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Enabling Environment – High Priority
Of the four categories discussed with civil society representatives present in the participatory
strategy workshop, participants identified the enabling environment as the area most important
for civil society’s ability to fulfill its function as a democratic institution. One participant
explained “The environment is very important. We did some improvement over the level we
were 10 years ago. Now our vision and how to reach that vision also needs the environment to
be viable for us to work.” In the workshop, participants subsequently highlighted key factors
related to the enabling environment for civil society that, if changed, could best improve civil
society’s operating conditions. Top priorities for change included: the “legal framework for
women to have access to political participation,” the “parent-child relationship between donors
and civil society,” and the “national legal framework” and “rule of law.”
Participation in Decision Making/Legal Framework
Civil society workshop participants identified the legal framework for women’s political
participation as the top priority for change.
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Considerable discussion of this issue ensued
during the participatory strategy workshop. One (female) participant explained that, despite all
of the capacity assistance that Somaliland women receive to encourage their participation in
politics:
Seventeen years we are working the women issue, and after 17 years there is no
more change. Whether we are working to developing, whether we are working
to capacitating women and all these programs. When we talk to the women
issue, there is many problems we are facing, and I’m believing that we are
focusing on enabling environment because after 17 years there is no change.
Participants pointed to having only a single female member within the 82 member Somaliland
parliament, and the traditional Somali cultural attitude toward women’s empowerment, as key
challenges. Participants referenced the initiative of civil society to advocate for quotas for
parliamentary representation of women and other minority groups, which failed passage by the
Somaliland parliament in 2012
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(though a similar initiative by youth activists, led notably by
the Somaliland National Youth Organization, to reduce the age of candidacy from 35 to 25 for
the 2012 local elections was successful). Other participants explained, “Ninety-eight or 99
percent of Somali men are not in the position to allow a woman to govern.” Of a different but
related nature, a female participant pointed to a lack of understanding among judges of the
rights of women in Islam, noting how this prohibits the advancement of women in Somaliland
and thus frustrates her work as a member of civil society.
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During the participatory session, workshop facilitators observed considerable lobbying by the female participants
for their male counterparts to identify the legal framework for women’s participation as their highest priority for
change within the enabling environment category. Consequently, it is possible that the top ranking of this sub-
category may not sufficiently represent the consensus of the group – although it does underscore the importance of
this issue among the participants advocating for its prioritization, and their increasing exasperation at failing to
achieve more substantial gains in this area.
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Dahir, Barkhad. "Somaliland Lawmakers Oppose Parliament Quota for Women and Minorities."
Hawo Tako
.
N.p., 6 Sept. 2012. Web. <
.
