the schools are in south-central as well as puntland. we should always remember that despite all those challenges, corruption, etc., despite all that, progress is being made and can be made. a lot of the things, the solutions. biometric payment systems. these were introduced in afghanistan, and other countries. we have been through that chain of payments. the international community collectively has got a lot of experience, positive and successful experience, helping states recover from conflict and fragility. we need not to be too downcast. we know how to do this. we have seen it done before. it can be done. >> we are going to take a couple more questions from both sides. you had a question? the gentleman in the brown jacket. >> i am allen from the wilson center. can you talk about the prospects for somaliland? >> lawrence freeman. africa desk. the new deal in the u.s. was from roosevelt and was very heavily oriented toward infrastructure, economic development, energy, and putting people to work. can you say something about how this is

puntland is the most advanced in being the federal member state. so i guess they are likely to lead the way on that conversation. >> let me -- before we opened this up, let me ask you one other larger question. and that is what is the continuing appeal in somalia for al-shabaab and why are they able still to continue to bring recruits? >> good question. we still don't quite understand the phenomena as well as we should. the united nations has no intelligence capability and ability to look behind the scenes and understand these things as some member states might be able to. my general sense is that they have relied on a combination of some coalition, some intimidation, also some sort of economic opportunity that they offer to people who don't have any other economic opportunity or opening. mix in with that some local politics where potentially along the planned lines were others there is an interest in supporting. the members though there is no evidence the numbers are growi growing. the numbers would be reducing under the pressure they are on now.

the schools are in south-central as well as puntland. we should always remember that challenges,those corruption, etc., despite all that, progress is being made and can be made. things, the solutions. biometric payment systems. these were introduced in afghanistan, and other countries. we have been through that chain of payments. the international community collectively has got a lot of experience, positive and successful experience, helping states recover from conflict and fragility. we need not to be too downcast. we know how to do this. we have seen it done before. it can be done. >> we are going to take a couple more questions from both sides. you had a question? the gentleman in the brown jacket. >> i am helen from the wilson llan from the wilson center. can you talk about the prospects for some only land -- somaliland? >> lawrence freeman. africa desk. the new deal in the u.s. was from roosevelt and was very heavily oriented toward infrastructure, economic development, energy, and putting people to work. can you say something about

thirdly, i think the potential of this to become a regional crisis is now very, very puntland. irc wrote a report before started irc in gender 2013, there was, irc fact i report on syria, a regional crisis. a lot of people talked about it being a civil war but actually i think one has to understand the regional players have got involved. that it begins to speak, if you take those reports, you can begin to seek to draw some implications about the way in which you might want to address it in the future. >> robert? >> from the beginning we have seen the only way out of this conflict is, the ultimate have to be a negotiation between opposition and the regime. that's why we worked so very hard to get to a geneva conference. but i also have to be honest, that did not go anywhere. the regime is not interested in negotiating any kind of a transition government, and that was made abundantly clear in geneva. and what was also interesting was that the russians either could not or did not exert enough pressure on the regime to actually make it discuss even put on an agenda for a discussion