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Children’s Fund, UN Refugee Agency, UN Population Fund, Internal Organization for
Migration, UN Political Office for Somalia and UN Office on Drugs and Crime work together
with partners from the Somaliland ministries of national planning and development, justice,
interior, labor and social affairs and finance, and the accountant general, auditor general, Civil
Service Commission, Civil Service Institute and the Central Bank.
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Key relevant sub-outcomes for outcome three are that the Somali people are fairly and
inclusively represented in elected and appointed government positions and are able to hold their
government accountable, and all branches of government at all levels fulfill their mandate, with
an emphasis on strengthening the participation of women, youth and minorities.
Key approaches for achieving outcome three include: support to institutional capacity
development through public sector reform, enhanced aid coordination mechanisms,
strengthened public finance management and public accounting and auditing systems; the
establishment and implementation of participatory budgeting processes; and the inclusion of
gender equality and women’s empowerment and new legislation to be developed with the
involvement of women, youth and minority groups.
The UN Joint Program on Local Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery II (2013-
2017) is a joint program for Somalia by the International Labour Organization, UN Capital
Development Fund, UN Development Program, UN Habitat and UN Children’s Fund.
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The
program is aligned to the programming frameworks of the Somalia Reconstruction and
Development Program 2008-2012 and the UN Transition Plan 2008-2009 and builds upon the
first phase of the program which ran between 2007 and 2012.
The strategy pursued comprises three outcomes:
i.
Policy and legal reforms
for functional, fiscal and administrative decentralization that
clarify the role of local government and its relations to the central government;
ii.
Improving local government’s capacity
for equitable service delivery, including
training, coordination between districts and increasing local revenue generation and the
scope of Local Development Funds; and
iii.
Improving service delivery
in an equitable and socially-accountable manner, including
greater collaboration with NGOs, improved coordination with line ministries and
enhanced accountability to constituents.
Future Considerations
In comparison with the wider Somalia context, Somaliland’s governance structure can be
viewed as a relatively successful combination of traditional modes of authority and decision-
making with institutions representing ‘modern’ democratic ways of governing. Though the
major force of tradition – the
Guurti
, or House of Elders – remains within the parliamentary
system, Somaliland’s executive and local governance structures have arguably moved (and are
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In addition, parliamentary oversight committees.
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The program receives funds from donors such as the European Union, DFID, Danish International Development
Agency, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Italy, Norway and Switzerland.
