Citizens participate in development & political process, JSL ensure and facilitate such participation
Our development must be sustainable environmentally and economically
The government should be democratic, transparent, accountable, and efficient
Somaliland Parliament
Somaliland has a bicameral parliament. The House of Representatives is elected and is the main legislative body of the republic. Members of the House of Elders (Guurti, in Somali) are currently appointed to represent the various communities and regions of the country. The House of Guurti performs the functions of a revising chamber for legislation (other than acts relating to financial matters), but it is more like the UK House of Lords in that it cannot block legislation which the House of Representatives are determined to pass. The priorities within the plan period are to:
Contemporary Somaliland politics
At the national level, the government acts through the executive branch, composed of the president, vice president and the cabinet, and the bi-cameral Legislature, which comprises the House of Representatives (Golaha Wakiillada) and the House of Elders (Golaha Guurtida). The judiciary, which makes up the third pillar of government, is constitutionally independent of the executive. The House of Representatives includes a three-person Chair (the Speaker and two Deputies), a Secretariat, a Standing Committee of 17 members, and 5 sub-committees. Every member of the Parliament is obliged to participate in one of the sub-committees, listed below:
Development of Accountable National Institutions
Somaliland’s current national government is an unusual combination of a US-style presidency, a British-style bicameral legislature, and traditional Somali clan leadership. The president and members of the lower of the two legislative houses are independently elected, while the upper house consists of traditional clan elders, collectively known as a Guurti.
Unlike many so-called democracies in sub-Saharan Africa, this government is democratic in more than name only. As already noted, Somaliland has held presidential, parliamentary, and district level elections. It has seen multiple peaceful turnovers in power, and in 2005 Somaliland was ‘one of the only governments in Africa with `cohabitation’ between rival parties in the executive and legislative branches.’ (Menkhaus 2006/2007: 92). But this has not always been the case. The government created by the new National Charter differed from the old government in more than the number of clans represented and the new president. The National Charter also divided the government into an presidential executive, an independent judiciary, and a bicameral legislative branch (Bradbury 2008: 99-100). As already noted, this legislative branch included one house made up of traditional clan elders who represented all clans in Somaliland. This house, which was created ‘to guard against the re-emergence of authoritarian rule,’ (Bradbury 2008: 224) was given authority to appoint the president and vice-president (Bradbury 2008: 100). (The presidency would later become an independently elected office).
Moreover, because Somaliland’s ineligibility for foreign assistance is the result of exogenous international norms against secessionist states, and not a direct response to some action of Somaliland itself, this exploration is largely unhindered by concerns about reverse causality that hinder most studies of the effects of foreign assistance.
The history of international relations based on sovereign states is often traced back to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, a stepping stone in the development of the modern state system. Prior to this the European medieval organization of political authority was based on a vaguely hierarchical religious order. Contrary to popular belief, Westphalia still embodied layered systems of sovereignty, especially within the Holy Roman Empire. More than the Peace of Westphalia, the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 is thought to reflect an emerging norm that sovereigns had no internal equals within a defined territory and no external superiors as the ultimate authority within the territory’s sovereign borders.
The particular European system supposing the sovereign equality of states was exported to the Americas, Africa, and Asia via colonialism and the “standards of civilization”. The contemporary international system was finally established through decolonization during the Cold War. However, this is somewhat over-simplified. While the nation-state system is considered “modern”, many states have not incorporated the system and are termed “pre-modern”.
Further, a handful of states have moved beyond insistence on full sovereignty, and can be considered “post-modern”. The ability of contemporary IR (international relation) discourse to explain the relations of these different types of states is disputed. “Levels of analysis” is a way of looking at the international system, which includes the individual level, the domestic state as a unit, the international level of transnational and intergovernmental affairs, and the global level.
Infrastructure. Productive activity is constrained by weak and deteriorated infrastructure, which prevents access to markets and transportation. The roads network is in poor condition, and most of the major routes are in need of repair with the exception of the important Berbera-Hargeisa corridor and the border connection past Borama.
Service delivery: Somaliland has applied a decentralized governance model, in which the districts are given the primary responsibility for service delivery. Given the limited capacity for local revenue generation, a state transfer mechanism has been put in place to provide financing, but the fund transfers are still insufficient relative to the functional responsibilities at the district level, and the transfer system does not constitute a re-distribution mechanism that would support poorer districts. Local government provision of social services is also constrained by extremely limited capacity and the lack of direct control of service provision staff.
Administrative governance: Somaliland has a fairly well developed public administration, but the current system for planning, budgeting and fiscal management has large shortcomings and is not properly integrated
Civil Service Institute
Civil Service Institute is an autonomous human resource development institution that offer training in public administration, management and modern technology. It is headed by a director general and has a board of advisors. Its priorities and strategies for the current NDP are to:
Security and Internal Affairs Sector
Security and rule of law are now well established in Somaliland. The country has made significant progress during the past 28 years in developing the necessary institutions and procedures of government. However, the active presence of extremists, insurgents, and pirates operating in neighbouring countries poses potential security threat to Somaliland as well as to the region. Somaliland has built its capacity to counter these destabilizing forces over time and it is now in a position to neutralizing them effectively. The government is committed to vigorously strengthening the sector within the framework of the National Development Plan.
Justice Sector
Somaliland has established a hybrid system of good governance under the Constitution of Somaliland, combining traditional values and conventional western-style democratic principles. This crossbreed system of the modern state and communal consensus has served well Somaliland and created a stable, sustainable, democratic system with an elected president, elected House of Representatives and independent judiciary.
Non-Governmental Organisations Sector
Civil society is made up of institutions, organizations and individuals. The forms of civil society are many and varied and range from formal institutions and private sector bodies to informal associations and networks and faith based groups. In the new, free, democratic and stable environment created in Somaliland since the mid-90s, civil societies flourished and their numbers increased tremendously.