Puntland State President Announces Somalia State-Building Conference in Garowe
AXADLE, Somalia— Puntland State President Said Abdullahi Deni said his administration will convene a conference in Garowe to examine Somalia’s state-building challenges and propose practical, evidence-based solutions, signaling an expert-led approach amid a protracted political standoff with the federal government.
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Deni said the gathering will bring together Somali experts and academics to look beyond factional interests and offer research-driven ideas to break recurring governance impasses. The initiative, announced in the Puntland State capital, places the emphasis on scholarship and technical analysis over political maneuvering.
“As the Puntland State government, we want to work with Somali experts who have specialized knowledge in state-building and hold a conference in Garowe to examine scientifically the challenges facing Somalia’s state-building,” Deni said. “Politicians may have other agendas, but we want reason to guide the process and prevent ambition and emotions from driving leadership. This is the role we expect Somali experts and scholars to play.”
Puntland State, Somalia’s oldest federal member state, has been locked in a political deadlock with the Federal Government in Mogadishu since March 2024. The regional administration suspended cooperation over constitutional disputes and what it calls federal overreach—tensions that have complicated national reforms and strained coordination on security, fiscal policy and elections.
The planned forum in Garowe aims to re-center the national conversation around technical remedies to long-running structural issues, including the division of powers between Mogadishu and federal member states, resource-sharing, and the architecture of Somalia’s evolving constitutional order. While Deni did not outline a detailed agenda, his emphasis on “scientific” review suggests a focus on measurable reforms and policy design rather than purely political bargaining.
By elevating scholars and practitioners, Puntland State is betting that an expert-led process can help depolarize debates that have increasingly been shaped by personality and patronage. In recent years, Somalia’s state-building efforts have oscillated between breakthrough agreements and periods of paralysis, often hinging on the personal relationships of political leaders and differing interpretations of the provisional constitution.
For Puntland State, positioning Garowe as a convening hub offers both symbolic and practical benefits. The region has long cast itself as a foundational pillar of Somalia’s federal project and a driver of institutional development. An expert-focused conference could bolster that image while attempting to produce actionable recommendations acceptable to stakeholders wary of partisan agendas.
It remains to be seen whether the initiative will draw participation or endorsement from the federal government and other member states, or whether it will operate as a Puntland State-led policy exercise whose proposals are later tabled in intergovernmental forums. Deni’s framing underscores a desire to separate technical diagnosis from political theater—an approach that could lower the temperature of negotiations if it builds a credible, inclusive evidence base.
Somalia’s state-building remains a work in progress, with critical decisions pending on constitutional finalization, power-sharing arrangements, and the balance between central authority and regional autonomy. Against that backdrop, Puntland State’s call for a research-informed reset reflects a broader search for durable mechanisms to resolve disputes and move reforms from paper to practice.
The timing and participant list for the Garowe conference were not immediately disclosed. Deni’s office said the goal is to assemble Somali scholars and specialists capable of producing reasoned proposals that can withstand political shifts and guide leaders toward consensus.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
