LOCAL CAPACITIES FOR PEACE Land-Based Conflict Project Contested Urban Land Approaching Land Management and Land-based Conflicts in Urban Somaliland APD Hargeisa, Somaliland Phone: (+252-2-) 520304 Thuraya: +8821643338171/ +8821643341206 [email protected] APD Burao, Somaliland Phone: (+252-2-) 712980/81/82 Thuraya: +8821643341202/ +8821643341204 [email protected] http://www.apd-somaliland.org Acknowledgements Researchers: Mohamed Abdi (Team Leader), Safiya Tani & Nasir Osman (Assistants), APD. Editor/Researcher: Jan Stockbruegger, INEF. Contributions from Rita Glavitza, Research Consultant for Part IV on ‘Women Accessing Land’. This report is published by the Academy for Peace and Development, Hargeisa, Somaliland, in partnership with the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. For further information on the Land Conflicts Project, please visit: http://www.apd-somaliland.org/ projects.htm#land APD and INEF thank Interpeace for the practical support provided to the realization of this project. The project was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (see back cover). Hargeisa and Duisburg, January 2010 Front Cover: Hargeisa Panorama (© APD) Back Cover: Consultation Workshop in Burao (© APD) Contents 2010 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 3 Root Causes .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Land Management ................................................................................................................................. 3 Land Conflicts and Conflict Management ............................................................................................... 4 Land Tenure Security and Women Accessing Land ................................................................................ 5 I.Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 6 1. The Land-based Conflict Project ........................................................................................................ 6 2. Focusing on Urban Land Conflicts and Conflict Management ............................................................. 6 3. Research Methodology and Process .................................................................................................. 7 3.1 Research Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Research Process ............................................................................................................................ 8 II. Urban Land Management and Land Conflicts in Somaliland ................................................................. 9 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 9 2. Historical Background ...................................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Hargeisa ......................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Burao ............................................................................................................................................. 11 2.3 Developments since 1991 .............................................................................................................. 12 3. Urban Land Management in Somaliland: Laws and Institutions ......................................................... 15 3.1 Background: Urban Land Management in Somaliland .................................................................... 15 3.2 The Official Legal System and Institutional Set-up ........................................................................... 16 3.3 Administrative Structures in Hargeisa and Burao ........................................................................... 18 4. Root Causes and Problems .............................................................................................................. 20 4.1 Disorganized Resettlement ............................................................................................................. 20 4.2 Land Grabbing ............................................................................................................................... 20 4.3 Unclear Landownership and the Booming Real Estate Market ........................................................ 21 5. Land Management: Strengths, Weaknesses and Challenges ............................................................ 22 5.1 Legal Gaps and Shortcomings ....................................................................................................... 23 5.2 Institutional Competition and Poor Planning ................................................................................... 23 5.3 Clarifying Landownership ............................................................................................................... 24 5.4 The Controversial Role of the Local Councils .................................................................................. 27 5.5 Weak State Authority and Incompetent Officials .............................................................................. 29 5.6 Resettling Returnees: Problems and Challenges ............................................................................. 30 6 Urban Land-based Conflicts and Conflict Management ..................................................................... 32 6.1 Land Conflicts ................................................................................................................................ 32 6.2 Conflict Management: Institutions and Mechanisms ....................................................................... 35 7. Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................................................................. 37 III. Land Tenure Security in Somaliland ................................................................................................... 39 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 39 2. Clan and Land Tenure Security ......................................................................................................... 39 3. Land Tenure Insecurity of Immigrants and Marginalized Groups ........................................................ 40 3.1 Refugee and Immigrants from Southern Somalia ............................................................................ 40 3.2 Gabooye Communities ................................................................................................................... 40 Contents 1 3.3 Oromo and Amhara Immigrants from Ethiopia ................................................................................ 42 4. Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................................................................. 42 IV. Women Accessing Land in Somaliland .............................................................................................. 44 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 44 2. Female Researching: Methodology ................................................................................................... 44 3. Somali Gender Roles: Tradition and Social Change .......................................................................... 44 3.1 Women within the Kinship-System ................................................................................................ 44 3.2 Women and Islam ........................................................................................................................... 46 3.3 Women’s Economic Role ................................................................................................................ 46 3.4 Women in Political Decision-Making Processes .............................................................................. 48 3.5 Women in Conflict and Peace ......................................................................................................... 49 4. Women Accessing Land in Somaliland ............................................................................................. 50 4.1 Women’s Access to Land within Positive Law ................................................................................. 51 4.2 Women’s Access to Land within the Customary Law (xeer) ........................................................... 52 4.3 Women’s Access to Land within Islamic Law/Shari’a ...................................................................... 53 5. Women in Land-Based Conflicts ...................................................................................................... 54 6. Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................................................................. 54 V. Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................