Somaliland women are regarded as very dynamic and vital for family affairs, socioeconomic develop... more Somaliland women are regarded as very dynamic and vital for family affairs, socioeconomic development, peacemaking, sources of social connectivity, cultural exchange, and bridge of inter-marriage and lineage relations that connect clan families. This interplay inspires social relations and coexistence among clans and society at large. On the other hand, within social spheres, women have some prevailing natural resilience and stamina during difficult times such as civil wars, droughts, natural disasters, and other episodes. During the civil war in 1988 and the postwar period, most families in Somaliland relied on women as breadwinners. Hence, this paper explores and sheds light on what instigates the Somaliland women to remain perennially a periphery condition in regards to their political rights generally, and participation in elections in particular. The paper seeks to understand whether the persistent matters of women resting on the cultural dogmatic assumptions or fatally customary practices. The inheritance of customary division of labor for men and women commences an obvious tendency as predetermined tasks for women that puts women below the men's roles of social and political affairs. This unequal division of roles and responsibilities that Somali customary dictated, has undermined women's potentiality socially and politically. For instance, if women attempt to break such a customary restraint that constrains their rights, it is instantly blamed that women infringe the social norms and cultural values of the society, this puts women in the spotlight. In addition, whenever women raise a concern, the customary law reflects on its basis of procedural and detrimental practices against women, even if the customary law does not consider the Islamic sharia guiding principles as in many cases happen. The rape cases are classical examples of how the traditional chiefs manipulate the adherence of the customary law. In terms of political participation, and elections, the clan system is instrumental in diminishing women's ambition in politics by creating an unfriendly atmosphere for women's political participation and overall in decision-making circles. Furthermore, the paper also attempts to examine the Islamic sharia perspective on women's political participation and elections.
The state-making of Somaliland has been borne out of the experiences gained from the aborted unio... more The state-making of Somaliland has been borne out of the experiences gained from the aborted union between the British Protectorate of Somaliland and Italian Somalia. The driving aim behind the proclamation of statehood was to reinstate Somaliland's sovereignty and independence that was lost in 1960. Somalilanders were galvanized by the euphoria of Somali nationalism in the pursuit of the greater Somali Republic in the Horn of Africa that all five Somali territories unite into one nation-state. Their zeal merely earned them destruction. Such destruction includes the tyranny and genocide which was inflicted upon the land and people for over the thirty years whilst the failed union lasted. Therefore, this article reexamines historical mistakes in the post-colonial period and the negative consequences of the union of thirty years with Somalia. It explores Somaliland's experiences of this failed merger, and Somaliland's achievements and challenges over the past thirty years since Somaliland regained its sovereignty. The article compares and contrasts how Somaliland fared during each of the thirtyyear periods. The article also analyses the challenges posed by the non-recognition on political grounds that prevented Somaliland to attain its sovereign rights. Despite the critical and difficult conditions that confronted the state-making process of Somaliland, the interplay between state and non-state actors had become the means and methods to create durable peace and political stability which prevented vengeful acts, anarchy, and political turmoil in Somaliland. The historical backdrop of the unsuccessful merger, too, has become a salient factor and thriving agenda for Somaliland to prove its internal sovereignty, statehood, and a workable political system based on multiparty, competitive elections, and a check and balance of the state organs. The Republic of Somaliland has likewise become a potent regional and international player for the fate of peace, security, and regional economic integration.
ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which com... more ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which competitive elections is center to its pattern. Successive elections were conducted in Somaliland, including the municipal elections in 2002, the first competitive democratic presidential election held in 2003, and the parliamentary elections in 2005, the second presidential election in 2010. The third presidential election is scheduled in November 2017. Nonetheless, delays to timely elections overshadowed the blatant democratic reputation of Somaliland, which occasioned international partners to reconsider its sums of its assistance to Somaliland. There was also a domestic frustration over the elections postponements, and failure to honor timely elections. The upcoming presidential election was due in 2015 and has been delayed two consecutive times, while the elections of the Somaliland legislative houses are overstaying the constitutional limits. Somaliland has succeeded to recover its post-conflict political polarization through indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms, and constitutional democracy. It is notable to mention that multilayered political and social conflicts resolved in between 1991-1997 without external assistances. And, this has contributed to the establishment of political system which led to the foundation of power sharing and broader political and clans' reconciliations. Somaliland's state-building process is dubbed as " hybrid political order " in sense that Somaliland combines the House of Guurti which is more inclusive political organ and unelected House with the democratically elected bodies— President, Local Councilors, and the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, the House of Guurti was blamed of legitimizing postponements of elections, as were unconstitutional in a number of occasions, and also the act of avoidance of laying the foundation of its electoral system, the Guurti election law. It is worth to mention that the House of Guurti has made tremendous efforts in resolving political and clans' conflicts during the decade of fragility in 1991-1997. The House of Guurti was only the political and traditional organ with capacity and leadership to handle political and clans' reconciliations; creation of the House of Guurti was a vital instrument to restore peace and political stability. Thus, there is a heated debate on how the electoral system of the House of Guurti will be, and it is beyond reasonable doubt that unelected House of Guurti ascertains key democratic challenges in the post-transition and constitutional democratic process. This policy brief is examining to what extent the upcoming presidential elections will comply in conformity of international electoral standards. In Somaliland, the electoral process has experienced constant challenges that hugely affected the electoral process. But in this year there are some improvements considering the secured voters list, impartial national electoral commission, development electoral laws and code of conducts and some degree of political parties maturity adds to the democratic pride that is enjoyed in Somaliland comparing other African countries. Finally, the domestic and international observers, civil society organizations and independent media were an integral part of the process and now are playing constructive role on how the presidential elections to be held in a manner which is free, fair, transparent and peaceful.
ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which com... more ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which competitive elections is center to its pattern. Successive elections were conducted in Somaliland, including the municipal elections in 2002, the first competitive democratic presidential election held in 2003, and the parliamentary elections in 2005, the second presidential election in 2010. The third presidential election is scheduled in November 2017. Nonetheless, delays to timely elections overshadowed the blatant democratic reputation of Somaliland, which occasioned international partners to reconsider its sums of its assistance to Somaliland. There was also a domestic frustration over the elections postponements, and failure to honor timely elections. The upcoming presidential election was due in 2015 and has been delayed two consecutive times, while the elections of the Somaliland legislative houses are overstaying the constitutional limits. Somaliland has succeeded to recover its post-conflict political polarization through indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms, and constitutional democracy. It is notable to mention that multilayered political and social conflicts resolved in between 1991-1997 without external assistances. And, this has contributed to the establishment of political system which led to the foundation of power sharing and broader political and clans' reconciliations. Somaliland's state-building process is dubbed as " hybrid political order " in sense that Somaliland combines the House of Guurti which is more inclusive political organ and unelected House with the democratically elected bodies— President, Local Councilors, and the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, the House of Guurti was blamed of legitimizing postponements of elections, as were unconstitutional in a number of occasions, and also the act of avoidance of laying the foundation of its electoral system, the Guurti election law. It is worth to mention that the House of Guurti has made tremendous efforts in resolving political and clans' conflicts during the decade of fragility in 1991-1997. The House of Guurti was only the political and traditional organ with capacity and leadership to handle political and clans' reconciliations; creation of the House of Guurti was a vital instrument to restore peace and political stability. Thus, there is a heated debate on how the electoral system of the House of Guurti will be, and it is beyond reasonable doubt that unelected House of Guurti ascertains key democratic challenges in the post-transition and constitutional democratic process. This policy brief is examining to what extent the upcoming presidential elections will comply in conformity of international electoral standards. In Somaliland, the electoral process has experienced constant challenges that hugely affected the electoral process. But in this year there are some improvements considering the secured voters list, impartial national electoral commission, development electoral laws and code of conducts and some degree of political parties maturity adds to the democratic pride that is enjoyed in Somaliland comparing other African countries. Finally, the domestic and international observers, civil society organizations and independent media were an integral part of the process and now are playing constructive role on how the presidential elections to be held in a manner which is free, fair, transparent and peaceful.
