by Liban Obsiye and Sakariye Jawdeer
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Somalia is a nation that is sometimes, when observed from afar, could be argued to not be going far at all. With tribalism as the core of its constitution, people’s thinking process and government appointments, it is difficult to think of a rosy outcome in the end for Somalia’s political future if the foundations that it is built on are now so weak.
In many meetings with Somali government officials in conferences, regardless of how they are appointed and their own abilities, they all wanted to achieve their Ministerial goals. Most were very proud of their role and when speaking displayed great character and determination to improve their people’s lives. Some even emotionally move you when they explain the challenges they face in their roles and the enormous obstacles they have to overcome to get anything done in Somalia. However, despite these personal commitments and ambitions, no Minister or civil society leader for this matter, once mentioned how they will work across government to achieve their policy goals.
It is always “I” or “my Ministry” or “My staff” but rarely WE as a government will deal with this issue or that as a collective. While the personal ambition and individual government Ministry or department goal itself is credible and welcome after a near quarter century of civil war, it will be more beneficial if the machinery of government worked together in a joined up fashion so as to genuinely work towards rebuilding the Somali state, industries and people holistically.
Somalia’s key challenges today such as Security urgently need to be promoted, facilitated and supported across the different government Ministries so as to address the problem from every angle. Joining these issues up will highlights the fact that the government realises that the problem ought to be assessed as a whole because ultimately most social policy challenges are part of other far bigger systems or processes. This is not to say that the individual Minister’s incapable or are unwilling but to clarify the fact that at this stage in Somalia’s development all policies are intertwined and interdependent and simply require more than one solution to successfully address.
A great priority for the current Somali government led by president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud since coming to office has been to create a more secure and safer nation by physically taking back territory from AlShbaaab with the support of AMISIOM and newly trained Somali troops and to win the hearts and minds of former young militant fighters by rehabilitating them once captured. The Give up Your Gun and Go to School project continually promoted abroad by the current Foreign Minister, Abdirahman Beileh, is a continuation of this effort but will be impossible to achieve even if all the financing was available if it was not seen as an educational, economic and social issue which the responsible Ministries ought to be working together on. The President and many Ministers in this government, past and present, understand the need for joined up thinking in this administration and have advocated for it openly. Dr. Beileh and Dr. Maryam Qasim, the former Somali education Minister, before him in their many interviews and speeches made clear that providing alternative livelihoods as well as education and training were the route of hope young fighters needed to be won back from violence. As true as this is, how many joint policies have there been between the Ministries of Education, National Security and Economic and Financial affairs? None that is publicly promoted today.
Joined up government and thinking proved difficult in the end within the New Labour government of England led by Tony Blair which came to power in 1997 which established it due to internal disputes and competing ideological visions within the Party. However, in Somalia it must be implemented and practiced quickly as the Somali people do not have the luxury of the professional, experienced and organised civil service that were on hand to pick up the pieces and continue as usual when Tony and his friends fell out. Joined up government will cut duplication, unify the government voice and message and bring the public closer to trusting the infant institutions that are being created to work in their interests. Even more importantly, joined up government will help to create institutional memory, promote knowledge sharing and hence capacity build all the participants and their organisations.
The obstacles to joined up working within Somalia are no doubt many but among the most obvious and important are the 4.5 tribal system of Ministerial appointments, the lack of job security for Ministry staff and Minister, lack of co-ordination and leadership from the centre and internal disputes and personal rivalries. These shortcomings are a symptom of Somalia’s recent violent past and will never ever serve the Somali people well. To overcome it, the President and the Ministers must continue to define their policy objectives clearly and to promote a system of accountability so that personal rivalries will be sidelined for institutional effectiveness for fear of redundancy on the part of the staff and the Minister. This will certainly focus minds and quickly promote knowledge sharing and across Ministry working and cooperation.
At present the public stereotypical joke is that Ministries belong to tribes and only that tribe will ever benefit from its work. This tragic all important public view is one that needs to be addressed and exposed as an operational myth through joint government working and partnerships on all major policy issues. It is not enough for all the Ministers to meet with the Premier once a week. They must also work with each other to contribute their individual efforts to the nation building process which is multifaceted and layered.
Both of the authors welcome feedback and can be contacted via the below means:
Liban Obsiye: [email protected] @LibanObsiye (Twitter).
Sakariye Hussein: [email protected] @Jawdeer (Twitter).