The adoption of the Provisional Constitution of Somalia in August 2012 has officially heralded the transition of the country from a unitary to a federal republic. The two main institutions spearheading this transition are the Ministry of Interior and Federal Affairs (MoIFA) and the Boundaries and Federation Commission (BFC). On behalf of the Federal Government, the MoIFA is responsible for the establishment of local and regional administrations as well as intergovernmental coordination and cooperation. The BFC is a constitutionally independent entity charged with the responsibility of determining the number and boundaries of constituent units that will make up the Somali federation, subject to parliamentary approval.

In recognition of the lack of local expertise and experience in relation to federalism, and building on its long-standing experience of supporting the Somali constitutional review and implementation process, the Max Planck Foundation started the implementation of a capacity building and technical assistance project in April 2015 for the two institutions, the MoIFA and the BFC. The purpose of the project is to provide direct legal support to both institutions to enable them to effectively and legitimately discharge their responsibilities towards the establishment of a peaceful and sustainable Federal Republic of Somalia.

The project has two main components. The first segment involves the provision of continuous technical legal assistance to the MoIFA and the BFC. The second leg of the project consists of a series of training-of-trainer (ToT) workshops for Somali technical advisors embedded in the MoIFA and the BFC. Based on the ToT workshops, the advisors will organise a number of seminars to selected members of the two institutions in Mogadishu, Somalia.

As of May 2016, the German Foreign Office expanded the project, allowing the Foundation to provide additional technical legal assistance with respect to the Somali federalisation process to the Office of the Prime Minister of the Somali Federal Government as well as a number of capacity building workshops for relevant staff of the Office of the Prime Minister. Furthermore, the expansion allows for the facilitation of a number of interregional coordination meetings between line ministries of the Somali Federal Government and Federal Member States/Regional Interim Administrations on issues of intergovernmental coordination and cooperation as well as a number of regional consultation meetings with regional stakeholders on administrative boarder demarcation for the BFC.

20 April 2015 – 31 December 2016

Jan Amilcar Schmidt

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Phone: +49 (0)6221 91404 61
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