PILLAR 3

Local Governance & Institutional Stability

The Local Governance and Institutional Stability pillar is a comprehensive framework focused on building a durable and effective government in Somalia. It addresses the critical links between strengthening local administration, transitioning from a clan-based political system to a more democratic one, and ensuring that government institutions are stable and accountable.

Core Goal

To build a durable, accountable, and effective government by strengthening local administration and transitioning to a more democratic, stable political system, capable of leading climate resilience and adaptation efforts.

Sub-Key Activities:

Activities within this pillar are designed to be mutually reinforcing, with progress in one area supporting the others.

Local Governance:

District Council Formation: Facilitating the establishment of inclusive and representative district councils, often through a power-sharing formula that involves different clans and includes women, youth, and marginalized groups.

Capacity Building: Training local government officials on their roles and responsibilities, including public finance management, service delivery, and local dispute resolution, o with a focus on providing targeted technical assistance and capacity building to newly formed and existing district councils on integrating climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR) into their local planning, budgeting processes, and essential service delivery mechanisms. This includes training on climate risk assessments and the development of climate-resilient local development plans.

Fiscal Decentralization: Supporting the enhancement of public financial management (PFM) and the development of a robust financial management system for local revenue collection and payment mechanisms from the federal Governance of Somalia (FGS) to the Federal member States (FMS), to the Federal member States (FMS), including supporting the development and operationalization of climate-informed fiscal decentralization mechanisms. This involves assisting local governments in developing robust systems for accessing, managing, and transparently reporting on funds specifically allocated for climate resilience projects, potentially through climate budget tagging.

Somali Elections, Democracy, and Civic Education: Electoral System Reform: Moving toward a “one person, one vote” universal suffrage system, a significant departure from the current clan-based (4.5 powersharing) indirect selection model. This includes developing and implementing a new electoral law.

Civic Education: Conducting public awareness campaigns to inform citizens about their rights and responsibilities in a democratic society, the electoral process, and the importance of political participation, with an emphasis on incorporating comprehensive climate change impacts, adaptation strategies, and the critical role of governance in building climate resilience into civic education campaigns. These campaigns should empower citizens to understand their rights and responsibilities in a climateaffected society and encourage them to demand climateresponsive leadership and policies.

Inclusive Participation: Actively promoting the participation of women, youth, and minority groups as both voters and candidates to ensure a more representative government, including advocating for the explicit inclusion of climate resilience and environmental protection clauses within electoral laws, party platforms, and candidate debates. This aims to ensure that climate issues are central to the democratic process and that elected officials are held accountable for their climate commitments.

Institutional Stability: Constitutional Review and Implementation: Working to finalize and adopt a permanent constitution that clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of the federal government and federal member states, including providing expert support to the ongoing constitutional review process to strengthen provisions related to environmental protection, sustainable natural resource governance, and climate change adaptation. This ensures legal clarity, enforceability, and institutional mandates for climate action.

Accountability and Transparency: Strengthening anticorruption bodies and implementing public financial management reforms to increase government transparency and build public trust, including strengthening accountability and transparency mechanisms, such as supporting anti-corruption bodies, to prevent the misuse of funds allocated for climate action and ensure effective, equitable resource management. This builds public trust in the government’s ability to address climate challenges.

Security Sector Reform: Building professional, national security forces that are loyal to the nation rather than to clans, and establishing clear command and control structures.

Building Inclusive Systems:

Participatory Governance: Creating mechanisms for citizens, especially marginalized groups, to participate in local decision-making processes, such as resource allocation and local planning, with an emphasis on integrating climate risk assessments and adaptation planning into participatory governance mechanisms at the local level. This ensures that community-level decision-making processes, particularly concerning resource allocation and local development plans, explicitly consider and respond to current and projected climate impacts.

Reconciliation and Transitional Justice: Supporting processes that address past harms, such as truthseeking commissions, reparations programs, and legal reforms, to foster a sense of justice and healing.

Inclusive Service Delivery: Ensuring that the provision of essential services (e.g., healthcare, education, water) is fair, equitable, and non-discriminatory to build trust between communities and the state, including supporting the development and strengthening of local early warning systems for climate hazards (e.g., droughts, floods). These systems should be directly linked to established community-based dispute resolution mechanisms to enable rapid, pre-emptive responses that prevent the escalation of climate induced tensions into violence.

Peace Education and Cultural Exchange: Integrating peace education into school curricula and supporting cultural and sports activities that bring diverse young people together to build friendships and challenge stereotypes.

Objectives

The objectives aim to create a more legitimate, responsive, and stable government at all levels.

To establish legitimate and functional local governments:

To ensure that local administrations are accountable to their constituents and capable of providing basic services, including climate-responsive governance.

To transition to a more democratic and representative electoral system:

To move away from the clan-based model and toward a system of universal suffrage that increases citizens’ participation and the legitimacy of elected officials.

To create stable and trusted national institutions:

To build a durable state apparatus that can withstand political crises, enforce the rule of law, and effectively serve the Somali people.

To empower citizens through civic education:

To equip citizens with the knowledge and skills needed to participate meaningfully in the political process and hold their leaders accountable for climate action.

To promote inclusive governance:

To ensure that the voices and needs of all segments of society, including women, youth, and marginalized communities, are reflected in governance and policy-making, particularly concerning climate change adaptation and resilience.

Milestones:

Milestones are tangible and measurable achievements that mark progress toward the pillar’s objectives.

Local Governance Milestones:

Formation of a specific number of inclusive district councils in key regions, with documented participation from diverse community groups.
Successful collection of local taxes and creation of a functioning local budget in a pilot district.
Implementation of a new federal-level policy on decentralization that clarifies the division of power and resources between the federal and local governments.

Electoral and Democratic Milestones:

Adoption of a new electoral law that provides a clear pathway for a one-person, one-vote system.
Successful voter registration campaigns in a defined number of regions, with a specific target for women and youth registrants.
Holding the first direct local or state-level elections, as was done in Puntland, marking a significant step away from the indirect, clan-based system.
A measurable increase (e.g., 30%) in citizen awareness and engagement on climate change issues and their links to governance by 2027, as demonstrated by pre- and post-campaign surveys and increased participation in climate-focused community forums.
Documented instances of climate change issues being prioritized in public discourse, electoral manifestos, and commitments by 50% of candidates in local or state-level elections by 2028.

Institutional Stability Milestones:

Ratification of a permanent constitution that is broadly accepted by both the federal government and federal member states.
Establishment of a functioning, well-funded anticorruption commission with the authority to investigate and prosecute cases.
Creation of a centralized payroll system for security forces to reduce corruption and ensure loyalty to the state.
Successful inclusion of robust climate and environmental governance provisions in the finalized permanent constitution by 2027, broadly accepted by both the federal government and federal member states.
Documented cases of improved transparency in climate finance utilization at local and national levels by 2028, as evidenced by public reporting and successful audits of climate-related projects.
A measurable increase (e.g., 30%) in citizen awareness and engagement on climate change issues and their links to governance by 2027, as demonstrated by pre- and post-campaign surveys and increased participation in climate-focused community forums.
Documented instances of climate change issues being prioritized in public discourse, electoral manifestos, and commitments by 50% of candidates in local or state-level elections by 2028.