Somaliland has surprised the international community at the speed it has transformed itself politically and economically from a country devastated by the war waged against them by the last internationally recognised Somali government. Today it is a vibrant country and seems to have indulged in the finest democracy in the developing world. Previous governments had envisioned their priority to foster lasting peace and stability in the country. To that end, the paucity of resource of the country was channelled into security priority needs. In contrast, the current government beset its priority on economic growth and developmental projects to tackle the pervasive poverty and unemployment among people of working age, particularly among the youth who make up more than two thirds of the population. This article looks into the extent the current government has owned managing the economy and development programmes.
As the previous successive governments tenaciously averted Somaliland disposed into a chaotic and instability, the marginal resource was instilled to maintain stability, this left them with no economic and developmental policies. That led deluge of international Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) converged into Somaliland to run developmental projects, as the state was not seen to have got the capacity to deliver them. The INGOs that came to Somaliland had all carried out dubious duplicate work at the narrative of empowerment and capacity building with no measured economic impact on the country. Last administrations were left no choice but had to capitulate the INGOs, as the country was entrenched in extreme poverty and acquiesced their assistance. The INGOs assistance was vital to Somaliland but until recently they were stubborn to listen to government requests to have a say on how the aid funds are spent.
The empowerment and capacity building was a development paradigm favoured in the mid-1980s by the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the peak of the developing world debt crisis. African countries were depicted at the time with endemic corruption and have had no capacity to deliver large projects. Good examples were the cases of Zaire and Nigeria in which their regimes at the time diverted billions of dollars’ worth of aid funds into their Swiss personal bank account that would have been instead gone into pro-poor developmental projects aimed at lifting their people out of extreme poverty by improving their livelihood. Conversely, in the intuition of alleviating poverty condition in Somaliland, the INGOs were craving their work in Somaliland and Somalia around their interests and evidently spent millions of donor funding wastefully.
To fulfil its election pledges to induce economic growth and employment opportunities, the current administration pragmatically propped anti-corruption policies across departmental governments, and INGOs were made no exception to. Within a year into power $100 million was saved for the country aggrandising the annual budgetary from as little as $45 million to $150 million. Furthermore, the anti-corruption policies sphere discernibly got into INGOs to account how millions of dollars of donor funds to Somaliland channelled to them are administered. This led to the introduction of the Somaliland fund in which all the funding donated to Somaliland by international donors are paid into. The government has not now got only the insinuation of how the aid fund is spent but in fact it chooses, which development priority need projects the fund are allocated. In the past, the INGOs will spend the aid money donor funds to Somaliland in any way they would have felt in to fit in their objectives. Seemingly, that anti-corruption policy coerced INGOs into losing out their dispensation of aid fund. For example, years ago an INGO had flown into Hargeisa Airport as little as few kilos of medicine with leased privately owned Kenya airplane.
Today the Somaliland Development fund has hugely contributed to the development of Somaliland and every penny has been used in the most productive way. Incorporating local knowledge, the international aid fund measurably impacted on the local economy by creating employment opportunities and contributed to human development index of Somaliland, including health, knowledge and standard of living. Aid money is being diverted from empowerment and capacity building project to essential public services, road works, government buildings and schools. With this regard, Somaliland seems to have hugely benefited from the dual government and the INGOs working hand in hand to deliver services.
Conversely, the anticorruption policies, which has saved millions dollars was believed to have detrimental effects to the Somaliland stability. It was said money that had been spent by previous governments to please clan elders ceased provoking them into undermining government on the misconception that their clan has not been represented in every level of government, including ministerial, directors, and armed forces and so on. Albeit, clan elders should be insouciance to ensure development projects are not excluded but fully participated, however, it seems many clan leaders to be obsessed to deciphering public workforce into their descending clan. It was felt imperative to elaborate on our developmental projects empowering and capacity building of clan elders to emancipate them being in delusion of clan issues that underpin national issues by holding the country into random.
In conclusion, Somaliland is a role model for African countries, as it has produced the finest democracy in Africa. The last three governments fostered security and stability of Somaliland in a region with endemic conflict. The current government promulgated good governance that not only saved millions of dollars but its capacity to efficiently run the economy divulged donor countries diverging funds from INGOS and entrusted in the hands of the current government. However, good governance is facing a challenge from clandestine clan leaders who are holding their country a ransom as previous government would buy their loyalty and as well as unethical politicians. In succinct, good governance and transparency impinges upon critics of its achievements, as evidence purportedly support Somaliland to be economically and politically a towering country in Africa.
Ahmed Abdi Isse
An Academic
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