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Somaliland and Somalia peace-building process has had some divergent experi... more ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Somaliland and Somalia peace-building process has had some divergent experiences, actors and interventions. The reconciliation efforts in the peace-building initiatives in Somaliland, for instance, did not commence at the time Mohamed Siyad Barre's regime was defeated. It was the agenda of the Somali National Movement (SNM) to reconcile the clans which have been engaged in a long period of fighting since 1988-1990. This is subsequently facilitated the restoration of peace and stability in Somaliland. This process has also promoted traditional authorities and political actors to come together at a time the situation was very critical and devastating in Somaliland. In contrary, United Somali Congress (USC) in Mogadishu Somalia had immediately faced the new cycle of violent conflict, destruction and retaliations among clans. In fact, these new bloody civil wars were blamed on the USC which were split into two wings one was leading by General Mohamed Farah Aided and other led by Ali Mahid Mohamed. This has in the onset portrayed the scale of the problem in Somalia especially in Mogadishu. The international community response to the Somalia crisis contributed to the deterioration of violent conflict that sized many regions in Somalia in the post Siyad Barre period from 1991 onwards. This implies that external interventions in Somalia such as the deployment of peacekeeping forces of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) did not bring any solution to the longstanding problems in Somalia. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss the distinction and modalities between the peace-building process in Somaliland and Somalia and will attempt to raise these questions: who are the actors involved or leading the initiative of peace-building in Somaliland and Somalia?; how were the peace-building interventions conducted by considering the historical, social, cultural, religious and political organizations in both regions?; and what lessons and experiences can be learned.?
___________________________________________________________________________ Somaliland Developmen... more ___________________________________________________________________________ Somaliland Development Fund (SDF) was established in Somaliland in 2013. The SDF has been domestically viewed as the most effective aid modality that Somaliland has experienced over the past twenty five years, due to two reasons: first the SDF was tailored to respond to specific national and regional priorities. Secondly, the SDF was born through a dialogue among local political actors, civil society and donors who realized that Somaliland development trajectories deserved to be upgraded since the country had much adhered to more liberal principles of civic political engagement, free press, democratic elections and political pluralism. Moreover, the SDF development modality demonstrated that other aid development mechanisms were neither predictable nor effective because Somaliland obtains a lot of development assistance from international community which compared badly to SDF. Somaliland was neither receipt entity nor was it consulted on strategic directions. Unlike SDF, many of the international partners did not pursue aid effectiveness principles which included mutual accountability, ownership and aid predictability in their interventions. As a participant observer, I was witnessed dialogues between government ministers and donors during the SDF regular steering committee. They were, indeed, very constructive and productive. Furthermore, the fact that the civil society was there as observers in the dialogues promoted accountability and transparency of all principal stakeholders as it encouraged practice of an inclusive policy at all stages. Hence, the general public came to believe that the international community and donors were now on the right track since the SDF has become operational. The public highly welcomed the SDF as a realistic and rational model of development that enhanced the morale and confidence of the people of Somaliland. The SDF widely contributed Somaliland to improve the infrastructure of the country which was either destroyed by civil strife against the Siad Barre dictatorship or not developed before at all. In the civil society's standpoint, I want also to highlight that SDF has created an atmosphere whereas the government ministries learned a lot from this process in terms of the principles of good governance and in deepening the donors' constant engagement. In this regard, the SDF can be attributed to a greater recognition of the international community support to Somaliland's development trajectory. The New Deal framework and Somaliland Special Arrangement (SSA) promoted widening the initiative to be imminent, credible and deliverable. It was for the first time that Somaliland felt a greater ownership and tangible progress, in other words, the SDF initiative exposed how traditional aid flow approaches failed to offer any concrete development impact across and how the situation could be saved for better outputs.
Ethiopian Capital Newspaper interviewed with Mohamed A. Mohamoud about the issues of Somaliland i... more Ethiopian Capital Newspaper interviewed with Mohamed A. Mohamoud about the issues of Somaliland independence, merger in 1960 between Somaliland and Somalia, since the Republic of Somaliland has been celebrating its 25 anniversary on May 18 2016. This interview is emphasizing the importance of the regional peace and stability and how Somaliland deservers to be recognized in order to foster the peace, stability and development of the region in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
In due course, the international community needs to fully understand that any event to resume the... more In due course, the international community needs to fully understand that any event to resume the talks between Somaliland and Somalia may bring out the previous resentment and historical grievance between the two sides that commenced at the history of the union.
