Locations
State-Building and Reconciliation Support Program
(SRSP)
Background
Somalia is at a pivotal moment in its state-building journey, working to establish a peaceful, inclusive, and effective federal system. At the same time, the country faces the urgent need for preventive measures to address recurrent conflicts. This process requires consensus on power and resource sharing, cooperation between national and federal member state institutions, and broad-based reconciliation across communities. However, these efforts are hindered by entrenched political divisions, recurrent intercommunal conflicts, and limited institutional capacity. Women, youth, and minority groups remain underrepresented in governance and reconciliation processes. Without inclusive dialogue, functional governance arrangements, and meaningful participation from all segments of society, the risks of instability, fragmentation, and stalled progress remains high.
About the Project
The Program is a multiyear initiative supporting the organic processes of state-building and reconciliation with focus on federal framework,political and social reconciliation and collaborate government in Somalia. It is an intergovernmental project engaging federal and state-level line ministries and forging strong interlinkages with civil society, women, youth, minority groups, and confl ict-prone communities using adaptive and iterative state-building, peace-building and collaborative governance.
| Project Status | Ongoing |
| Project Duration | June 2023 - May 2027 |
| Total Project Budget | $27 million |
| Focus Areas | Constitutional review, reconciliation, state building |
| Contributing Partners | Norway and Switzerland through Somalia Joint Fund (SJF) |
| Implementing Partners | The federal and state-level governments of Somalia and civil service organizations |
| Partner Agencies | United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNTMIS) |
| Project Manager | Amjad Bhatti |
Key Planned Activities:
- Improved policy, planning and programmatic linkages for the effective implementation of national reconciliation and collaborative governance at FGS, FMS and district levels.
- Processes of consensus building on federal framework and mechanism(s) for intergovernmental relations between and within FGS and FMSes are strengthened and the capacity of civil society for policy advocacy and public accountability is enhanced.
- Operationalization of allocation of power is supported and institutional capacity enhanced on ‘functional unbundling’ and development of sector-speci c governance frameworks at FGS, FMS and district levels.
- Operationalization/outreach of an inclusive legal identi cation eco-system sensitive to the social contract is enhanced, and national/regional counterparts are operationally equipped to deliver their institutional mandates effectively and efficiently.
Key Achievements
- Conflict mapping conducted across all 5 federal member states, providing critical data that informs reconciliation priorities and government decision-making
- Federal-member states coordination mechanisms activated enhancing joint planning and cooperation.
- Somalia conflict navigator launched, with 90+ enumerators trained & deployed to collect real-time conflict data used for analysis, early warning & policy formulation.
- Facilitated 25+ locally led reconciliation processes, out of which 12 were resolved in 2024, directly addressing communal tensions and promoting social healing.
- Federal and state-level line ministries of Somalia now have the capacity to lead reconciliation efforts, with UNDP providing technical and financial support.
