LocationsNot Just One Justice System But Three - How Do We Plan to Design the First Justice Sector Strategy
July 10, 2024
By Justyna Linke, Joint Justice and Corrections Programme (JJCP) team and UNDP Accelerator Lab
A 3-day consultation on the Somalia Justice Strategy 2025–2030 organized in June 2023 in Mogadishu, stakeholders from Banadir Region, FGS, and civil society identified strengths, discussed improvements, and shared real-world examples to shape an inclusive justice system for Somalia. Photos: MoJSomalia
Somalia’s justice landscape is an arena of multiple actors with, at times, opposing interests and even values. It includes formal institutions, traditional and religious bodies both at the federal government (FGS) level as well as the federal member states (FMS) levels, each playing a role in delivering justice services but also creating a space for new ways of operating and providing people with a sense of safety, recognition and, well, justice. While regaining control from Al Shabaab over new territories of the country, the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs is tasked with a complex challenge of restructuring and developing the justice system in Somalia. Their core intent is — reaching everyone, across the entire country and for that reason the Ministry has taken the lead on developing their first Justice Sector Strategy using innovative methods.
There are three core methodologies that we have combined to design a human-centered and effective process of developing the first national Justice Sector Strategy in Somalia. The first one is a foresight method called Three Horizons developed by Bill Sharpe. It is leading us through the exploration of what the justice system in the country is but also what it could be, giving significance to the individual perspectives and local gems.
- We begin by exploring the justice system as it is (Horizon 1), the so-called status quo scenario. It helps us understand not only the characteristics of the system, but also get a better understanding of what would happen if we just kept it as is.
- We will then move on to the third horizon that describes the aspirations, visions and ambitions for the future system, recognising key milestones but also limitations along the way. Intentionally asking, who are the biggest winners and losers if the system changes.
- Finally, we are going to be exploring the local gems — ways in which the system is already successfully trying to address some of the key challenges it is facing.
The first Joint Justice & Corrections Programme (JJCP) Steering Committee, which convened earlier in June 2024, reviewed the progress and initial impact, while also providing future direction, paving the way for a fairer, more inclusive justice system. Photo: JJCP/UNDP Somalia
In order to identify and map out the latter, UNDP Somalia Accelerator Lab, which is one of the critical early contributors in structuring methodologies to exact justice systems change, is employing positive deviance, a way of identifying outliers in the systems — people, teams, institutions — that might be bending the rules, reinventing or flat out breaking them in order to more effectively deliver on the promise of justice for all, accessible and effective. Additionally, the Accelerator Lab team is making sense of all the inputs from the three horizon methods and will be conducting ground consultations to fill the gaps and weave the seeds of change.
Finally, what ties all of these methods together and in the end should allow us to understand what are the interventions and changes that should take place within the implementation period of this strategy (five years) is systems thinking. From the very first conversations, we are collecting all of the insights and stories coming from a variety of stakeholders and we are turning them into a map of the justice system in Somalia. As we go through that process, we will start identifying patterns and dynamics that will be key to writing a successful strategy and designing a learning mechanism that would ensure its adaptability.
As we were planning this process, we have agreed on four key values that should guide us along the way:
Co-design — each and every step of the process is discussed in detail not only with the core team from the justice sector (this includes colleagues from the Ministry as well as from each institution within the system — police, Attorney General, corrections, etc.), but is then also open to inputs from the participants of the consultations, which amongt other include academia, civil society and community representatives.
Inclusivity — we are exploring a number of tools that will allow us to ensure that we not only listen to the most usual suspects, but that we also recognise the realities and perspectives of minority groups and individuals who might not hold a formal position, but whose insight can help us understand more.
Transparency — more often than not, official documents are shared with the public in the final stages, for closing consultations and feedback. In this process, we are planning to share partial reports with the stakeholders — brief summaries of what we are learning. This should allow us to also make sure that we don’t misinterpret the insights we are gathering but also identify any tensions they might cause.
Practicality — paper can take anything. Real life — not so much. We are going through the process in a way that allows us to thoroughly map and understand the needs and challenges across the system and then identify the areas of intervention and the interventions themselves that are not only implementable, but also impactful and sustainable.
Photo: UNDP Somalia
Sounds like a lot? It is, but we are working with an amazing team from the justice sector, which is tireless and devoted. A successful strategy for the justice sector in Somalia can become an example for all other ministries in the country, which is currently developing its first National Transformation Plan (note: transformation!). Stay tuned for updates along the way. If you are working on a similar process, reach out — we are always happy to compare notes and learn together!
This blog post is the first one in the series. It outlines the goal as well as the methodology designed to develop the first Justice Sector Strategy for Somalia and as such might be useful as a reference point for all other blog posts throughout the process.
About the Project:
The Justice Sector Strategy for Somalia is being developed under the leadership of Federal Government of Somalia Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Federal Member States Ministries of Justice. It is as part of the UN Joint Justice and Corrections Programme (JJCP), which is funded by the European Union, implemented by UNDP, UN Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), UNDP Somalia Accelerator Lab, and UNODC.
For more information about the project, contact
Petrit Skenderi, Project Manager, JJCP at UNDP Somalia