Somalia: What do they really need?

Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results”.  He would be surprised if he could see how insanely the international community engages with Somalia.

More aid? No, thanks. (Image:UNICEF)

The unfortunate country of the horn of Africa once again has drawn world’s attention as its people suffered from famine, epidemic and violence. It is the same old story that has been played for the last two decades; a tragedy occurs and everyone with suits makes an appearance and political statements for a while. But when the dust settles, the stage is left to people who are really in charge: local milita, terrorists, brutal warlords and rogue pirates -the classic portait of Somalia engraved in people’s minds. 


       Since the Civil War in 1991, the country has been in chaos due to the lack of a sovereign authority let alone a government. Consisting of 17 regions (divided mostly on tribal reasons), the country is factually divided by four different authorities; Somaliland in the northwest, Puntland in the northeast, Transitional Federal Government in the capital and Al-Shabaab (the youth in Arabic) - an Al-Qaeda backed terrorist group- in the south. For the 19 years, there has been fifteen attempts to forge a central government all of which were failed on the ground of strong regional, political and social divides in the country. The transitional federal government, the only internationally recognized political entity, however, intends to hold national elections in 2012 once again even though it only controls a small part of the country. 

     Country’s economy relies mainly on remittances transferred by Somali diaspora and humanitarian assistance from donors. Although, these two components represent the large part of economic activities in Somalia, there is a thriving private sector particularly in the northern parts of the country. According to CIA estimates (The World Factbook, 2009) the GDP reached 5.7 billion USD with 2.6 percent growth rate which is mostly boosted by livestock and telecommunications sectors based in Somaliland and Puntland in addition to money transfers from abroad.

       Nevertheless, Somali people certainly needs foreign assistance. 43 percent of the total population still lives under 1 USD per day and 73 percent under 2 USD per day. (UNDP-WB 2002, 2007) 1.5 million internally displaced person are waiting for a return to their homeland which are mainly located in the south (UNHCR, 2011). 1 of every 7 children are acutely and 1 of every 25 children are severely malnourished (FSNAU, 2011) and approximately 2.8 million people -31 percent of the total population- are in dire need of humanitarian assistance (OCHA, 2011). So donors “helped” for the last 20 years. National and international organizations donated average 1 billion USD annualy (111 USD per capita/year and approx. 20 billion USD at total) since 1992. However not much has changed.

What went wrong?

      First of all foreign aid that is given to Somali lacks effectiveness. International efforts are not coordinated in a regular, on-time and on-site fashion because of the high costs of operation in Somalia due to geographic, logistical and security complexities. Hence, all donors operates their relief activities from neighbouring countries (particularly Kenya). This usually causes delays in delivery of humanitarian aid and/or inaccurate delivery (sometimes not delivery at all). An OECD study (OECD, Somali Republic 2011) suggests that foreign aid (be it cash or supply) is often seized by illegal groups (Al-Shabaab, pirates or others), damaging security efforts performed in coordination again with donors. This “remote control” system also veils main necessities of people on site. For instance, Somaliland and Puntland’s priority is development rather than humanitarian aid or conflict resolution. Providing humanitarian aid to those regions is a waste. Furthermore, donors can not explicitly define where to link and differ political, security and development objectives. Even though, associating different goals is essential for combined development assistance programs, it often leads to the use of humanitarian funds and programs for political and security purposes, jeopardizing the good intent towards humanitarian aid.

       Secondly, focusing on state-building as a central objective rather than nation-building is a dead end. This blog believes that it is useless to try to build a state when there is not enough awareness and/or will to build a nation. That is why, Somalia ranks the worst in out of six global surveys (BTI, Fragile States Index, Corruption Perception Index, Index of State Weakness and State Fragility Index) which measures state fragility, weakness and corruption. Donors and transitional government, on the other hand, argue on whether to prioritise peace-building or state-building. Both of them are wrong. For the last 20 years Somalis have been waiting a “transition” that never comes true. Taking into consideration the disintegrated geography of the country caused by imperial colonialism of the last centuries, the first thing that should be done is to unite people of Somalia under a national identity. 

How to build a nation?  

       The answer is not easy. As in Somalia, Afghan people has also been trying to build a nation, (widely known as Afganization) which has yet to bore fruit. However unlike Afganistan, Somalia has advantages. Thanks to its unique location in the Gulf of Aden, it has a huge potential in terms of transoceanic trade. Indeed there is an emerging private sector in the northern region which actually indicates that Somalia is not deprived of resources and human capital. Consequently, primary education is improving as well. The number of youngster who receive primary education increases annually. New state structures are also started to throw its weight on daily life. Above all, Somali diaspora has a nation’s consciousness. Mobilizing their own and international communities’ resources to help their countrymen, they are gathered around their countries victimhood and agony.

       There may be a long way ahead of Somalia to recover from a failed state to a stable one. However, context could change in a way that some day a group of resolved “Somalis” come to the fore and form a government that would win hearts and minds of the people in the horn of Africa.

Note: Facts and figures in OECD(2011) Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations: Somali Republic are used in this commentary.


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