Third Training-of-Trainers Workshop for Somali Technical Advisers on Decentralisation and Federalism

The Max Planck Foundation’s project “Federalism and Decentralisation in Somalia”, which is generously funded by the German Foreign Office, seeks to gradually build the capacity of the Somali Federal Government and nascent Federal Member State governments to be able to effectively implement the federal structure of governance in Somalia. As of 2018 an additional project component was initiated, which aims at supporting the government of the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland in the implementation of its decentralisation policies.

In this context, the project’s third “training-of-trainers” workshop was delivered to eight Somali Technical Advisers, all of whom are embedded within ministries and offices of the Federal Government of Somalia (Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation) and Federal Member State governments (Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, Puntland and South West State). For the first time, the Foundation’s decentralisation adviser, who is delegated to the Somaliland Ministry of Interior, joined the workshop. The idea behind the project is to enhance the capacity of all these stakeholders in Somalia and Somaliland to implement their respective decentralisation or federalisation policies.

The workshop was held from 19-23 February 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya and focussed on the topics of Horizontal Separation of Powers, Local Government Organisation in Decentralised Systems, Federal Member State Participation in Foreign Affairs, and International Aid and Cooperation in a Federal System. Each of these topics was addressed by an introductory presentation on the subject matter from a comparative legal perspective, followed by a presentation from one of the Somali trainers covering the topic from an historical and specifically Somali perspective. Afterwards, a scenario based working group assignment followed, allowing participants to apply their newly acquired knowledge in a practical exercise. In the ensuing discussion the presentations and working group assignments were revised with the feedback from the Somali Technical Advisers to better serve Somali particularities and interests. Following this workshop in Nairobi, the Somali Technical Advisers will deliver the revised presentations and working group assignments to decision-makers and key public servants in predominant institutions at Federal Government level in Mogadishu and at Federal Member State level in Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, Puntland and South West State as well as in Hargeisa, Somaliland.