Abdiweli Mohamed Ali

Abdiweli Mohamed Ali عبدويلي محمد علي
Prime Minister of Somalia
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 June 2011 Acting: 19 June 2011 – 28 June 2011
President	Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
Preceded by	Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo
Personal details
Born	Puntland, Somalia
Political party	Transitional Federal Government
Alma mater	Somali National University Vanderbilt University Harvard University George Mason University

Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali (Somali: Cabdiweli Maxamed Cali, Arabic: عبدويلي محمد علي‎) is a Somali economist and politician. He is the Prime Minister of Somalia.

Biography

Personal life

Ali is originally from the autonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia. He holds both Somali and American citizenship. He is multilingual, being fluent in Somali, Arabic, Italian and English.

Ali is married to Dr. Hodan Isse, a University at Buffalo Economics professor and founder of HEAL, a Buffalo-based NGO. The couple have four children.

Education

Ali was educated in various universities around the world, but initially studied in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. In 1984, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Somali National University, graduating with highest honors.

Ali later relocated to the United States for post-graduate studies. In 1988, he obtained a Master's degree from Vanderbilt University as an AFGRAD Fellow of Economics. Between 1994-1995 and 1995-1998, he was a Bradley Fellow in George Mason University's Department of Economics and Center for Study of Public Choice, respectively. In 1998-1999, Ali was a Joel Fellow of Political Economy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he earned a Certificate of Taxation from Harvard Law School in 1999 and a Master's degree in Public administration the same year. In 2000, he also obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University.

Career

General

In a professional capacity, Ali served as a Director in the Excise Tax Department of Somalia's federal Ministry of Finance and Revenue in the mid-to-late 1980s. Between 1988 and 1991, he was an Assistant Director in Research and Statistics at the Ministry of Finance and Revenue.

From 1993 to 1998, Ali was an Adjunct Professor of Economics in the Department of Social Science and Public Service of Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia. Between 1998 and 1999, he was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID).

In the 2000s, Ali worked as a Research and Forecast Manager for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

He later moved to Niagara County in New York state, where he was an Associate Professor of Economics in the Department of Commerce of Niagara University, having joined the school in 2003.

Ali also served as a consultant for various international organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program.

His main academic areas of concentration have been in public finance, public choice and international trade. Ali's current research endeavors have centered around the impact that institutions have on economic growth.

A prolific author, Ali has written articles for many peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Business and Economics Research, International Advances in Economic Research, and the Journal of Public Choice. In 2001, a paper of his titled Political stability, stable economic policies and growth: An empirical investigation that was published in the Atlantic Economic Journal was awarded the year's Best Article Award.

Ali is also an active member of various economic organizations, including the International Atlantic Economic Society, the American Economic Association and the Southern Economic Association.

Transitional Federal Government

On June 12, 2010, Ali was appointed Somalia's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation as well as one of several Deputy Prime Ministers. Selected for the position by the former Premier Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, he served as an integral part of a well-regarded technocratic Cabinet.

Prime Minister

Appointment

On June 19, 2011, Ali was appointed the Acting Premier of Somalia after Prime Minister Mohamed abruptly resigned from office as part of a controversial agreement signed in Kampala between the President and the Parliament Speaker. A few days later, on June 23, 2011, Ali was named permanent Prime Minister.

Lawmakers welcomed Ali's nomination and reaffirmed their opposition to and intention of repealing the Kampala Accord.

In a session held on June 28, 2011, Members of Parliament overwhelmingly approved Ali's appointment as Prime Minister. 337 of the MPs endorsed the selection, while 2 voted against it and 2 abstained.

On July 23, 2011, Parliament unanimously endorsed Prime Minister Ali's selection of new Cabinet officials. The ministerial posts were expanded to include an additional 9 state ministers and 26 deputy ministers, bringing a total of 53 federal ministers.

Policy initiatives

On July 4, 2011, in one of his first policy initiatives, Prime Minister Ali appointed a national committee to tackle the severe drought affecting large parts of the country. The committee consists of several federal-level members of government, including the Ministers of Defense, Health, Interior, Finance, Public Works, Women's Affairs and Information. It is tasked with assessing and addressing the needs of the drought-impacted segments of the population.

