Invited to the one-day event were Somali intellectuals and representatives of non-governmental organizations, as well as foreign scholars with expertise on Somalia.
The presentations highlighted with emphasis on the many success stories of locally initiated peace efforts on community levels as contrasted to the many failed internationally supported and promoted initiatives.
Among the panelists were known on-Somalia experts such as Dr. Ken Menkhaus, who acknowledge the effectiveness and sustainability of the local peace models, urged the international community to recognize and support the superiority of such approaches over the international and national level platforms. The experts also recommended the role of the international community to facilitate locally-driven initiatives and refrain from influencing or engineering them.
The event was used to spotlight a large number of local successful peace efforts in many parts of Somalia that resolved conflicts and hostilities over the last 20 years and yet are hardly known to the international public.