Notably the recurrent of political and security crisis in Somalia preventing any meaningful solut... more Notably the recurrent of political and security crisis in Somalia preventing any meaningful solution to be realized, Somalia state- building needs rethinking, and leadership, currently the federalism model in Somalia is pursuing more inconstant and fragile approach.
Conflict Dynamics International most recently Briefing Paper on Somaliland and Somalia attempts t... more Conflict Dynamics International most recently Briefing Paper on Somaliland and Somalia attempts to raise some of the controversial arguments about the political future of Somaliland and Somalia. Mostly the paper is searching for political accommodation and inclusive political arrangements that advocate towards imposing reunification of Somalia and Somaliland, despite, confronting historical evolutions and trajectory of the problems caused by Somaliland’s independence and its withdrawal of the Union in 1960. In the inception of the paper the authors showed more sympathy with Somalia and its current political trends of federalism. The options generated this paper seem to be unconvincing and unacceptable to the context of Somaliland which most actors in the world witnessed the sustainable peace and workable governance system.
On May 18 1991, the ex-British Somaliland Clan Representatives and Somali National Movement (SNM)... more On May 18 1991, the ex-British Somaliland Clan Representatives and Somali National Movement (SNM) leadership had collectively and enthusiastically proclaimed that Somaliland British protectorate restored its independence and political sovereignty. This dissolution of 1960 merger was nonviolent, accurate, applicable and timely. Therefore, this paper is very much arguing that Somaliland’s case of rejection and withdrawal from the abortive and unrepresentative merger is historically, politically and legally justifiable. It also argues that the driving forces behind this decision included the need to achieve justice, equality, democracy, as well as, the creation of credible freedom for Somaliland citizens and durable peace in the Horn of Africa.
Somaliland women are regarded as very dynamic and vital for family affairs, socioeconomic develop... more Somaliland women are regarded as very dynamic and vital for family affairs, socioeconomic development, peacemaking, sources of social connectivity, cultural exchange, and bridge of inter-marriage and lineage relations that connect clan families. This interplay inspires social relations and coexistence among clans and society at large. On the other hand, within social spheres, women have some prevailing natural resilience and stamina during difficult times such as civil wars, droughts, natural disasters, and other episodes. During the civil war in 1988 and the postwar period, most families in Somaliland relied on women as breadwinners. Hence, this paper explores and sheds light on what instigates the Somaliland women to remain perennially a periphery condition in regards to their political rights generally, and participation in elections in particular. The paper seeks to understand whether the persistent matters of women resting on the cultural dogmatic assumptions or fatally customary practices. The inheritance of customary division of labor for men and women commences an obvious tendency as predetermined tasks for women that puts women below the men's roles of social and political affairs. This unequal division of roles and responsibilities that Somali customary dictated, has undermined women's potentiality socially and politically. For instance, if women attempt to break such a customary restraint that constrains their rights, it is instantly blamed that women infringe the social norms and cultural values of the society, this puts women in the spotlight. In addition, whenever women raise a concern, the customary law reflects on its basis of procedural and detrimental practices against women, even if the customary law does not consider the Islamic sharia guiding principles as in many cases happen. The rape cases are classical examples of how the traditional chiefs manipulate the adherence of the customary law. In terms of political participation, and elections, the clan system is instrumental in diminishing women's ambition in politics by creating an unfriendly atmosphere for women's political participation and overall in decision-making circles. Furthermore, the paper also attempts to examine the Islamic sharia perspective on women's political participation and elections.
