Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Thursday July 6, 2006

In early February 2006, the Speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament announced that the first session of the Parliament to be held on Somali soil would take place on 26 February in Baidoa, the war-ravaged city in central Bay region. Eight days before that date, UNDP was requested to help make this happen by donors that financed the peace process for Somalia.

Responding quickly, UNDP rehabilitated former warehouses that would serve as the conference facilities and support secretariat, provided logistical support to transport the Members of Parliament to Baidoa from various locations in the country, and the provision of water and sanitation services. The evening before the session was to take place, a planeload of furniture and generators arrived from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and UNDP staff organized the manpower to ensure that the conference facilities and the support secretariat were furnished by 0730 the morning of the opening, ready for the international dignitaries and media that had come to witness the historic occasion.

The Somali Institutional Support Programme (SISP) formerly the Somalia Emergency Budgetary Support Project (SEBSP) continues to pay the sitting allowances and per diems for the MPs and rehabilitation of and equipment to the President, Speaker and Prime Minister’s offices. In addition the project has supported police stipends and law enforcement equipment such as radios and bullet proof vests and is prepared to pay stipends to an additional 500 trained police officers in Baidoa. Sweden/Sida, Norway, the European Commission (EC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom have channeled more than US$ 7 million through this programme. The SISP will continue to provide a vehicle to ensure coordinated, flexible and swift donor response toward enhancing the capacities of key ministries, offices and departments of the Transitional Federal Institutions as well as further rehabilitation works in the coming months.

Complementing the SISP activities, the Rule of Law and Security (ROLS) Programme, with contributions from the Arab League, EC, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, has supported the training of 500 police officers, the rehabilitation of judiciary and law enforcement infrastructure (Regional Police Headquarters, Baidoa Police Station, Baidoa Police Training facility, prison and law courts), provision of uniforms, communications and transportation.

Following agreement with the authorities in the Bay Region, 3,000 freelance militia will be encamped for six months in two facilities on the outskirts of Baidoa. UNDP will provide a range of services including shelter, sanitation, water, numeracy and literacy classes and they will be registered for subsequent Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR). This is being supported by DFID and the UNDP Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR).

In support of the District-based Peace-building and Reconciliation Project, the Community-Based Peace Support Project will work with local communities mainly in the South Central regions through conducting local peace building and planning workshops and trainings, followed by community-driven, high impact activities designed to support peace building, reconciliation and reintegration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and demobilized militia. These actions will include rehabilitation of community infrastructure, the improvement of the environment and other activities as identified and prioritized by the local communities through their representatives. The CBPSP is supported by Norway, the World Bank, UNDP-BCPR and UNDP.

At the same time, the Governance Programme has developed a US$ 4 million Technical Assistance package to the TFG in support of the four primary pillars of governance - Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister (Cabinet of the Council of Ministers), Office of the Speaker and the Supreme Court. This EC and DFID-supported project will provide part-time expertise (international and Somali national including Diaspora) to establish systems and whenever possible undertake capacity building and skills transfer activities with counterparts.

This will enable the TFG to have the immediate technical capacity to function during a transitional period of time until it is in a position and has the resources to build its civil service capacity and until long-term plans and assistance are underway. The project will also provide assistance to the core functions of governance under the office of the Prime Minister, and work to strengthen the functional link between the Parliament and Government.

Source: UNDP Somalia, July 7, 2006