Abdi Yousuf M. (Hindi)

I have spent more than twenty years leading complex, multi-stakeholder programs in fragile and conflict-affected environments, and in Canadian settlement and employment services. My work has always sat at the same intersection: turning policy into programs that actually reach people.

In Somalia, I served as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs & Disaster Management and, before that, Minister of Planning & International Cooperation for the Regional Government of Northeast Somalia, working with UN agencies, donors, and local communities on humanitarian coordination, disaster response, and development planning in one of the country's most complex operating environments.

In Toronto, I managed an Employment Services team delivering IRCC, Government of Ontario, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and City of Toronto-funded programs, securing more than $2 million in grant funding, and spent over a decade before that coordinating school-based settlement programs for newcomer families across the city.

I have a background in Public Policy and Canadian Public Administration from Toronto Metropolitan University. I'm fluent in Somali, Arabic, and English, with conversational French, and I stay closely connected to Toronto's newcomer-serving community as much as to the governance and humanitarian networks I worked within across the Horn of Africa.