15 Million Dollars For Somaliland Development In The National Budget Y-2006

By; Abdulkadir A. Hassan, Economist – Ph..D, (Pakistan)

Somaliland budget for the past several years simply narrated salaries of civil and military staffs with no meaningful allocations for the kind of social and economic development required in the country. More than 13 million dollars were allocated for salaries, fuel and stationeries for the past year alone without implementation of a single social or economic development project in the whole country. Salaries, fuels and stationeries of ministries and their staffs are not justified, if there are no social or economic programs that these staffs are supposed to manage for the country.

It is sadly unfortunate that many people in Somaliland think that it is the international community who must start and manage the development of our country. One often comes across the words of people (including the Vice-president of the country in a recent speech at Mansoor Hotel with UNDP and the World Bank officials) that Somaliland people have done everything possible for the development of their country, and it is the international organizations, like the UN and the World Bank, who must act now and support the country’s development programs, whether it is roads, schools, hospitals, water systems and so on.

But the fact remains that no matter what you think, nobody in the world really cares Somaliland development, if we don’t really care ourselves and our country. It is really a tough and important question to answer as we are just preparing for the approval of the national budget for the year 2006.

Somaliland people and the Government should understand that every country develops itself from its own national resources. Likewise, Somaliland can develop itself, given that its resources in the national budget are efficiently allocated and effectively managed for the future development of the country. The rules are simple and straight forward, if we have got the will and the wisdom to do so.

The government need to prepare, based on its meager resources, a real national plan for the development of the country. The national plan must obtain the approval of the New House of Representatives and be implemented accordingly for the good of the country, not for the purpose of soliciting UN funding.

A national development plan is simply a set of national strategies with consistent set of sectoral targets and individual projects in agriculture, livestock, roads, water, health, education, electricity, etc. National projects in the development plan are selected for their national and regional economic contribution in terms of production, employment and potential export earnings.

Broadly speaking; priorities for Somaliland development plan should fit into three major categories; which are;

1. Social services projects; incl. urban/rural water systems, hospitals, schools, universities, electric power, etc.

2. Economic investment projects for employment and income generation in livestock, veterinary, irrigation, drought mitigation, grazing reserves, water dams, fishing & cold chain systems, Berbera cement factory, etc.

3. Public infrastructures ; including construction and maintenance of roads, Hargeysa Airport, regional airports, Berbera and other Sea ports, Livestock holding grounds, New Parliament House, etc.

If the national budget for the year 2006 allocates by an aggregate of, say, 20% for each one of the three above categories; it will be a bold step for the future development of the country. If, for instance, within the national budget for the year 2006, a meager amount of US$ 5 millions are allocated for public service projects, and another US$ 5 million are allocated for economic investment projects such as rural water dams, and another US$ 5 million are allocated to public health and education, the Somaliland people must really feel proud for this kind of development initiative.

The development projects such as those mentioned above, if adequately planned and managed, could generate adequate employment opportunities and income for large number of people, which significantly contributes to meeting basic human needs of many households in food, education, health, and shelter. The national budget for the year 2006 need to be prepared for the purpose of meeting basic needs of the Somaliland people and investment in their future development programs such as roads, water dams, schools, hospitals, airports, without compromising the need for maintaining public law and order and for the national security of the county.

With reasonable argument, Somaliland government should then ask friendly donor countries for further contributions. I am sure the international community is very much willing to make significant contributions to Somaliland development, but only after the government shows serious and positive development initiative and reasonable accountability to the Somaliland public.