GAROWE, Puntland (July 11-12, 2012) – In partnership with Diakonia Sweden, Somali Family Services (SFS) convened 60 key people from the government and civil society at the Puntland Library and Resource Center for a two-day forum. The forum, part of an ongoing SFS project to promote democracy and human rights, aimed to improve the relationship between the civil society and government, which for years has been mired with mistrust and misunderstanding. 

Director Generals from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Security and DDR, Ministry of Labor, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Women Development and Family Affairs and Ministry of Planning and Internal Cooperation each participated in the event. Traditional leaders, religious leaders, business, media, local NGO’s, academicians, youth and women groups were also present to represented civil society and engage with the government.

Mr. Behani Ahmed Bari, the Director General for the IDP department at the Ministry of Interior, commended SFS and Diakonia for bringing the government and civil society together. “This is a step towards achieving accountability and transparency. The two institutions must coordinate to ensure the community needs are met.”

During the two-day session, participants provided insights into various challenges and highlighted areas for action as well as future strategies. Discussions also allowed participants to identify areas of convergence and divergence between the groups, relationships that should be nurtured and ideas that will provide the seed for future initiative. The participants attributed the poor relations to lack of information sharing, confidence, coordination, accountability and mistrust by all sides. The government had a number of concerns regarding civil society: do they represent the need of the poor, and do they exemplify the transparency, accountability and legitimacy they demand from the state? Civil society participants urged the government to establish proper channels of information sharing, establish strict regulations on accountability and be involved from the planning to implementation phase of projects to enable community ownership and ensure that needs of the poor are met. All participants finally agreed to work together, create similar future platforms to share work done and identify areas of collaboration while respecting the mandate of each institution.

Somali Family Services (SFS) is a non-governmental organization dedicated to fostering a peaceful and democratic Somalia through the support of civil society, women, youth and other marginalized groups.

###

For more information, please contact Nafisa Abdirahman at nafisa.abdirahman@ussfs.org or visit www.ussfs.org.