All you may need to know about the Somaliland's newly appointed Minister for Health

Dr Hassan Ismail Yusuf has been previously served as the Somaliland’s Minister for Health and Labor from 10^th October 2001 up to 5th July 2003. He has been nominated to this position by the late president of Somaliland, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal who passed away shortly after his appointment and then, he was among 6 ministers and 3 deputy ministers whose the former house of representatives rejected to pass as the executive body proposed late to the parliament, in citing a letter wrote to the newly elected president, Dahir Rayale Kahin by the former deputy speaker of the house, Mr. Abdulqadir Haji Ismail Jirde (now Somaliland MP) in regard to the rules, the newly appointed ministers should appear in the house of representatives for approval within a period of not more than a month, and they were in their offices serving for more than six months without either approval or rejection, so, the parliament insisted that the new president should either re-nominate them or fire them and fulfill their positions with new faces.     

  Then, the former president, Dahir Rayale, agreed the parliament suggestion and he had re-nominated them again and submitted to the house, where the parliament passed to resume their duties in Saturday, 13^th July, 2002, that is to say, Dr. Hassan Ismail Yusuf had won the confidence of the two former presidents of Somaliland, Mohamed H. Ibrahim Egal and Dahir Rayale Kahin to hold the position of the Minister of Health for Somaliland.

 In the role of minister he had  preceded by the late minister Dr. Abdi Aw-dahir Ali who resigned from this role to become the Secretary General of the UDUB party and succeeded by the late minister Osman Qasim Qodax, they had both passed away, may ALLAH rest in peace.

During his tenure, he had struggled hard to manage and control ill behavioral and corrupted chronic staff of the ministry, who’s some of them, had remained within the ministry for decades, where he made sure to oversee all ministerial activity under his control fearing that they might plot against him as they were eager to misplace resources, misbehave to the partner organizations or to not use his power to carry out certain missions in an attempt to influence of the office of the minister, so that they may gain financial or career benefits. 

  He had built a strong working relationship to his director general, Ahmed Abdi Jama and laid down several milestones, including setting up programs and policies to regulate health and strengthen the system, including establishment of the Somaliland Health Council chaired by Dr. Muse Qasim (Now Somaliland Health Professions Council) and implementation of the Second phase of the WHO’s Horn of Africa Initiative (HOAI) program, where under his guidance expanded to all border districts with Ethiopia and Djibouti. In his suggestion, Somaliland had the following two cross-border sites:

·  Somaliland – Ethiopia (Somali Region), at 7 districts (Borama, Gebiley, Hargeisa, Odweyne, Buro, Buhodle, Las Anod and Balli Gubadle)

· Somaliland – Djibouti at Awdal Region with the 2 districts of Zeila and Borama.

   He was also was the first health minister who publicly confessed the presence of HIV/AIDS in Somaliland when most African leaders simply denied the scientific evidence that HIV was being transmitted in their countries and organized community members and raised awareness to the public and established IPCTS Centers for the treatment of people affected by the disease, and also he has been the first minister who banned importing and sale of TB drugs by the pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies to prevent MDR-TB strains emergence inSomaliland. 

  Dr. Hassan Ismail holds Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree from the Somali National University and Master’s Degree in Public Health from Imperial College London (UK) and also had a second Masters degree in Community Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (UK); he also had served to UN agencies in several capacities including WHO and UNICEF. He had also served as the dean of faculty of medicine at the University of Hargeisa and he is currently working as the dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Burao. 

 Dr. Hassan has a strong sense of responsibility, patriotism and energetic which many of Somaliland's medical community believing and wishing him to restore the function and the reputation of the Health Ministry which suffered badly in terms of services, dignity and paralyzed due to the mismanagement under the incumbent administration.          

Dr. Mohamed Y. Dualeh, MD