TITLE:
Natural Resource Governance in Unrecognized Settings: What Are Emerging Political, Legal and Fiscal Issues Affecting “Somaliland”?
AUTHORS:
Mohamed Rashid Hussein
KEYWORDS:
Somaliland, Natural Resources, Extractive Industries, Oil, Gas and Minerals, Accountability, Fiscal Regime, Investment
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.14 No.7,
July
25,
2023
ABSTRACT: Somaliland declared independence after the fall of the Central Government
of Somalia in 1991. Early peace settlements and state-building efforts led to
transitional government and early democratic contestations including
presidential elections in a hybrid state framework. This emerging democracy in
a conflict-torn region is challenged by weak accountability and power
imbalances between the three government branches. Over the past few years, the
current ruling party started to engage with foreign companies to carry out
exploration activities in onshore blocks utilizing existing information on the
distribution of natural resources of oil, and gas and to lesser extent mining.
Following an informal auction of selling licenses for resource exploration
among various companies, Genel Energy amongst others; Somaliland has no
competent institutions in managing revenues for long-term development due to
two distinctive factors: 1) absence of strong legal and political frameworks
specific to governance of extractive industry; 2)
weak fiscal regimes across spectrum of extractive companies, the state and
investors.