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Legal Framework
In identifying the legal framework as a priority challenge in need of attention, participants cited
the Ministry of Planning’s “lack of capacity to [en]force the [NGO] Act” as a barrier to change,
particularly noting Article 35 (which stipulates,
inter alia
, that international organizations
should not be implementing partners of other international agencies) and Article 37 (regarding
the payment of taxes by international organizations to the Ministry of Finance). According to
one participant:
Before we were civil society but no legal pieces. But now we have the legal
pieces and can proceed. And that legal says that international organizations
should support the local to capacitate and to implement through the local
organizations. So, that discussion is going on. Still the international
organizations and the UN, they are still implementing, but the law passed in
parliament.
That participants focused solely on these articles demonstrates the degree of agreement between
civil society and the government that the main purpose of regulating the sector is to control the
behavior of international organizations. While participants noted a lack of public awareness of
the act as an additional challenge, they did not discuss any of its other provisions, including
their own rights and responsibilities under the law.
Funding and Relationship with Donors
Participants identified the need to change the “parent-child relationship between donors and
civil society” as a high-level priority. Similar changes identified by participants included the
desire to “change the traditional relationship between civil society organizations and
international partners” and “to change some negative perception [held by] international
organizations of civil society organizations,” reflecting a general dissatisfaction with the current
state of the partnership that exists between civil society organizations and the international
donor/NGO community. Conversations regarding donors cited, for example, their tendency to
provide short-term, project-based funding, rather than longer-term, core support. As one
participant noted, “Whenever you see a project going on, it stops for lack of funds. The people
who have been trained to implement the project or whatever, they go to other places for chance
of work because there is no continuation of funds.” Participants explained that, at this point,
Somaliland civil society organizations are working to address issues in Somaliland that do not
have short-term solutions. Six-month to one-year programs do not provide civil society
organizations with enough time to achieve their vision or the results they desire; to do so will
require a strategic partnership between civil society and international partners and support for
three to five year core programs. Some participants also indicated that donors/international
NGOs implement programs without “understanding the essence [of Somaliland] civil society.”
Sector Capacity – Medium Priority
Sector Coordination
Workshop participants rated sector capacity as their second priority, primarily focusing on the
need to improve coordination among civil society organizations. According to one participant,
for example, existing umbrellas continue to act as individual organizations, rather than
collaborating with other groups. This tendency was reflected in the areas of focus participants
identified during the workshop – research, women’s empowerment, etc. – which represented
