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specific spheres of interest, rather than a common vision for the sector. Furthermore, though
some of the participating organizations serve as umbrellas, there was little to no discussion of
their members, and the different needs and challenges of organizations that may be smaller,
operating in other areas of Somaliland, have less access to donors and the government, etc.
There was some limited mention of a wider sense of civil society – to include academia (in
particular) as well as media and the business community/private sector – but little to no
discussion of the role of grassroots or faith-based organizations, and limited discussion of
service provision. The importance of sharing both information and resources emerged as one
technique towards improving coordination, with the particular example of how women’s
organizations could be more effective if they worked together. A similar sentiment was echoed
in stakeholder interviews as well. As one respondent noted, “civil society organizations are
scattered and not organized. Everyone is just looking for some funding for a certain project.
So, they have little or not much influence on the policies of the government because they are not
united.”
Research
Within the category of sector capacity (but also cutting across others, such as professional
skills), participants prioritized research, particularly feasibility studies and needs assessments to
determine which development projects to implement that will see results. “Through research, a
lot of things [will] be discovered… project management is the fulfillment of the feasibility
studies, and the project cycle and all the things that are contained in the project and the
evaluation and the monetary assessment are also based on this.”
Professional Skills – Medium Priority
The category of professional skills came in third in importance among participants. Those that
still rated this category highly did so believing that individuals form the building blocks of an
organization, and that their capacity in return contributes to capacity at the organizational and
sectoral levels. Within this category, participants rated organizational management and research
skills as the top priorities. Medium priorities within this category included “professional
education and well-trained human resources” (again focused on the higher-education system),
community development, fundraising, advocacy, policy, project appraisal, conflict management
and project planning and management. Within this discussion, participants referred many times
to the myriad of training programs that have been provided to date as “overdone.” According to
one, “we have seen so many job skills trainings and short-term media trainings, and they were
never as effective as they were intended to.” Overall, the wider subject of education repeatedly
arose, particularly with regard to the poor quality of universities and lecturers.
Organizational Capacity – Low Priority
Among the four categories, participants rated organizational capacity as their lowest priority for
assistance. Notably, there was little discussion of the individual subcategories suggested under
this category. Discussion on topics that are associated with organizational capacity – such as
organizational management and development – were instead discussed under professional skills;
while others, such as resource mobilization, were seen as more of a sectoral issue.
Instead, participants expressed fatigue from 20 years of emphasis on capacity building, while
others believed that basic capacity has now been built, and that the time has come to focus on
other issues: “Let’s be clear about capacity building; we don’t need typical capacity building.