The state-making of Somaliland has been borne out of the experiences gained from the aborted unio... more The state-making of Somaliland has been borne out of the experiences gained from the aborted union between the British Protectorate of Somaliland and Italian Somalia. The driving aim behind the proclamation of statehood was to reinstate Somaliland's sovereignty and independence that was lost in 1960. Somalilanders were galvanized by the euphoria of Somali nationalism in the pursuit of the greater Somali Republic in the Horn of Africa that all five Somali territories unite into one nation-state. Their zeal merely earned them destruction. Such destruction includes the tyranny and genocide which was inflicted upon the land and people for over the thirty years whilst the failed union lasted. Therefore, this article reexamines historical mistakes in the post-colonial period and the negative consequences of the union of thirty years with Somalia. It explores Somaliland's experiences of this failed merger, and Somaliland's achievements and challenges over the past thirty years since Somaliland regained its sovereignty. The article compares and contrasts how Somaliland fared during each of the thirtyyear periods. The article also analyses the challenges posed by the non-recognition on political grounds that prevented Somaliland to attain its sovereign rights. Despite the critical and difficult conditions that confronted the state-making process of Somaliland, the interplay between state and non-state actors had become the means and methods to create durable peace and political stability which prevented vengeful acts, anarchy, and political turmoil in Somaliland. The historical backdrop of the unsuccessful merger, too, has become a salient factor and thriving agenda for Somaliland to prove its internal sovereignty, statehood, and a workable political system based on multiparty, competitive elections, and a check and balance of the state organs. The Republic of Somaliland has likewise become a potent regional and international player for the fate of peace, security, and regional economic integration.
ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which com... more ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which competitive elections is center to its pattern. Successive elections were conducted in Somaliland, including the municipal elections in 2002, the first competitive democratic presidential election held in 2003, and the parliamentary elections in 2005, the second presidential election in 2010. The third presidential election is scheduled in November 2017. Nonetheless, delays to timely elections overshadowed the blatant democratic reputation of Somaliland, which occasioned international partners to reconsider its sums of its assistance to Somaliland. There was also a domestic frustration over the elections postponements, and failure to honor timely elections. The upcoming presidential election was due in 2015 and has been delayed two consecutive times, while the elections of the Somaliland legislative houses are overstaying the constitutional limits. Somaliland has succeeded to recover its post-conflict political polarization through indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms, and constitutional democracy. It is notable to mention that multilayered political and social conflicts resolved in between 1991-1997 without external assistances. And, this has contributed to the establishment of political system which led to the foundation of power sharing and broader political and clans' reconciliations. Somaliland's state-building process is dubbed as " hybrid political order " in sense that Somaliland combines the House of Guurti which is more inclusive political organ and unelected House with the democratically elected bodies— President, Local Councilors, and the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, the House of Guurti was blamed of legitimizing postponements of elections, as were unconstitutional in a number of occasions, and also the act of avoidance of laying the foundation of its electoral system, the Guurti election law. It is worth to mention that the House of Guurti has made tremendous efforts in resolving political and clans' conflicts during the decade of fragility in 1991-1997. The House of Guurti was only the political and traditional organ with capacity and leadership to handle political and clans' reconciliations; creation of the House of Guurti was a vital instrument to restore peace and political stability. Thus, there is a heated debate on how the electoral system of the House of Guurti will be, and it is beyond reasonable doubt that unelected House of Guurti ascertains key democratic challenges in the post-transition and constitutional democratic process. This policy brief is examining to what extent the upcoming presidential elections will comply in conformity of international electoral standards. In Somaliland, the electoral process has experienced constant challenges that hugely affected the electoral process. But in this year there are some improvements considering the secured voters list, impartial national electoral commission, development electoral laws and code of conducts and some degree of political parties maturity adds to the democratic pride that is enjoyed in Somaliland comparing other African countries. Finally, the domestic and international observers, civil society organizations and independent media were an integral part of the process and now are playing constructive role on how the presidential elections to be held in a manner which is free, fair, transparent and peaceful.
ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which com... more ARTICLE INFOABSTRACT The Republic of Somaliland enjoys a multiparty political system in which competitive elections is center to its pattern. Successive elections were conducted in Somaliland, including the municipal elections in 2002, the first competitive democratic presidential election held in 2003, and the parliamentary elections in 2005, the second presidential election in 2010. The third presidential election is scheduled in November 2017. Nonetheless, delays to timely elections overshadowed the blatant democratic reputation of Somaliland, which occasioned international partners to reconsider its sums of its assistance to Somaliland. There was also a domestic frustration over the elections postponements, and failure to honor timely elections. The upcoming presidential election was due in 2015 and has been delayed two consecutive times, while the elections of the Somaliland legislative houses are overstaying the constitutional limits. Somaliland has succeeded to recover its post-conflict political polarization through indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms, and constitutional democracy. It is notable to mention that multilayered political and social conflicts resolved in between 1991-1997 without external assistances. And, this has contributed to the establishment of political system which led to the foundation of power sharing and broader political and clans' reconciliations. Somaliland's state-building process is dubbed as " hybrid political order " in sense that Somaliland combines the House of Guurti which is more inclusive political organ and unelected House with the democratically elected bodies— President, Local Councilors, and the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, the House of Guurti was blamed of legitimizing postponements of elections, as were unconstitutional in a number of occasions, and also the act of avoidance of laying the foundation of its electoral system, the Guurti election law. It is worth to mention that the House of Guurti has made tremendous efforts in resolving political and clans' conflicts during the decade of fragility in 1991-1997. The House of Guurti was only the political and traditional organ with capacity and leadership to handle political and clans' reconciliations; creation of the House of Guurti was a vital instrument to restore peace and political stability. Thus, there is a heated debate on how the electoral system of the House of Guurti will be, and it is beyond reasonable doubt that unelected House of Guurti ascertains key democratic challenges in the post-transition and constitutional democratic process. This policy brief is examining to what extent the upcoming presidential elections will comply in conformity of international electoral standards. In Somaliland, the electoral process has experienced constant challenges that hugely affected the electoral process. But in this year there are some improvements considering the secured voters list, impartial national electoral commission, development electoral laws and code of conducts and some degree of political parties maturity adds to the democratic pride that is enjoyed in Somaliland comparing other African countries. Finally, the domestic and international observers, civil society organizations and independent media were an integral part of the process and now are playing constructive role on how the presidential elections to be held in a manner which is free, fair, transparent and peaceful.
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Somaliland and Somalia peace-building process has had some divergent experi... more ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Somaliland and Somalia peace-building process has had some divergent experiences, actors and interventions. The reconciliation efforts in the peace-building initiatives in Somaliland, for instance, did not commence at the time Mohamed Siyad Barre's regime was defeated. It was the agenda of the Somali National Movement (SNM) to reconcile the clans which have been engaged in a long period of fighting since 1988-1990. This is subsequently facilitated the restoration of peace and stability in Somaliland. This process has also promoted traditional authorities and political actors to come together at a time the situation was very critical and devastating in Somaliland. In contrary, United Somali Congress (USC) in Mogadishu Somalia had immediately faced the new cycle of violent conflict, destruction and retaliations among clans. In fact, these new bloody civil wars were blamed on the USC which were split into two wings one was leading by General Mohamed Farah Aided and other led by Ali Mahid Mohamed. This has in the onset portrayed the scale of the problem in Somalia especially in Mogadishu. The international community response to the Somalia crisis contributed to the deterioration of violent conflict that sized many regions in Somalia in the post Siyad Barre period from 1991 onwards. This implies that external interventions in Somalia such as the deployment of peacekeeping forces of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) did not bring any solution to the longstanding problems in Somalia. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss the distinction and modalities between the peace-building process in Somaliland and Somalia and will attempt to raise these questions: who are the actors involved or leading the initiative of peace-building in Somaliland and Somalia?; how were the peace-building interventions conducted by considering the historical, social, cultural, religious and political organizations in both regions?; and what lessons and experiences can be learned.?
