Somalia and Turkey move to seal a labor pact — and raise bigger questions about jobs, skills, and dignity
In a quiet room in Doha on Friday, Somali Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Yusuf Mohamed sat down with Turkey’s Minister of Labour and Social Security, Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan, to push forward a bilateral labor cooperation agreement. On paper, it is a technical accord: training programs, civil service capacity-building, and a plan to spur job creation. In practice, it is also a test of whether two close partners can convert political warmth into work, wages, and a sturdier social contract for ordinary Somalis.
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Somalia’s Council of Ministers approved the agreement in July 2025. The two sides now say the formal signing will take place in Turkey “soon.” Both ministers agreed to launch specialized training for Somali personnel — especially staff inside the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs — drawing on Turkish expertise to improve skills and strengthen social welfare management. It sounds wonky. It is also exactly the kind of nuts-and-bolts nation-building the country’s restless youth say they want.
Why a labor accord matters now
Somalia has one of the youngest populations in the world, and one of the most constrained job markets. International agencies regularly rank youth unemployment and underemployment among the highest globally. Those statistics are not abstractions in Mogadishu or Baidoa; they are the daily calculus of whether to stay in school, migrate, or risk a small loan on a market stall. A labor cooperation pact that actually produces new skills, standards, and pathways into decent work could bend the curve.
Turkey, for its part, has spent more than a decade deepening ties with Somalia — from building hospitals and rehabilitating the Mogadishu airport to training security forces and providing scholarships. A labor-focused framework is a logical next chapter. It could help Somalia modernize systems that sit behind every job: vocational training, workplace safety, labor inspection, dispute resolution, and the first rungs of social protection. These are the invisible gears of a functioning economy.
From symbolism to systems
Diplomatic communiqués often trade in warm adjectives — “brotherly ties” among them — and this meeting was no exception. But the test is whether the relationship can deliver systems rather than just symbolism. The ministers discussed launching specialized training programs tailored to Somalia’s civil service. That may sound like an internal housekeeping matter. In fact, it is a prerequisite for scaling any national jobs effort.
Consider three practical outcomes this agreement could enable if pursued with sustained funding and clear targets:
- Competency-based vocational training linked to actual employers, not abstract certificates. Turkish vocational schools and industry associations could co-design curricula with Somali counterparts for sectors that are already expanding — construction, logistics, fisheries, and light manufacturing.
- Labor market data and standards that reduce friction. Shared tools for tracking vacancies, skills gaps, and wage trends would help match young jobseekers to openings in real time. Setting baseline standards for safety and contracts could also attract more private investment.
- Early steps toward social protection. Even a modest pilot tying workers to contributions and benefits — injury insurance, maternity protections — would signal a shift from informal survival to predictable systems.
Turkey’s long game in the Horn
To understand the resonance of this deal, it helps to recall how Turkey entered Somalia’s story. In 2011, as famine gripped the country, then–Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a high-profile visit to Mogadishu. That trip, and the subsequent flow of Turkish development aid and investment, set Ankara apart as a partner willing to show up when few others did. Turkish Airlines reinstated commercial flights. A modern hospital opened with Turkish support. A military training facility began producing Somali officers. Thousands of Somali students went to study in Turkish universities.
This deep presence has given Turkey unusual leverage — and responsibility. A labor cooperation pact is therefore more than a technical memorandum. It is a promise that the arc from emergency aid to enterprise will continue. If done well, it could become a template for how middle powers use practical know-how — not just money — to help rebuild institutions scarred by conflict.
Beware the easy traps
There are pitfalls. The most obvious is brain drain: train the best candidates and risk losing them to higher-paying jobs abroad. Policymakers can mitigate that by co-funding apprenticeships with local firms, setting return-of-service terms for public scholarships, and privileging training in sectors where domestic demand is real and rising.
Another risk is treating “job creation” as a slogan. Jobs emerge where logistics are reliable, power is predictable, and rules are fair. That means progress on ports and roads, on power costs, and on the trust that contracts will be honored. A labor pact can complement — but not substitute — those fundamentals.
Finally, if the deal spurs migration of Somali workers to Turkey or Turkish-led projects, protections must travel with them. Clear recruitment standards, grievance mechanisms, and enforceable contracts are not paperwork; they are dignity. The Gulf has learned this lesson the hard way over the past decade under international scrutiny. Somalia and Turkey have a chance to bake in best practices from the start.
What success would look like, one year on
Picture the scene a year after the signing ceremony in Ankara: a vocational center in Hargeisa or Kismayo graduates its first cohort of welders and electricians trained on curricula co-designed with Turkish industries; a digital registry matches construction trainees to worksites expanding the Mogadishu port; a unit within Somalia’s Labor Ministry processes workplace complaints with new software and trained inspectors; and a small but functioning social insurance pilot issues its first benefits to injured workers. None of that makes headlines. All of it changes lives.
Somali officials say the agreement will promote job creation, expand employment opportunities, and strengthen workforce development. The key will be setting measurable targets that survive beyond a single fiscal year: how many trainees placed into paid work, how many firms certified, how many inspections conducted, how many workers covered by basic protections. The public deserves numbers, not platitudes.
Doha as a waypoint, not the destination
That the talks unfolded in Doha is a reminder that Somalia’s economic story is increasingly regional. The Gulf states, Turkey, and East African neighbors are intertwined with Somalia’s trade, security, and migration patterns. Remittances from the Somali diaspora remain a lifeline, injecting billions of dollars annually into households and small businesses. A credible labor system at home could turn those private inflows into public momentum — encouraging diaspora entrepreneurs to invest in firms that can hire trained workers with clear contracts.
Somalia’s minister expressed gratitude for Turkey’s hospitality and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to deepening cooperation. The words were polite and expected. The work ahead is neither. It will require patient coordination, honest data, and the humility to adapt when pilots fail. The question now, for both governments, is simple: will this agreement help a young Somali at a vocational bench see a future worth staying for?
The answer will not come from communiqués, but from pay stubs and paydays.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
