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Capacity Building and Legal Advice for the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies in Somalia

The German Federal Foreign Office funded project “Capacity Building and Legal Advice for the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies in Somalia” supports the Somali Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies of Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, Puntland and South-West State with technical and legal advice, and training.

The main focus of this legal advice and training is sub-national legislation in general and its compatibility with the Somali Provisional Constitution of 2012 and federal laws in particular. The aim of the project is to enhance the overall quality of sub-national legislation and ensure the coherence of the emerging legal framework of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

The project team supports selected committees of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies with the review of draft legislation aimed at improving the quality of legislative drafts in terms of constitutional and international standards as well as their compatibility with the federal constitution and federal laws. Furthermore, a training program on comparative constitutional law and federalism issues is provided to enhance the overall knowledge and capacities of members of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies.

In addition, the respective Speakers and their administrative staff receive advice and training on questions of parliamentary administration and the management of parliamentary affairs. The project team thus provides technical and legal advice with respect to identifying legislative priorities, managing legislative processes, and the planning and setting of plenary and committee meetings, as well as regular capacity building trainings for relevant parliamentary support staff in lending administrative assistance to these processes.

An additional project component is dedicated to the female members of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies and offers special advice and training on issues relating to the representation of women’s interests in Somalia. The project team provides legal advice and counsel on draft legislation with respect to the way and extent to which specific women rights and interests are considered. This is further complemented by a specific training program for female members of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies on their role as legislators and is aimed at strengthening their legal knowledge and legislative drafting skills.

For the implementation of these project components, local legal advisors are employed who are trained and supported by the Max Planck Foundation in the framework of a training-of-trainers approach. These local legal advisors support the daily work of the respective project partner institutions and hold the legal capacity building workshops for selected members, selected administrative staff and the female members of the Federal Member State Legislative Assemblies, the content of which is being prepared and designed by experts of the Max Planck Foundation.