In brief
- Somaliland Sun reported on 2013-11-30 that the UN-funded Joint Program for Local Governance had supported construction and rehabilitation of roads, feeder roads, Irish Crossings, police stations, health centers and water piping in Hargeisa.
- The report attributes a 'dramatic improvement' in Hargeisa's public infrastructure to the five-year partnership and says 2,400 local government employees across Somaliland were trained, 672 of them female.
- The 2013 report does not provide contract values, project budgets, completion dates, or any evidence of what has occurred in Hargeisa since that date.
On 30 November 2013, Somaliland Sun reported that the UN-funded Joint Program for Local Governance (JPLG) had positively impacted infrastructure in Hargeisa municipality. According to the report, the Hargeisa Municipal JPLG Coordinator, Engineer Abdiqadar Abdilahi Ali, credited JPLG with "several tangible achievements" in construction and rehabilitation of roads and feeder roads, Irish Crossings, police stations, health centres and water piping.
The article states that JPLG, funded by a consortium of five UN agencies (UNDP, ILO, FAO, UNCDF and UN-Habitat), started in 2009 in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Somalia. It says the first five-year phase had ended and donors had extended the programme for a similar period, though no extension dates or budget are cited. The Somaliland ministry of interior is the line ministry responsible for local governments.
According to JPLG figures quoted in the report, 2,400 employees across all local governments in Somaliland, including 672 female employees, had been trained as a prelude to enhancing service delivery and management. Engineer Ali told Somaliland Sun that while buildings and roads are tangible achievements, the most important outcome is the assortment of skills acquired by local council employees nationwide. He said JP LG's main impact is instilling contracting skills in local governments, which eliminated the earlier system of selecting contractors haphazardly.
The report claims that Hargeisa municipality had seen a "dramatic improvement" in public infrastructure after five years of partnership with JPLG. It attributes the breakthrough to sufficient, timely and planned funding, according to Engineer Ali.
However, the 2013 report does not establish what has happened since that date. It contains no contract awards, contract values, project budgets, expenditure figures, tender notices or contractor names for any Hargeisa infrastructure work. No specific roads, crossings, police stations or health centres are named, and no completion dates are given. The report does not state a reporting period or breakdown by locality for the 2,400 trained employees, nor does it provide a baseline or independent assessment for the claimed dramatic improvement.
The report also mentions that in October 2012 the President and Vice President of Somaliland were appointed Champions for Local Governance, but it does not name them. Under their leadership, the article says, inter-ministerial meetings were held and action points taken to develop decentralization policies and start piloting basic devolution of services in 2013. However, no number of meetings, policies adopted, pilot locations or budgets are stated.
No evidence is provided in the report about whether the alleged contracting skills actually eliminated haphazard contractor selection, whether decentralization policies were adopted or pilots started, or what has occurred in Hargeisa since 30 November 2013.