Integrated Natural Resources Management

Service Description

In 2011 I wrote my LLM dissertation with the intention of designing a legal framework that supports sustainable livelihoods and builds institutional capacity progressively. At the time my thinking was influenced by Elinor Ostrom’s institutional design framework as well as my practical experience with UNEP in Sudan and South Sudan and the end of the transitional period leading up to the independence of South Sudan. Placing natural ecosystems as the base layer, I then traced the overlap between administrative boundaries and the patterns of resource-use. The overlap between the ecological, administrative and resource-use units allowed me to develop a framework that can be adjusted to reflect local needs and existing capacity for service delivery. By 2012, I had shared the outcome of my research with my wider network and in October 2012 I was invited by the UN Joint Programme on Local Government to adapt the framework to Somalia. By 2018 the outcome of my work was passed by the Somaliland Parliament and used as basis for a decentralised national Natural Resources Management Programme.