploma in project planning and appraisal from SIDAM, and a diploma in animal health management from the USDA and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Ahmed has worked with various specialized agencies, including: Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), ECOWAS, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), African Development Bank (AfDB), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Global Dry land Alliance Initiative, Inter Agency Donor Group (IADG), OPEC, and Arab Funds for Development (Saudi Fund, Kuwait Fund, Qatar Foundation).

Additionally, he has undertaken many international work and diplomatic missions.

Between 1991 and 1998, he was the Chief Executive Officer at MISK Enterprises, a livestock exporting firm with offices in Djibouti, Sana'a, and Nairobi.

Ahmed worked as an International Development and Trade Economics Analyst at the Bank of Canada and at the University of Ottawa from 1998 to 2003.

From 2003 to 2006, he was a Program Manager at the African Union's Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (IBAR) – Red Sea Livestock Trade Commission.

Ahmed subsequently acted as a Senior Livestock and Pastoralism Advisor to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in Lusaka between 2007 and 2009.

From 2010 to 2013, Ahmed served as a Senior Agriculture and Rural Development Officer for the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah.

He was part of the organization's Department of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

Ahmed does not have a previous political background.

From December 2013 to December 2014, Ahmed served as the Prime Minister of Somalia.

During his tenure, he enacted several domestic reforms as part of the local post-conflict development process.

On 12 December 2013, President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced to the Federal Parliament that Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed had been appointed as the new national prime minister, succeeding Abdi Farah Shirdon.

Ahmed was selected over former finance minister Hussein Abdi Halane and former Transportation Minister Abdiwahid Elmi Gonjeh for the position.

On 21 December, legislators endorsed the selection, with 239 of the present 243 MPs voting in favor of Ahmed as prime minister, two lawmakers voting against, and two abstaining.

UN Special Representative for Somalia Nicholas Kay congratulated Prime Minister Ahmed on his appointment and pledged to continue supporting the Federal Government's peace and state-building efforts.

Ahmed subsequently initiated consultations to form a new Cabinet, which would then be presented to parliament for approval.

In early January 2014, he requested a 10-day extension of the deadline to constitute a new Council of Ministers, a request that the federal legislature unanimously granted on 11 January.

On 14 January, the parliament dismissed a motion to disqualify officials from former prime minister Shirdon's Cabinet from being eligible to join Ahmed's new Council of Ministers.

As of February 2015, Ahmed serves as the Chairman of the Somali Forum for Unity and Democracy.

Among these initiatives were the development of a Work Plan within the framework of Vision 2016 and in line with the New Deal Compact and the Peace and Stabilisation Goals.

He also established a new security task force and committees, approved a new Anti-terrorism law, initiated stabilization efforts in liberated areas, launched national reconciliation talks, established new educational and training institutions in the capital Mogadishu, conducted a Population Estimation Survey for Somalia (PESS) in conjunction with the federal Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, enacted a new Media Law, restructured ministerial subcommittees within the Federal Cabinet, and established commissions for Constitutional Review and Implementation, as well as for Electoral Commission and Boundary and Federalization Commission.

Ahmed worked to strengthen bilateral cooperation with the United Arab Emirates in the areas of capacity building and the rehabilitation of government institutions.

He also ratified three core International Labour Organization conventions on behalf of the Federal Republic of Somalia, adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and signed the first National Indicative Programme (NIP) between Somalia and the European Union in 25 years.