___________________________________________________________________________ Somaliland Developmen... more ___________________________________________________________________________ Somaliland Development Fund (SDF) was established in Somaliland in 2013. The SDF has been domestically viewed as the most effective aid modality that Somaliland has experienced over the past twenty five years, due to two reasons: first the SDF was tailored to respond to specific national and regional priorities. Secondly, the SDF was born through a dialogue among local political actors, civil society and donors who realized that Somaliland development trajectories deserved to be upgraded since the country had much adhered to more liberal principles of civic political engagement, free press, democratic elections and political pluralism. Moreover, the SDF development modality demonstrated that other aid development mechanisms were neither predictable nor effective because Somaliland obtains a lot of development assistance from international community which compared badly to SDF. Somaliland was neither receipt entity nor was it consulted on strategic directions. Unlike SDF, many of the international partners did not pursue aid effectiveness principles which included mutual accountability, ownership and aid predictability in their interventions. As a participant observer, I was witnessed dialogues between government ministers and donors during the SDF regular steering committee. They were, indeed, very constructive and productive. Furthermore, the fact that the civil society was there as observers in the dialogues promoted accountability and transparency of all principal stakeholders as it encouraged practice of an inclusive policy at all stages. Hence, the general public came to believe that the international community and donors were now on the right track since the SDF has become operational. The public highly welcomed the SDF as a realistic and rational model of development that enhanced the morale and confidence of the people of Somaliland. The SDF widely contributed Somaliland to improve the infrastructure of the country which was either destroyed by civil strife against the Siad Barre dictatorship or not developed before at all. In the civil society's standpoint, I want also to highlight that SDF has created an atmosphere whereas the government ministries learned a lot from this process in terms of the principles of good governance and in deepening the donors' constant engagement. In this regard, the SDF can be attributed to a greater recognition of the international community support to Somaliland's development trajectory. The New Deal framework and Somaliland Special Arrangement (SSA) promoted widening the initiative to be imminent, credible and deliverable. It was for the first time that Somaliland felt a greater ownership and tangible progress, in other words, the SDF initiative exposed how traditional aid flow approaches failed to offer any concrete development impact across and how the situation could be saved for better outputs.
Ethiopian Capital Newspaper interviewed with Mohamed A. Mohamoud about the issues of Somaliland i... more Ethiopian Capital Newspaper interviewed with Mohamed A. Mohamoud about the issues of Somaliland independence, merger in 1960 between Somaliland and Somalia, since the Republic of Somaliland has been celebrating its 25 anniversary on May 18 2016. This interview is emphasizing the importance of the regional peace and stability and how Somaliland deservers to be recognized in order to foster the peace, stability and development of the region in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
In due course, the international community needs to fully understand that any event to resume the... more In due course, the international community needs to fully understand that any event to resume the talks between Somaliland and Somalia may bring out the previous resentment and historical grievance between the two sides that commenced at the history of the union.
Notably the recurrent of political and security crisis in Somalia preventing any meaningful solut... more Notably the recurrent of political and security crisis in Somalia preventing any meaningful solution to be realized, Somalia state- building needs rethinking, and leadership, currently the federalism model in Somalia is pursuing more inconstant and fragile approach.
Conflict Dynamics International most recently Briefing Paper on Somaliland and Somalia attempts t... more Conflict Dynamics International most recently Briefing Paper on Somaliland and Somalia attempts to raise some of the controversial arguments about the political future of Somaliland and Somalia. Mostly the paper is searching for political accommodation and inclusive political arrangements that advocate towards imposing reunification of Somalia and Somaliland, despite, confronting historical evolutions and trajectory of the problems caused by Somaliland’s independence and its withdrawal of the Union in 1960. In the inception of the paper the authors showed more sympathy with Somalia and its current political trends of federalism. The options generated this paper seem to be unconvincing and unacceptable to the context of Somaliland which most actors in the world witnessed the sustainable peace and workable governance system.
On May 18 1991, the ex-British Somaliland Clan Representatives and Somali National Movement (SNM)... more On May 18 1991, the ex-British Somaliland Clan Representatives and Somali National Movement (SNM) leadership had collectively and enthusiastically proclaimed that Somaliland British protectorate restored its independence and political sovereignty. This dissolution of 1960 merger was nonviolent, accurate, applicable and timely. Therefore, this paper is very much arguing that Somaliland’s case of rejection and withdrawal from the abortive and unrepresentative merger is historically, politically and legally justifiable. It also argues that the driving forces behind this decision included the need to achieve justice, equality, democracy, as well as, the creation of credible freedom for Somaliland citizens and durable peace in the Horn of Africa.
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Papers by Mohamed Mohamoud