Diasporic engagement in the educational sector in post-conflict Somaliland : a contribution to peacebuilding

Abstract

This working paper provides a background to the rebuilding of the educational sector in Somaliland, which had been completely destroyed during the civil war, developed again from very modest beginnings in the early 1990s, and includes manifold offers up to tertiary education a decade later. Arguably, the educational boom in the country is part of the second phase of peacebuilding, which began around 1997 and still continues. It involves extensive diasporic investments in the form of economic and social remittances. The case-study section in the second half of the paper presents two universities founded by diaspora and local actors. These universities are located in quite different regions of Somaliland. Jamacadda Geeska (International Horn University) in Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland, is embedded in an economically striving and peaceful environment. Jamacadda Nugaal (Nugaal University) in Laascaanood is located in a politically contested and economically underdeveloped area.1 The differently located case studies have been chosen to outline a more nuanced picture of the relation between diasporic engagement in the educational – particularly the tertiary – sector and sustainable peace. The different conditions in the two places help to understand in how far ‘external factors’, such as politics of recognition (on the side of Somaliland) and long-distance-nationalism, influence this relation. The study concludes that, on the one hand, diasporic engagement in education up to the tertiary sector has a peacebuilding effect in so far as it provides opportunities for a peaceful and potentially prosperous future for many youngsters and facilitates the transnational exchange of ideas and visions related to social development and tolerance. On the other hand, however, follow-up prospects for most graduates are currently missing. The structural transformation from a war-torn to a peaceful society in Somaliland, to which the re-building of the educational sector can contribute, is endangered by unemployment, poverty, and a lack of government planning.