Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 09/2014

A New Deal for Somalia?: The Somali Compact and its Implications for Peacebuilding

July 2014

Center on International Cooperation

Abstract

This policy monitoring brief analyzes the process that led to the “Somali New Deal Compact,” the framework’s potential effectiveness as a peacebuilding tool, and potential ways to strengthen it. We find that the New Deal Compact in Somalia appears to have created a paradigm shift in international policy rhetoric around Somali ownership and leadership. However, the process to develop the Compact has also revealed a series of difficult trade-offs (related to process, risk, and implementation) between political and technical imperatives for both Somali and external actors. Actors need to continually and consistently address these trade-offs to avoid the onset of strategic drift and premature loss of mutual confidence.