SFS strives to build and strengthen the capacity of the Puntland government, civil society organizations (CSOs), and local religious and secular leaders to create sustainable institutions and mechanisms for citizens to participate in democracy-building and educational processes in Puntland. SFS works daily to empower citizens, improve civil society and help rebuild the Puntland government in an effort to create a responsive, accountable government in Puntland that provides the services the community needs and demands.

To achieve this, SFS has held a variety of training exercises, workshops and forums. It has provided computer training for half of Puntland’s Members of Parliament, affording them the skills to better write legislation, make informed decisions and provide services to their constituents. This and similar capacity-building programs for government officials have strengthened SFS’s relationship with the local, regional and Puntland governments. SFS utilizes these relationships to open up dialogue between citizens, civil society and government officials on critical issues.

A strong, responsive government also requires an informed, active citizenry. To this end, SFS helps civil society organizations (CSOs) improve their abilities to aggregate and represent citizens’ interests through capacity-building trainings, workshops and forums with government officials. By simply bringing government officials together with CSO representatives for discussions on the future of Puntland, human rights and democratization, SFS’s Neighborhood Colleges have helped build bridges between these two often-opposing forces. During a Neighborhood College meeting, government officials:

•  Explain their roles and responsibilities to the participants;
•  Describe how their day-to-day activities benefit the community and participants; and
•  Take questions and requests from the participants.

These dialogues open the lines of communication between government and those they should serve, fostering accountability and responsiveness.

SFS also understands the importance of empowering average citizens and ensuring they have a voice in their society and their government. To support citizen empowerment, SFS organized neighborhood committees that serve as liaisons from their communities to the government as well as neighborhood organizers in their own right. Among other accomplishments, they have organized security patrols to monitor their neighborhoods at night and performed a poverty census, collecting and distributing food to the needy in their communities.