Who owns data in Somalia? Ending the country’s privatised knowledge economy
Over the past decades, donors, aid agencies, consultants and enumerators have conducted increasing amounts of aid-related research in the form of monitoring, assessments and surveys in Somalia. The rise of third-party monitoring (TPMs), new technologies and…
A comparative review of Somalia’s controversial Sexual Offences Bills
There has been controversy surrounding the development of new legislation in Somalia addressing sexual offences, at a time when incidences of rape and other sexual violence have become rampant and impunity is pervasive. Two different bills on sexual offences have been drafted by different…
Protecting stability and inclusivity in Somalia’s indirect election process
Protecting progress that has already been made in Somalia’s post-conflict transition should be the main priority of the upcoming electoral process. Significantly, Somalis have already achieved agreement on the main aspects of the…
What Lessons can be Learned from Somalia’s 2016 Indirect Elections?
Somalia is heading into another indirect election in 2020-21. It is a familiar process and one that was undertaken almost four years ago. Many lessons can be learned from the 2016 indirect electoral implementation process. In 2016, candidates for the House of the…
Examining the impact of COVID-19 on higher education in Mogadishu
Soon after the first few cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Somalia, schools and higher education institutions were forced to close down their campuses in a bid to reduce infections. Universities explored online teaching as an alternative approach to continue…
The Road Ahead to Somalia’s 2021 Elections: Prospects & Challenges
This is a crucial election year for Somalia as the national parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled to happen in late 2020 and early 2021. The national electoral law – approved by the two chambers of parliament and…
Land prices in Mogadishu and its impact on the urban poor and IDPs
Mogadishu is the capital city of Somalia and has the second highest urban population density of any city in the world with over 2 million people. Land, housing and property prices in Mogadishu are the highest…
Getting the party started: re-instituting political parties in Somalia
One person one vote elections are scheduled to be held in Somalia in late 2020 and early 2021. The electoral bill, despite being in a parliamentary review process, stipulates that the electoral model will be proportional representation, closed list, in a single constituency where registered voters will…
Review of Somalia’s draft national election bill
The National Electoral Bill is currently under parliamentary review. Once approved, the law will be the foundation for one-person-one-vote (OPOV) national elections scheduled to take place in Somalia in late 2020 and early 2021. The bill consists of 7 chapters and 61 articles and discusses issues of electoral design, management processes, voter registration, candidate eligibility, regulations for election campaigning, voting processes and vote counting, among others. This governance brief critically reviews technical issues of election design contained in the bill, including…
Division of powers and responsibilities in a federal Somalia
Somalia adopted a federal system of governance in 2004, although the formation of regional states only began in 2013. Four states have been formed under the auspices of the provisional constitution, in which the separation of executive powers and responsibilities between the different tiers of government remains unclear. Amidst this state of constitutional ambiguity, power struggles between the federal government and…
