Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — Implementing projects to mitigate the impact of climate change in Somalia presents development practitioners with political challenges. How do multilateral organisations navigate the maze of territorial disputes that periodically result in serious conflicts, such as the 2023 Las Anod conflict? Conflicts of this nature result from how disagreements are spelt out by the Federal Government of Somalia. In a 2021 report entitled WFP Critical Corporate Initiative: Climate Response Analysis for Adaptation, the World Food Programme, quoting the Federal Government of Somalia, refers to the Somaliland administration as “a sovereign state.” States carry the designation “sovereign” only when they are recognised as a member state of the United Nations.
The report that the World Food Programme (WFP) quoted is entitled National Adaptation Programme of Action on Climate Change (NAPA), published in April 2013. Introduced by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the report refers to the Somaliland administration as “a self-declared though internationally unrecognised sovereign state.” Why did a president who took an oath to protect the sovereignty of Somalia endorse a report that describes a part of Somalia as an “internationally unrecognised sovereign state”? Who advised President Mohamed on signing the report that promotes secession in Somalia? To distance itself from accusations of misrepresentation, the WFP referenced the report it cited in the bibliography.
In 2023, Somaliland administration forces shelled Las Anod under the pretext that Somaliland is a “sovereign state.” The National Adaptation Programme of Action on Climate Change (2013) contains factual errors that the secessionist administration can use to argue that the Federal Government of Somalia recognises the Somaliland administration as a legitimate authority of a “sovereign state.”
The implications of those factual inaccuracies that slipped through the net when publishing the National Adaptation Programme of Action on Climate Change (2013) range from lending credence to secessionist claims to denying development aid to regions affected by the secession conflict waged by the Somaliland administration.
A lot has changed politically since 2021 when the WFP published its report on the impact of climate change in the Federal Republic of Somalia. Somali leaders should avoid endorsing a report whose content they have not read carefully. It is all about the fine print, as the old business saying goes.
© Puntland Post, 2024
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