Our Services in Somalia:
Gateway Institute for Research and Development (hereafter is referred to as the Gateway Institute) was established in 2008 in Minnesota, USA is a non-profit and non-partisan organization to nurture and enhance Somalia's difficult socio-economic through research and well-being of the communities by promoting a sustainable economy. Beside the State of Minnesota in U.S, we're also a registered organization at the Federal Government of Somalia.
Our organization's purpose is to assist the creation, retention, and reinvestment of resources that increase economic opportunities and improve life quality. Our organization's primary focus is primarily on six (6) interconnected research sectors: Governance & Democratization, Public Policy, Entrepreneurship development, Environmental sustainability, and Agriculture Productivity and Innovation.
Strategy/Focus Area:
1. Entrepreneurship Development
Gateway Institute attempts economic growth by reducing poverty and improving the quality of life in Somalia. We try to promote rapid and sustained economic growth. We combine growth-promoting policies with policies that allow the poor to participate fully in the opportunities unleashed and contribute to that growth. This includes policies to make labor markets work better, remove gender inequalities, and increase financial inclusion. We implement Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 that address poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. A key to transform economies and meet the Millennium Development Goal to end poverty is ensuring that trade becomes part of development policy, with a central role for women and small businesses. Gateway Institute wants to reduce poverty through entrepreneurship training and small business consultant. Hence, we conducted entrepreneurship development trainings, consulted women and minority-owned businesses , and provided financial management and computer literacy trainings. We need to have businesses that can create add value to their exports, look for new market opportunities and define the marketing and branding strategies that will help them create a new, profitable business that produces sustainable jobs.
2. Agriculture Productivity
It's no secret that agriculture is an important sector in the field of international development. An industry that feeds you is an industry worth fighting for. The food and agriculture sector is expected to provide healthy, safe, and nutritious food for a growing population. Gateway Institute brings stakeholders together to discuss key policy reforms to giving ideas and support to local groups already engaged with farmers in the community. We aim to promote innovation in agricultural – resilient, sustainable farming.
Unfortunately, human activities affect the environment: the quality of air, water, and soil, the concentration of greenhouse gases that have an impact on climate change, and the quantity of generated waste. We promote the power to protect the environment through renewable energy sources.Today there is a broad enviornmental consensus that natual resource of Somalia are severely degrated by charcoal production and trade for food and energy. Such ill-advised manner causes excessive deforestation and soil erosion which further produces sand storm, dry land, water runoff, drinking water decline, soil fertility, and overgrazing where sequence of violence erupts. Herewith environmental peril range management initiative ensures sustained yield of rangeland products while protecting and improving the basic range resources of soil, water, wildlife habitat, and animal life. So, we conducted environmental protection for small business owners, emphasizing renewable energy as an alternative source of energy to charcoal production and trade in Somalia. The conflict's impact is also evident from the fact that Somalia's energy mix is sharply skewed towards locally accessible charcoal and firewood as the primary sources of energy.
3. Governance and Democracy
After two decades of civil war in Somalia, comprehend a peaceful and productive society is based on effective state institutions. In this sense, good governance means effective and efficient structures that provide optimal support to citizens in leading a safe and productive life in line with their desires and opportunities. Fundamentally, this involves a combination of democracy, the social welfare state, and the rule of law. The promotion of good governance in Somalia goes beyond the government sector. It includes all relevant actors from the private sector and society. The aims: To balance interests and focus on common goals, significantly reducing poverty and providing access to state services for all. To make administrative structures participant, efficient, and solution-oriented. Somali people to influence their government to prioritize national development that is equitable and sustainable and create an environment where people can demand better policies in which their leaders are accountable. Our Institute emphasizes the comprehension of responsible and transparent governance systems. Gateway Institute believes civic, and community leadership engagement in urban and rural areas is effectively cultivated through Voter Education. Voter Education involves providing information on who is eligible to vote.
Gateway Institute offers civic education programs that are dedicated to promoting a responsible citizen committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy. Gateway Institute believes that civic and community leadership engagement in urban and rural areas is effectively cultivated through Voter Education. Voter Education involves providing information on who is eligible to vote; where and how to register; how electors can check the voter lists to ensure they have been duly included; what type of elections are being held; where, when, and how to vote; who the candidates are; and how to file complaints; and the basic civil rights and responsibilities of every eligible citizen.
Civic Engagement. Participants include eighteen (18) years old and older. Demographic Area: Across Somalia.
Goal: local communities become a responsible citizen that committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy.
Objectives: (a) Civic awareness and public problem solving, (b) Have knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make difference in the civic life of our communities, (c) An increased understanding of the institutions of constitutional democracy, (d) The willingness to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict, (e) Learn promoting quality of life in a community through political and non-political means, (f) Learn organized community service that addresses local needs.
Questions Related to Civic Education
4. Public Policy
Gateway Institute attempt to shape public policy through education, advocacy, mobilization, and political pressure. We often attempt to educate the general public and public policymakers about the nature of problems, what legislation is needed to address concerns, and the funding required to provide services or conduct research. Although advocacy is viewed as inappropriate by some in the professional and research community, it is clear that public policy priorities are influenced by advocacy. Useful research data can educate the public and policymakers, thereby improving the public policy process.