In October 2011, a coordinated operation between the Somalian military and the Kenyan military referred to as Linda Nchi began, with Kenyan troops crossing the border into southern Somalia in pursuit of Al-Shabaab militants that are alleged to have kidnapped several foreign tourists and workers inside Kenya. Prime Minister Ali along with President of Somalia Sharif Ahmed initially opposed the deployment of Kenyan troops into the country, as they felt it was a breach of an earlier joint defence pact reached with the Kenyan government that limited Kenya's support to logistical activities. On October 31, a Somalian delegation led by Prime Minister Ali met in Nairobi with the Kenyan Premier Raila Odinga and other government officials to iron out differences and to outline a joint strategy vis-a-vis Operation Linda Nchi. After lengthy talks, the delegations issued a joint communique pledging coordinated military, political and diplomatic support for the mission, requesting that AMISOM peacekeepers police areas captured from Al-Shabaab, and that the International Criminal Court (ICC) begin formal investigations against the group's commanders. In addition, Prime Minister Ali urged the international community to support the joint operation, and stated that the mission "would be led by Somali forces with support of Kenyan forces". The two delegations also formed a joint "high-level co-ordinating committee" to maintain regular contacts between their respective governments.

In February 2012, Prime Minister Ali and other Somali government officials met in the northeastern town of Garowe to discuss post-transition political arrangements. After extensive deliberations attended by regional actors and international observers, the conference ended in a signed agreement between the Premier, TFG President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Speaker of Parliament Sharif Adan Sharif Hassan, Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, Galmudug President Mohamed Ahmed Alim and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama'a representative Khalif Abdulkadir Noor stipulating that: a) a new 225 member bicameral parliament would be formed, with a lower house and an upper house seating 54 Senators; b) 30% of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) is earmarked for women; c) the President is to be appointed via a constitutional election; and d) the Prime Minister is selected by the President and he/she then names his/her Cabinet.

Awards

• 2005-2006 Excellence in Research Award, College of Business Administration, Niagara University, May 2006.
• Best Paper Award, European Applied Business Research Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 2004.
• 2003-2004 Excellence in Research Award, College of Business Administration, Niagara University, May 2004.
• 2001 Best Article Award, Atlantic Economic Journal, October 2002.

Works

Refereed publications

• How robust is the effect of foreign aid on growth, with (Hodan Isse and Bill Peek), Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 20, pp. 4-14, Fall 2009 (Lead Article).
• The determinants of crime in Virginia: An empirical analysis (with Bill Peek), forthcoming in Contemporary Issues in Educational Research, Vol. 2 (4), pp. 1-11, 2009 (Lead Article).
• Is democracy a prerequisite for political stability? International Business and Economics Research Journal, October 2004, Vol. 3 (10), pp. 39-47, Won the Best Paper Award.
• Determinants of economic corruption: A cross-country comparison (with Hodan Isse), Cato Journal, Winter Issue 2003, Vol. 22 (3), pp. 449-64. Cited by 58.
• Institutional distortions, economic freedom and growth (with Mark Crain), Cato Journal, Winter Issue 2002, Vol. 21 (3), pp. 415-26. Cited by 63.
• Political regimes, economic freedom, institutions and growth (with Mark Crain), Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice, 2001, Vol. XIX (1), pp. 3-22, Lead Article. Cited by 13.
• Political stability, stable economic policies and growth: an empirical investigation, Atlantic Economic Journal, March Issue 2001, Vol. 29, pp. 87-106. Won the 2001 Best Article Award. Cited by 13
• Economic freedom, democracy and growth, Journal of Private Enterprise, 1997, vol. 13, pp. 1-20, Lead Article. Cited by 30.

Refereed conference proceedings

• Is Democracy a Prerequisite for Political Stability? (Won the Best Paper Award), European Applied Business Research Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 14-18, 2004.

References

• Abdiweli Mohamed Ali - Curriculum vitae

Political offices
Preceded by Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo	Prime Minister of Somalia 2011–present	Incumbent