Puntland Non-State Actors Association-PUNSAA together with Puntland Youth Association- PYAN, in short- organized a one-day Stakeholders dialogue forum between local government and civil society organizations. The consultation meeting was held in Garowe. The meeting was attended by members and representatives from civil society organizations including youth organizations, women’s groups, disability groups and representatives from Garowe local authorities.
The objectives of the one-day meeting were ,1) To build a relationship between CSOs and local government in order to engage on district development plans, including budgeting and planning around priority areas, 2) To discuss the best way to build positive collaboration between the CSO and the local government on service provision and development needs to strengthen citizen engagement., 3) To Identify areas of cooperation b/w CSO and local government.
During the opening remarks PUNSAA chairman Abdirahman Abdirisak thanked PYAN and Garowe local authorities for organizing such an important meeting, he described the role of civil society organizations as a bridge between citizens and local authorities. The stronger the cooperation between civil society and local government, the better the results.
The role of CSOs complements the different huge activities that the local government doing/involved.
There are many activities that the civil society works with the local government such as community mobilization, community neighborhoods, security, health, citizens’ rights, innovation in service, and advocating with and for the poor people.
‘’CSOs represent the voice of the community, sharing/submitting local government with the community concerns or complaints such as people with disabilities, IDPs, and so on’’.
In addition to that, the meeting participants also suggested valuable recommendations for future relationships between local authorities and civil society organizations and they have suggested the need for improving accountability and efficiency in local government in order to monitor service delivery quality, emphasizing the significance of improved communication, knowledge sharing, information exchange, Actively participate in the policy formulation (district development plans), planning, and budgeting processes so that their needs and priorities are identified and catered/included
Finally, one of the main achievements agreed during the meeting was the initiating for a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which fully explained the best way of cooperation between CSO and local government.
