Somalia: Making Gains in a Fragile Environment

For almost two decades, a collapsed government and battling warlords have made Somalia a byword for anarchy. But as three European Commission representatives have found, a flexible and innovative approach to development can still reap results in this most difficult of environments.

A new Somali government, backed by the United Nations, was sworn in in January, bringing hope that the country is embarking on a new era of improved peace and security.

But even through Somalia's difficult years, EC representatives and technical assistants Luciano Mosele, Edda Costarelli and Manfred Winnefeld have found that, with the right approach and a willingness to innovate, gains can be made in capacity building and in areas like education development and water provision.

"Throughout Somalia, fully functioning central state structures are not in place and so innovative and non-traditional avenues have to be explored to build capacity at different levels," said Edda Costarelli in her paper an Overview of EC support to Capacity Building and Technical Assistance in Somalia.

Somalia descended into anarchy in 1991, after the collapse of the authoritarian socialist regime that had dominated this country of nearly 10 million people since 1969. Somali has since been controlled by a host of battling clans and rival factions. Today, the country is geographically split, with Somaliland in the northwest claiming autonomy from Somalia and northeastern Puntland calling for semi-autonomy under a federal government system.

Provision of basic services like health care, education, clean drinking water and power varies markedly among the three administrative regions and their vulnerability to conflict.

While careful not to over-emphasise flexibility in development planning, which could result in isolated and ad hoc gains, Manfred Winnefeld says from his experience in the education sector, Somalia can chalk up significant progress with appropriate and suitably designed assistance.

"Even in a fragile environment, which is in dire need of emergency assistance approaches, a certain degree of development can be achieved and should be pursued in the design of assistance programmes," said Winnefeld in Fragile States Capacity development and systems building in the education sector, challenges and approaches - the case of Somalia.

Luciano Mosele shows through his experience in improving water provision in Somalia, solutions can sometimes appear counter-intuitive.

Though they are among some of the poorest people in the world, Somali's have shown a willingness to pay for clean drinking water. This has enabled a public-private partnership approach to water provision take off in this desert-like country.

"In the absence of effective government, the Somali private sector has shown remarkable energy, entrepreneurship and assets," said Mosele in Public and Private Partnership for efficient and sustainable water delivery.

According to Mosele, there is great potential for the international community to work with the private sector in a fragile environment like Somalia.