About Us
Our Mission
We tackle development problems caused by market and governance failures. We work on evidence-based socially responsible solutions by involving national and local governments, civil society organisations, companies, academic institutions, and bilateral and multilateral donors.
Our Vision
We believe in building free, equal and sustainable societies that enable everyone to enjoy their fundamental rights and have control over their lives and opportunities for social and economic engagement and participation.
Our Values
We are committed to comply with the rules of socially responsible behaviour. We are accountable to the communities in which we operate and organizations we work with or for. We strive to achieve professional excellence in our work and make effort to meet the international standards. We employ innovative thinking, learning and strategies of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We respect and greatly value our partners and believe that we can only achieve sustainable development and peace in partnership with the communities.
Our core team and senior fellows are local and international experts and practitioners.
Faisa Loyaan
Michelle Spearing
Alnoor Amlani
Abdinasir Osman
Mohamed Hussein
Dr Syed Bahar Ali Kazmi
Fardosa Loyan
Dr Arjumand Bano
Faisa Loyaan Executive Director
Faisa is a co-founder of CAN. She is a dedicated policy researcher with 20+ years of experience focusing on the policy dialogue processes and practices related to peacebuilding, reconciliation, gender, state-building and formation, and climate change. Currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, Changing Character of War Centre, Pembroke College with a research focus on Kenya and Somalia borderlands communities. Faisa has been leading policy dialogue in partnership with the UN agencies in Somalia- UNSOM, UNICEF, UNDP, ODI and IGAD- on ‘advancing the participation of business in peace-building and development in Somalia” after 30+ years of state collapse, and the role of women peacebuilders in peace and reconciliation” Faisa has been a lead co-researcher on mapping institutional capacities across Somalia to access, manage and monitor financing for climate adaptation and resilience for ODI/FCDO. She holds MA in Gender Analysis and Development along with significant professional development training in peacebuilding approaches.
Michelle Spearing Chair of CAN Board
Michelle has over 20 years of experience working in and on fragile and conflict-affected states, spanning operational programming, research and policy engagement, monitoring, and evaluation. Michelle has covered humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding programmes in FCAS, supporting them to be conflict sensitive as well as addressing drivers of conflicts. She is particularly experienced supporting programming to address the linkages between conflict, violence, gender, and social exclusion (including impacts for people with disabilities and LGBTQ+). Michelle holds an MA degree in Peace Studies and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Social Research Skills with Conflict Specialism.
Alnoor Amlani Chief Finance Officer
CFO since 2017. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants with over 20 years of experience in setting up and evaluating systems for donor projects. He has set up and improved numerous small and large financial systems in East and Southern Africa for USAID, UNDP and while working with KPMG Africa and as an independent practitioner for some major NGOs, including Transparency International.
Abdinasir Osman Regional Manager
Abdinasir is CAN’s Somalia based regional programme manager and is an expert on organizational development and has a certificate in Strengthening of Civil Society-Organizations Involving Systems (SOCSIS) awarded by Oxfam Novib and the European Union, and has over 20 years of experience designing and delivering programmes in Somalia. He brings with him an extensive knowledge of and relations with Somali government institutions and civil society, and has proven capacity to manage and monitor programmes ensuring their successful delivery.
Mohamed Hussein Senior Operational Advisor – Office of Exec. Director
Mohamed has over 25 years’ experience in political affairs, international development, parliamentary affairs, governance, and social development in conflict/post-conflict and transition environments in Somalia and the Greater Horn of Africa. Mohamed worked with the United Nation since 1997 and has provided the highest-level strategic advice to six UN Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, as well as UN Development Programme Resident Representative. During this period, he was the principal liaison officer for the United Nations leadership to Somalia interlocutors, including Transitional Federal Government and presently, the Federal Government of Somalia.
Dr Syed Bahar Ali Kazmi Senior Fellow
Dr. Bahar Ali is a co-founder and a research director of the NGO Applied Management Research and Teaching Unit, Aston Business School (UK) and publishes in the areas of corporate social responsibility, human rights, Business-NGO partnerships/Alternative organisations, and role of business in peacebuilding. He has worked with Save the Children UK, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Resource Centre – Prince of Wales Business Leader Forum (UK), the Department for International Development (UK), the European Commission, the Swiss Development Organisation, and the U.S. Labour Department. He holds a PhD in Business and Management from the University of Nottingham (International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (2010), MA in Development Studies (1996) from the University of East Anglia UK and MA in Philosophy from the Government College Lahore (1990 Pakistan).
Fardosa Loyan Senior Fellow
Fardosa holds graduate education in Public Ethics and has more than 15 years of federal government public policy experience encompassing planning, programming and public policy recommendations to the Canadian Federal/Provincial/Territorial governments and stakeholders. She has a number of publications and conference abstracts in the public health literature and conflict studies literature and has been currently engaged in the development of Best Practices in Government Collaboration. She is also a member of the Integrative Peace Building Project at Saint Paul University in Ottawa that among other things is working on the comprehensive approaches for complex military-civilian-diplomatic-operations.
Dr Arjumand Bano Senior Fellow
Dr. Arjumand Bano is currently an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advance Study, University of Warwick, UK. Arjumand has extensive experience of working with NGOs in Pakistan and the United Kingdom, with a focus on women’s and minority rights, democratization, and the voluntary sector infrastructure support. She holds a PhD in Law and an LLM in Law in Development.