Max Planck Foundation organises first Interregional Training for selected staff of Ministries of Interior and Federal Affairs in Somalia
From 5–6 October 2016, the Max Planck Foundation organised the first Interregional Training for selected staff of Federal and Federal Member State Ministries of Interior and Federal Affairs in Somalia. This Interregional Training was the first of a series of such trainings, which aim at bringing together representatives from line Ministries of the Federal Government and the emerging Federal Member States of Somalia to be trained on models of other federal state systems in Africa and beyond and to discuss pertinent issues of the Somali federalisation process from a comparative perspective. The topic of this first Interregional Training was the management of intergovernmental relations in a federal system and was attended by five representatives from the Federal Ministry of Interior and Federal Affairs, five representatives from each of the respective line Ministries from Puntland, Galmudug, South West State and Jubbaland, plus five representatives from the regional governments of Hiraan, Middle Shabelle and Benaadir.
First, the Max Planck Foundation facilitators provided the participants with information on federal coordination and cooperation from a comparative perspective to highlight how other federal countries have addressed intergovernmental issues. In the ensuing discussions, the participants then exchanged their respective views on the current situation of intergovernmental coordination and cooperation between the different levels of governments in Somalia and how these could be improved.
In a second part, the training was devoted to two scenario-based exercises with the participants which provided the participants with the opportunity to apply their knowledge from the first part in an inter-active manner.
In Somalia, as an emerging federal state, the establishment of a forum for discussion and harmonisation of the relationship between the Federal Government and Federal Member States is pertinent. The training forms the first of a series of Interregional Trainings delivered under the Max Planck Foundation’s project “Support to the Somali Federalisation Process”, which is financed by the German Federal Foreign Office.