Ahmed Hashi “Dhimbiil”

The World Bank and the UNDP have decided to engage Somaliland and deepen their economic and political credentials in this country after years of neglect and discord over the political status of this country. Debate has already transpired in the House as to the legal and political questions that surround the representation of this country in these so called Somali Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) talks, which is a process of developing a reconstruction budget for Somaliland & Somalia.

First, if Afghanistan and Iraq are any indication about these grand conferences for reconstruction, the process is tedious and extensive. Any subsequent financial commitments may go the way of Afghanistan ’s President Karzai who has repeatedly called for the honoring of those financial commitments made in the Tokyo conference on Afghanistan .

Afghanistan sits at the fault lines of the war on terror, as remnants of the Taliban and other factions encroach on the capital Kabul , and with the United States Military bogged down in Iraq , financial, political and even moral attention to this beleaguered continent is low, let alone betting on positive prospects for Somalia & Somaliland. However, even in this pessimistic environment for engagement with Somali issues no stone should be left unturned given this rapprochement by these institutions with Somaliland and Somalia around the issues of reconstruction and development.

There are two broad issues that I would like to engage as these talks continue in Hargeysa on how best to help Somaliland given its political and economic predicament. Somaliland is first in a ‘transition’ while Somalia has yet to achieve the most basic forms of “on the ground” peace-making/conflict resolution issues. Somaliland is increasingly situated at a political and economic nexus that approximates and even satisfies the conditions of a state. Somaliland has established a democratic system through multi-party politics; is guided by the rule of law with clear constitutional and judicial structures in its way of government; and, Somaliland is set on the path of tackling its economic status through a market oriented regime which enables investment in Somaliland by the international community.

These concepts are de-rigueur in international conventions and crucial to creating the enabling the conditions for development in African societies given the blight of tyranny that has characterized the political economy of this continent in the past decades. Given the neglect of Somaliland by Bretton Woods institutions and the lack of political and economic encouragement equal to the achievements of Somaliland, it is refreshing that these talks have been brought to Hargeysa, Somaliland in order to begin the process of engagement with perhaps the only democratic country in the Horn of Africa.

However, these gains by Somaliland may collapse and even regress if this engagement is not underpinned by serious policy choices that at once satisfy the political and economic realties in Somaliland as well as bolster the chances for peace and credible government in Somalia. Somaliland is a sovereign country that is built on the principal of self-determination: recognizing this indisputable fact and engaging Somaliland at the level of a state actor rather than a “province” of Somalia is crucial in understanding the political realties in Somaliland . Somalia ’s eventual return to peace and state-making may pave the way for future talks on peaceful and mutual recognition of these two sisterly countries. In the meantime, the achievements and popular aspirations of Somaliland must be the backbone of any engagement in terms of reconstruction and development.

Finally, it is time that that these institutions recognized that peace and war in the Horn of Africa sit at the axis of these issues, the international community, represented as they are in these talks in Hargeisa ought to understand that he key to a future and democratic dispensation in these two Somali territories is to engage the forces of democracy and defy the forces of instability. Somaliland is a key ally in this contest to the international community and it ought to be recognized as such.

dallo57us@yahoo.com

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