122
Opportunity 2: Provide individualized assistance and best practices examples of political
parties that have overcome similar challenges and contexts.
Somaliland political parties are cognizant of the challenges they face to party development in
terms of influences from political culture, the state of security and the economy and legacies of
war, among others. Of high priority for political party participants was the sharing of best
practices from political parties from other countries that have successfully consolidated party
structures and undertaken political party outreach and representative activities in situations
similar to those found in Somaliland. Of particular interest were recent experiences from
parties that had overcome: highly limited resources (including limitations to transportation to
visit constituents); low member knowledge of party functions and the role of party members;
and influence and competition from longstanding centers of political and economic power.
The provision of international best practices should be accompanied by more individualized
guidance to political parties and their leaders on topics such as national and grassroots level
party organization, strategy and platform development, membership recruitment, external
communications, revenue generation and financial management, etc. Organizational change
requires top-level buy-in and determination. Generalized trainings aimed at party cadres will
not target that audience, but are important for other goals (see opportunity two). A political
consultant model, where political party leaders receive individualized assistance, would benefit
from strong credibility; competitive organizations will be more cautious taking advice from
someone who is giving advice equally to the competitor. Political consultants provide
individualized assistance, and are often able to benefit from greater disclosure from the client.
Individualized assistance, such as the political consultant model, should be from party leaders
who have experienced challenges similar to those in Somaliland. International donors are well
placed to identify and support such individuals, whether as advisors, mentors or trainers.
Selecting and providing such individuals should be undertaken with care and participation from
the Somaliland political parties themselves, perhaps using a self-selection method; in this way,
parties will be able to select the individual with the experience most in line with their priorities,
and will likely feel more committed to the process and thus to work with the individual.
Opportunity 3: Directly train or support the training of party cadres, including the
development of sustainable party training divisions, to increase the capacity of local level
members to advance party efforts.
All parties noted a need to increase the capacity of party cadres. The limited access to cadre
training was picked up in a 2011 report, “Pillars of Peace, Democracy in Somaliland,
Challenges and Opportunities” by the Academy for Peace and Development and Interpeace, in
which the authors wrote:
The lack of training of the political parties’ functionaries or to an extent their
formal structures which tend to focus on the mobilization, membership,
campaigning, fund raising, mobility, accountability, public outreach, use of
media, etc. is a serious impediment to the growth of sustainable political parties
