CIAO DATE: 03/2011
Volume: 7, Issue: 0
2007
Table of Contents (PDF)
Editor's Note (PDF)
Ahmed I. Samatar
This special volume has a complicated history, and its release has been long in coming. The distant hinterland includes many months of preparation and discussion to form what became the National Civic Forum (NCF). Twenty-seven Somalis, made up of a mixture of scholars, senior professionals, and highly experienced national figures, assembled in Nairobi, Kenya, in late 2004 to start a disciplined exploration of the Somali conditions and what might possibly be done about them. That initial and successful retreat led to a public and widely circulated press release that underscored a nonpartisan commitment to the well-being of the Somali people through ideas that stress unity, peace, freedom, and constitutional civic lif
Contributors (PDF)
Janis Grobbelaar, Jama M. Ghalib
At the more macro and general level, this article is concerned with societal transition towards the rule of law and sustainable democracy in post-conflict societies. It departs from an understanding that sufficient institutional capacity, in particular that needed to root and implement the rule of law, is ultimately required if secure, peaceful, and democratically viable post-conflict-ridden society is to be built and maintained over time. It assumes, in other words, that a legitimate and functioning normative order and a culture predisposed to such an order are key to security, reconciliation, and sustainable democracy. 2 More particularly, the article engages the time and the methods, as well as the concerns of transition from societal violence, authoritarianism, and tyranny, towards the rule of law and secure democracy. To use Jon Elster’s words, it deals with “the time” of attempting “to close the books” after a cessation of conflict has been agreed to and democracy is introduced.
The Porcupine Dilemma: Governance and Transition in Somalia (PDF)
Ahmed I. Samatar
As of this writing, too far from “civil happiness,” Somalis continue sliding deeper into a fallen time—pitiful victims of their own follies and an ill-informed, if not manipulative, international and regional system. More precisely, the fight over the state in the past decade and a half has been at once violent and so disabling that, in the eyes of the rest of the world, Somalis have become the paradigmatic embodiment of self-inflicted politicide. Dismayingly, though the Somali state institutions are no more, the contestants wage their battles as if the prize is just waiting to be picked up. Oblivious, then, to the fact that the state and governance are more than the sum of capricious self-promotion and claims of Potemkin political appellations and appointments, the aggressively ambitious bestow a vulgar concreteness to Jorge Luis Borges’ metaphor of the condition of “two bald men fighting over a comb.” The ultimate costs of the death of the state and subsequent communal strife are a withering of the national civic identity and spirit and, therefore, a descent into a form of moronic existence. Six instantiations of this condition are: (a) disunity exemplified by some in the northern Somali Republic (Somaliland) calling for a separate sovereignty in that region; (b) an essentialization of clanist maneuvers and mischief that have proven to be incapable of producing legitimate and competent leaders fit for the challenges of the epoch, let alone bring forth workable institutions for the immediate juncture; (c) the degeneration of Mogadishu from the once breezy, relatively cosmopolitan nerve-center of the post-colonial order to a dilapidated hell’s Ahmed I. Samatar 41 gate overwhelmed by new deadly conflagrations and mountains of illdisposed filth; (d) a deepening socioeconomic impoverishment, barely assuaged by remittances from relatives in the diaspora, decline in educational opportunities and standards, and deteriorating public health, 1 including the return of polio; (e) an acute national vulnerability to easy bamboozlement, and now direct military intervention or invasion by foreign actors, particularly neighboring Ethiopia; and (f) a mixture of incredulity and contempt on the part of the larger global community. To be sure, these negative attributes (and many more) make up the defining face of Somali reality. But it is also vital to note that, among the paradoxes of the current sharp cut in time (the meaning of civil war), numerous ordinary women and men, in every zone of the country, have taken it upon themselves to address the immediate concerns of their families and neighborhoods, the virus of sectarian cabals, and, commensurately, keep the candle of civic values flickering for a future undergirded by a peaceful and legitimate and competent governance.
