Strengthening Democratic and Inclusive Local Governance in Somalia

This is a five year (2023-2028) project that proposes to 'Strengthen democratic and inclusive local governance in Somalia'. However, Sida is on an extended development cooperation strategy for Somalia due to a prolonged strategy development period. As a result, this is a commitment for an initial two years, December 2023 to November 2025. Sida's contribution to the project will be reviewed in 2025 based on the approved priorities of the Government of Sweden and funding availability. The project aligns to Sweden's strategy for development cooperation for Somalia 2018-2022 (prolonged in 2023) as follows: Strategy area 1, Peaceful and Inclusive Societies - 2.1: Improved opportunities for participation in peacebuilding and state building processes, particularly by women and young people; Strategy area 2, Human rights, democracy and the Rule of Law - 2.2:Increased participation and influence in democratic processes, particularly by women and young people. The programme aims to promote sustainable peace and good governance in Somalia through enhanced local capacity and inclusive participation of communities, in particular women, youth and marginalized groups in decision making processes. It also aims to contribute to improved safe and protected civic space for womens meaningful role and leadership. In addition, it will also contribute to strengthened inclusive local governance and administration for effective basic public service delivery in four Federal Member States (FMS) - South West State (SWS) of Somalia, Galmudug, Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Banadir Regional Administration (BRA). It will build on years of experience of FCA in peace and state building in Somalia. The proposed activities were designed based on concrete impacts, lessons learned and best practices from FCAs previous and ongoing work in strengthening inclusive local governance structures through District Council Formation (DCF), promoting the national reconciliation, and strengthening participation of women in political and democratic decision-making. The design of the intervention is also built on foundations of Rights-Based Approach (RBA) and Do No Harm principles, with specific focus on gender equality and social inclusion of women, youth, and marginalized groups including persons with disabilities (PWD), minority and traditionally marginalized clans and other disadvantaged groups. It specifically contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 and 16 and Swedens priority on Women, Peace and Security in delivering UN resolutions 1325 as well as contributing to UN Security Council Resolution 2250. The project is inspired by the Swedish and Finnish foreign and development policies that are promoting gender equality and feminism, and sustainable peace and security. It is also in line with European Union Africa strategy that puts human rights, governance, youth and civil society in center when ensuring prosperity in Africa and securing good relationship with the Union. Specifically, the overall objective of this project is to strengthen capacity and participation of the local communities, especially women, and enhance inclusive local governance and administration for effective and accountable basic public service delivery in four Federal Member States of Somalia (FMS). The expected outcomes include: Outcome 1: Enhanced local capacity and inclusive participation of the community including women, youth and marginalized groups in peace building, reconciliation and local governance processes, Outcome 2: Strengthened inclusive and sustainable local governance and administration for effective basic public service delivery, Outcome 3: Strengthened safe, inclusive and protected civic spaces and womens capacity for their meaningful participation and leadership in strategic advocacy. The project will be implemented in close coordination with the government institutions at FMS level and in partnership with local Partner Organizations to be selected through a competitive process at the project inception phase which will run for the first six months of the project. This will ensure initial preparation, mobilization of key human resources, and consultation with government and other concerned actors in the selection of district at the state level.