SOMALILAND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION MODALITIES
The Republic of Somaliland has a high commitment to encourage international cooperation both bilateral and multilateral as a key priority of the state. Therefore, such commitment and dedication contribute to fostering robust bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the international community, investors, and other relevant actors and institutions.
Somaliland’s international development cooperation modalities are based on mutual interest and shared values of democratic credentials, and maintaining regional peace, and stability. The international and global development actors testified that Somaliland offered many attributes of resilience, ownership, and harmony which are rare in the rest of Africa when such circumstances occur as Wahen market was devasted by the fire in earlier 2022, recurrent droughts and other social-economic difficult conditions.
Promoting regional economic integration, transnational trade, international investments, and economic, and development cooperation. Currently, increasing regional economic integration is one of the important factors motivating and driving changing regional dynamics and contestations.
Somaliland demonstrated political maturity and steadfastness in promoting international cooperation by facilitating and fulfilling the standards and pre-conditions of the interested development cooperation actors and institutions.
Somaliland has many attributes, and avenues that should allow it to play a major in this regional and international cooperation, and this will also help many countries in the world to use Somaliland as a gateway since Somaliland is located in a very strategic position in the Horn of Africa, along with the Gulf of Aden – Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Suez Canal. Somaliland’s main Port of Berbera is closer to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, where is 40% of the global trade passes.
Somaliland’s development history has evolved out of a process of 32 years of grassroots peacebuilding and state-building. Over time, a resilient institutional structure has taken shape in which modern and traditional institutions, religious authorities, the private sector, and civil society worked together in order to effectively ensure peace, stability, and delivery of social services.
The Government of Somaliland and the international community’s development cooperation was mainly begun earlier when both sides cooperated with development and humanitarian assistance that was provided to Somaliland since in 1991 when the Republic of Somaliland reinstated its sovereignty, and this cooperation expanded to many fronts of economic development, infrastructure, promoting regional economic integration, and facilitation regional trade expansion.
This international cooperation has stimulated, and promoted the Government of Somaliland to produce, for the first time in its history- a Somaliland Vision 2030 alongside Somaliland National
Development Plans embedded with SDGs, and this has paved the way for Somaliland to create bilateral and multilateral relations with the countries and international institutions.
The Government of Somaliland also fostered its commitment to development and international cooperation most notably through the well-organized High-Level Development Coordination Forums are periodically held under the guidance of the Partnership Framework for Somaliland which the government of Somaliland and the international community endorsed in 2022.
Through this growing cooperation and mutual engagement, Somaliland has made significant progress in its development efforts and prioritization. The establishment of the Somaliland Development Fund (SDF) is a testimony to enlarging this beneficial relationship between the Republic of Somaliland and the international community.
Throughout the years, the government of Somaliland, together with its international development partners, laid the foundation for cooperation and partnership. The SDF is Somaliland’s one of the international cooperation modalities that are jointly coordinated with the government of Somaliland and the international community.
Eventually, the Government of Somaliland is conscious of adopting good practices and implementing agreed-on international development principles that flourish such cooperation in a more robust and credible manner.
The adoption of aid effectiveness principles such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), the Accra Agenda for Action (2008), and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (2012) obligates Somaliland and the international partners to materialize and scale up their cooperation and partnership. Subsequent Somaliland National Development Plans from 2011 – 2026 have all aligned and acknowledged these international and universal principles of development cooperation.
The Republic of Somaliland also reaffirms international trade laws, policies, and instruments. The Government of Somaliland is committed to promoting the attainment of better international cooperation with bilateral and multilateral stakeholders in a reciprocal manner.
As a democratic country that respects universal and international conventions, Somaliland is a better choice and reliable partner for all sides of international cooperation, international diplomacy, trade diplomacy, international peace, and security.
The Republic of Somaliland plays a very pivotal role in embarking on humanitarian assistance whereas the Berbera Port is the hub and center of the humanitarian assistance that WFP provides to Ethiopia and Somalia. This is one of the regional responsibilities that Somaliland maintained over the decades to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the region. Somaliland also hosts many refugees from Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria.
The Government of Somaliland also works with bilateral and multilateral countries and institutions including neighboring countries of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, and other countries such as the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, members of the European Union including Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, United Nations, the World Bank, African Development Bank, IGAD, Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Moreover, to consolidate the efforts of these international and global actors who are willing to support the Republic of Somaliland, the National Development Plan (2022-2026) is a guiding national document that gives all international development cooperation partners to pursue this (NDP3) priorities.