The Bank said it had held extensive consultations with various partners, donors, UN agencies and Somali stakeholders. The initiative will be jointly implemented with the UN Development Program (UNDP) and other partners, the statement said, adding that the proposed activities would be covered by a grant from the bank’s Post-Conflict Fund.

The World Bank halted its operations in Somalia in the wake of civil war and resumption of new lending is hampered by the fact that the country is in arrears, lacks a functional government and the security situation is unstable.

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Farah Wehliye Addow, one of six presidential aspirants, has stressed the need to treat all Somali clans equally. “For peace to permanently prevail in Somalia, all clans must be treated equally. If I win, all clans will designate their own members for appointment to government and the Cabinet,” he told the East African Standard newspaper on Wednesday.

After years of international sports leadership, he claimed to have acquired the requisite political skills to propel Somalia to political and economic stability. “I want to create justice and equality among all the clans because some clans have not been treated fairly in the past.

This has to stop, because we all belong to one Somalia,” said Addow, a vice chairman of the African Football Confederation (CAF). He is outgoing president of Somali Football Federation, and was also the president of Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa), which he quit on May 18.

Addow will face Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of the Regional Administration of Puntland; Abdirahman Jama Barre, former foreign minister; Abdullahi Ahmed Addow, former finance minister; and faction leaders Hussein Farah Aidid and Muhammad Omer Habeb.

Meanwhile, Somali businessmen have pledged support for the outcome of the peace talks being held in Kenya. Muhammad Jirde Hussein, a Somali businessman, said that the business community would support any comprehensive agreement emerging from the talks. “We will support morally, materially and physically any new government that comes out of Nairobi,” he told a UN humanitarian website.

Jirde was one of delegates from business community who met Somali participants at the peace talks and Kenyan Special Envoy Bethwel Kiplagat. “We (businessmen) have told the delegates to stay the course and conclude the conference successfully. The community has the money and military muscle. If it puts them at the disposal of the government, this will succeed, but without the support of business leaders, getting a government going will be next to impossible,” he said.

It is widely believed that the business community could play a crucial role in restoring law and order in the war-ravaged country. This was the reason why the organizing committee had invited the business delegation from inside and outside Somalia, he added.