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this shift in focus toward South Central will fare for Somaliland is yet to be seen, varying
perspectives on the matter were expressed by representatives of donors and implementing
partners interviewed, including:
I think that as South Central opens up, a lot of the donor attention is obviously
starting to float south, and I think it’s important to remind folks that while, yes,
South Central is opening and needs a ton of support, we need to maintain a
certain level of support for Somaliland…So, I think just making sure that that
focus doesn’t completely shift is a big concern of ours;
The challenge was, in my opinion, making sure that Somaliland didn’t get lost in
the larger Somalia conversation…we don’t want to get to the point where you do
all the right things and you don’t get any reward for that, but you do all of the
wrong things and that’s where all the attention is. So I think that’s the biggest
challenge for Somaliland, it’s to make sure that it’s not lost in this larger Somalia
conversation;
The context is becoming very difficult because Somalia is emerging...Now you
have that kind of limbo on the side of the identity and context because a lot of
attention has shifted to Mogadishu. What does that mean to the [Somaliland]
democratization process?…I would be remiss if I didn’t point out in terms of
challenges of the relationship between Somalia and Somaliland right now. As
Somalia is now solidifying its government, I think that we have to be careful that
the donor community doesn’t run away and just focus on Somalia now and
Puntland, that they continue to focus on Somaliland;
As you might understand, the political attention is at the moment on the south,
but still from the development side, it's still important also to have a balance
between the support;
I think you will see an increased engagement in Somalia over the years to come
as things open up and assuming the security situation holds and the progress kind
of continues to move forward. How much of that will go into Somaliland versus
the rest, I think, is still an open question, but I think there is a realization that
even though Somaliland is in a very, very different democratic stage and in a
different political stage, that there is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of
things to be supported.
Historical Donor Focus on Elections
As can be seen from the
History of International Democracy and Governance Support to
Somaliland
section of this report above, democracy and governance support from the
international community to date has been overwhelmingly focused on Somaliland’s electoral
processes; significant levels of assistance were provided for the 2003, 2005, 2010 and, to a
lesser extent, 2012 elections with programming generally waning in the inter-election periods.
Although in recent years several longer-term programs have been implemented that do not have
an election focus, such as the UN Joint Program on Local Governance and Decentralized
Service Delivery, the Transition Initiatives for Stabilization and IRI’s USAID-funded
parliamentary support programs, a number of donors and implementing partners interviewed
