Max Planck Foundation trains six Somali federalism advisors
The project “Federalism and Decentralisation in Somalia”, which is funded by the German Foreign Office, seeks to gradually build the capacity of the Federal Government and nascent Federal Member State governments to enable them to effectively implement the federal structure of governance in Somalia.
The second “training-of-trainers” workshop of the project was delivered to six Somali Technical Legal Advisers who are embedded within ministries and offices of the Federal Government and Federal Member State governments and are charged with advising key decision-makers in federalism matters. The goal of the project is to enhance the capacity of all stakeholders in Somalia to act cooperatively within a federal structure.
The workshop was held in Nairobi Kenya, from 23 until 27 October 2017 and focussed on the topics of vertical division of powers, fiscal federalism & public finance, national economic development, and natural resource sharing in a federal system. Each of these topics was addressed with a substantial presentation on the subject matter, followed by a working group assignment allowing the participants to apply their newly gained knowledge. In the ensuing discussions both, presentations and working group assignments were rounded up with feedback and input by the Somali Technical Advisers. Following this training-of-trainers workshop, the Somali Technical Advisers will deliver the adjusted presentations and working group assignments to decision-makers and key public servants in identified counterpart institutions at the Federal Government level in Mogadishu as well as at the Federal Member State level in Galmudug, Jubaland, Puntland and South West State.
As most Somali Technical Advisers had already delivered their first federalism trainings for counterpart institutions on the ground, this training-of-trainers workshop served also as a platform for the sharing of experiences and the discussion of lessons learned during the first round of trainings in Somalia under the current project.