Somalia rejects foreign expertise in State-building, Prime Minister says

Somalia’s Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre has said his government has deliberately chosen to rely on Somali experts in key state-building processes rather than bringing in foreign personnel to undertake work related to the country’s governance.

Speaking about the country’s constitutional review process, Prime Minister Hamza said Somali scholars and experts played a central role in reviewing and amending the Constitution, arguing that greater reliance on domestic expertise had helped move the process toward completion.

“We refused to bring people from abroad to work on our state-building. Our Constitution was worked on by Somali experts, and no foreigners took part in it,” Hamza said.

The Prime Minister said previous constitutional processes had involved foreign experts and had consumed substantial financial resources without producing a completed document. He said the involvement of external personnel had also contributed to errors and inconsistencies within earlier drafts.

According to Hamza, the government subsequently adopted a policy of localizing the process by placing Somali professionals at the centre of the constitutional review.

“The Constitution we have now completed, and I was among those who worked on it, had millions of dollars spent on it, yet it remained unfinished,” he said. “When we came in, we restricted foreign expertise and foreign funding in the process. That is what enabled it to be completed.”

He argued that Somalia has a young population with significant knowledge and capacity and should increasingly trust its own professionals to lead national institutions and development processes.

Hamza also pointed to the country’s electoral preparations as another area in which Somali professionals have taken the lead. He praised the efforts invested in developing the electoral process, saying the work was being undertaken by Somalis themselves.

“If we had not done that, it would not have been completed even in 50 years,” the Prime Minister said.

His remarks reflect the government’s broader emphasis on strengthening domestic capacity and reducing reliance on international personnel in Somalia’s state-building efforts, while maintaining cooperation with international partners in areas where external support remains necessary.

Mustaqbal