Hargeysa, January 21, 2006 (SL Times) – The Joint Needs Assessment 3-day consultative workshop, held at Mansoor hotel Hargeysa from 16-18 Jan 2006, attended by Somaliland government ministers, dept heads, local NGO’s and private sector ended in mayhem and confusion after JNA team distributed among workshop participants documents intended for the Rome conference which clearly state and promote that the TFG of Somalia will be the sole representatives of all stakeholders represented in the UN and World Bank Joint Needs Assessment operations committee.

In one document Somaliland is shown as the 6 th region of Somalia, and all its regions lumped together as one zone, i,e. Northwest Somalia . And the TFG will have 13 members presiding in the JNA committees, while Puntland will have 6 members and Somaliland with 3 members.

Although, the organizers of the workshop did reiterate that these documents were drafted a while back in the early stages of the JNA, yet it did not resolve why the documents are dated January 2006.

Many of those who took part in this consultative workshop, complained that “Why has the JNA team produced these documents at such a late stage of the workshop or one hour before the official end of the entire consultation process on the last day.