Oct. 14 - Pier Luigi Malesani, one of the founders of the National University of Somalia (before the Civil War) and current Secretary General of Copeam (Permanent Conference of Audiovisuals in the Mediterranean), visited Mogadishu in the name of cultural exchanges, research and dialogue. His three-day visit sought to assess the situation of Somali universities so as to resume cooperation with Italian counterparts. Accompanied by the Italian ambassador, Fabrizio Marcelli, Malesani met with Foreign Minister Abdirahman Duale Beile, the Minister of Education, Duale Adan Mohamed, the Minister of Health, Ali Mohamed Mohamud, the Minister of Agriculture, Abdi Ahmed Hussein, the Minister of Animal Safety, Salim Aliyow, and Professor Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, Dean of SNU. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently entrusted the CIRPS, the Interuniversity Research Centre for Sustainable Development (which relies on Copeam for all audiovisual matters), with the task of setting up an educational Web TV, with training courses with subtitles in Somali. Somali students enrolled in the Departments of Agriculture, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Law will have the possibility to embark in cultural and scientific exchanges with Italian academic institutions. (Gil)

PIER LUIGI MALESANI

Between 1970 and 1973, Pier Luigi Malesani was a researcher at the Centre for Social Investment Studies, the CENSIS. From 1973 to 1975, on behalf of Comerint (Eni Group), he traveled to Somalia to take part in a project with the National University of Somalia. From 1980 to 1989, he was responsible for training and university cooperation programs at the Department for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is Professor of Regional Economics at the University of Reggio Calabria and of Development Economics within the Department of Agriculture at the University of Florence (1981-1987). He has edited several volumes, including: “La Cooperazione Italiana per la Università Nazionale Somala Quaderno di Cooperazione", Ed. Palombi, 1986;” “Politiche della cooperazione a confronto. I modelli di Francia, Germania, Giappone e Spagna. Riflessioni per il caso italiano”, Ed. Edindustria, 1992. He was Central Deputy Director of IRI from 1990 to 1993, and has since worked for Rai: from 1998 to 2008 he was Director of Institutional and International Relations; in the 2007-2010 period, Malesani was President of NewCo Rai International; and from 2008 to 2011 he was chairman of the Supervisory Board of Euronews. He was also director of the Prix Italian 2006 Venice and 2007 Verona editions. Currently, he is secretary general of Copeam, he is president of Media House Eurovision Rome - Mher, as well as a member of the Supervisory Board of Euronews, a member on the Board of Directors of Ebu America, and a member of the Governing Council of the non-profit organization Agire.