Workshop series for selected members of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies in Somalia continues.
Under the German Federal Foreign Office funded project Capacity Building and Legal Advice for the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies in Somalia, the Max Planck Foundation organised another round of workshops for members of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies of South-West State, Hirshabelle, Puntland, and Jubaland.
The Somali Legal Advisors trained by the Foundation during the second training-of-trainers workshop held in May 2023, conducted the workshops on the ‘Allocation of Powers and Competences in a Federal System’ with the remote support of the local Project Coordinator and Senior Legal Advisor as well as the project team. The workshop kicked off with a general introduction to the nature and purpose of a federal system. The presentation delivered by the Foundation’s staff raised key issues in three basic categories of vertical powers, namely, legislative, executive, and judicial divisions of power. The main focus of the presentation was then the allocation of legislative powers in a federal system and the respective options, ie exclusive, concurrent, and residual powers, as illustrated by various case studies, covering a wide range of federal countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, and others. A discussion on the current gaps in the allocation of legislative powers in the Somali Provisional Constitution of 2012 concluded the presentation. After the presentation, the participants worked on a group exercise on the negotiation of vertical division of powers in a fictious country.
The first workshop on the topic was held in Baidoa for selected members of the South-West State Assembly on 26 June 2023. For selected members of the Legislative Assembly of the Hirshabelle State Assembly in Jowhar the workshop was held on 5 July 2023, for the Jubaland State Assembly in Kismayo on 29 July 2023 and for the Puntland House of Representatives in Garowe on 31 July 2023. Following a request from the Speaker of the Galmudug State Assembly, the local project team in Galmudug conducted a workshop on the ‘Review of the Rules of Procedure of the Galmudug State Assembly’ on 12 June 2023. A workshop on the ‘Allocation of Powers and Competences in a Federal System’ was postponed.
In all four locations in which the workshop was held, the topic was highly appreciated. The participants were particularly interested in reviewing and discussing the latest National Consultative Council (NCC) agreement on the allocation of powers in Somalia and to compare it with international standard practices.