The German Federal Foreign Office funded project “Capacity Building and Legal Advice on Political Decentralisation and Federalism in Somalia” aims at supporting the main actors of the Somali decentralisation and federalisation process through systematic capacity building and the provision of legal advice and comparative legal research on a number of decentralisation and federalism questions pertinent to this process. The project runs from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020 and is a continuation of the predecessor project “Federalism and Political Decentralisation in Somalia: Capacity Building and Technical Assistance to the Somali Federal Government, Federal Member States and the Government of Somaliland 2017-2018”, which ended on 31 December 2018.

Under this project, the Foundation supports the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Interior and Federal Affairs of the Somali Federal Government, the Federal Member States/Regional Interim Administrations of Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, Puntland and South West State, as well as the government of the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland. The project’s first component provides for systematic capacity building of relevant staff working on decentralisation and federalism questions through a training-of-trainers approach. The project’s second component entails the provision of legal advice and comparative research on legal questions related to the Somali decentralisation and federalisation process.

For this purpose, the Foundation employs a number of Somali Legal Advisers who are embedded in the relevant project partner institutions across the country. The team at the Foundation will train these Somali Legal Advisers on comparative models and ideas of political decentralisation and federalism and will also conduct comparative legal research and compile the necessary information and materials to effectively advise project partners.

These activities are aimed at the systematic transfer of knowledge on comparative models of political decentralisation and federalism for all actors of the Somali decentralisation and federalisation process and are expected to enable the project partners to take informed decisions and thereby enhance the coherence of the process as such.

1 January 2019 – 31 December 2020

Jan Amilcar Schmidt

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Phone: +49 (0)6221 91404 61
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