The Foundation organised a workshop for newly elected Members of the Somaliland Parliament.
From 19 to 20 October 2021, the Foundation organised an introductory workshop for newly elected members of the Somaliland House of Representatives. The workshop was held in Hargeisa for more than 30 members and supporting staff of the House of Representatives and was formally opened by His Excellency, Hon. Sa’ed Mire Farah, First Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The workshop was part of a comprehensive needs assessment mission to establish current issues and challenges of the Somaliland Parliament to develop ideas for future support activities of the Foundation. The workshop and the needs assessment were conducted under the EU-funded project Legal Capacity Building and Technical Support for the Somali Federal Parliament and supported by the EU Partnership Facility with UNOPS.
The workshop aimed to provide the Foundation with the opportunity to engage with members of Parliament and gain a better understanding of their educational background and knowledge. At the same time the Somaliland Parliament gained valuable insight into the work of the Max Planck Foundation and its support and teaching methods. The workshop also addressed a wide range of topics from a comparative constitutional law perspective, such as the role of legislature in law-making, government oversight processes, and budget processes.
Furthermore, the workshop included a practical working group exercise on the Role of the Legislature in Law-Making and a plenary discussion on the role of the Parliament under Somaliland’s constitutional framework.
The workshop achieved its primary objective of allowing the Foundation to assess the capacity of newly elected members of the Somaliland Parliament regarding their role and functions as legislators in Somaliland’s government and comparative constitutional law. This information is crucial for the Foundation’s needs assessment and developing future support for the Somaliland Parliament.