Somalia: Education in Transition (PDF)
Lee Cassanelli, Farah Sheikh Abdikadir
We begin with the premise that education is a basic human right, as well as a precondition for any serious effort to return peace, prosperity, and justice to Somalia’s citizens on a lasting basis. The collapse of the Somali state and the subsequent civil war(s) have altered most aspects of Somali life; but they have been particularly devastating in the area of education, where an entire generation has lost out on one of the most precious opportunities of childhood. The restoration of regular schooling is critical if Somalis expect to survive the present upheaval and envision a hopeful future. Education can provide structure and stability for children who have been traumatized by war. It is the starting point for creating a skilled workforce that can compete in the global economy. Education fosters the intellectual discipline necessary to solve problems, and the civic virtues essential for good governance. Good education can help reduce gender inequalities, child exploitation, and the likelihood of future violence in the wider society.
Somalia's Post-Conflict Economy: A Political Economy Approach (PDF)
Abdi Ismail Samatar
Much discussion has taken place about reviving the Somali economy since the dawn of the new century. 2 These conversations have not critically assessed what bedeviled the Somali economy during the tenure of the old regime and since its collapse. Further, no one has yet articulated an appropriate framework that accounts for the country’s past and the ways in which a new Somali order can profitably learn from and engage with recent developments in the global environment. The factors that crippled the old order and that sustain the civil war must be identified and contained, if not fully controlled, during and after the transition. Among the ills that plague the Somali economy are structural constraints, mismanagement of public resources, a political elite whose preoccupation is looting the commons, lawlessness and warlord rule, and a disorganized public that failed to unite against a sectarian political agenda that stoked conflict between communities. The prospect that the transition will be economically successful is grim unless a conscious and concerted effort is made to reduce these political liabilities
Yusuf Ahmed Nur
This contribution suggests a number of business and economic policies that a new government of the Somali Republic might consider in order to put the country on the path to successful economic reconstruction and development. The proposed policies are derived from a critical reassessment of today’s integrated and interdependent world economy, which presents both opportunities and dire threats that could jeopardize the sovereignty and statehood of Somalia. The crucial role of a good and strong government is emphasized. Recent developments are also integrated into the analysis. The essay concludes by suggesting policies for creating a business and investment climate that guides and regulates (but does not stifle) the entrepreneurial spirit of the Somali people, which has flourished for fifteen years in the absence of state and government
Health Care Services in Transitional Somalia: Challenges and Recommendations (PDF)
Mohamed Gedi Qayad
Universal access to health care is an ideal goal for all nations. Nations often base their health care development plans on this principle. In Somalia, provision of health care services was also driven by this principle, and delivery of services was publicly funded like other social services, such as education. However, that goal was never achieved and the health status indicators for Somalia, even before the collapse of the central government, showed grim statistics. 1 Health care services in Somalia were shaped by various administrations that adopted different policies, priorities, and health care service approaches, often influenced by local and international paradigms and resolutions. The parliamentary government in the 1960s and the military government in the 1970s to 1990s shared common deficiencies in their national plans. Development plans were driven by institutional history, political interest, and personal desires, instead of need and resource capacities based on empirical evidence. Both administrations failed to maintain established health care delivery infrastructures or sustain their core operations, let alone expand services to the rural population and other vulnerable groups or modernize the system and improve its quality. As a result, health care facilities in many districts collapsed and were unable to provide even the minimum required clinical and preventive service
National Civic Forum Charter (English and Somali) (PDF)
The National Civic Forum is an independent, non-partisan organization founded by a cohort of Somali scholars and professionals who met on September 20th–24th, 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya. NCF’s mission is to generate and disseminate creative ideas that may assist in educating the Somali people in order for them to establish a democratic political order, durable peace, justice, rule of law and sustainable development. Such a generation of creative ideas and their dissemination through various media and publications is particularly crucial during the Transitional Federal Government’s mandate at a time when not only national reconciliation, social reintegration and confidence-building should be a high priority but also the supremacy of the rule of law, respect for human rights and civil liberties, social justice, economic recovery, and accountability—among others—should be systemically affirmed and enforced in earnest, thus ending forever the rule of oneman and the rule of the gun in the Somali Republic