Florida : Seminole mayor travels to Somaliland to give consultancy to local government officials, political parties

Seminole Mayor Leslie Waters

SEMINOLE – In October, Seminole Mayor Leslie Waters traveled to Somaliland to provide consulting services to elected local government officials and political party leaders in the East African country.

Mayor Waters was sent by the International Republican Institute and the U.S. Agency for International Development, two international support organizations.

The purpose of this assignment was to work with city councilors and mayors in Somaliland. Her training forums focused on how to be more effective government officials; how to improve communications with the people of Somaliland; how important it is that elected and party officials work together on outreach events; and the significance of the planning and hosting of Town Hall meetings.

Mayor Waters, with the oversight of the IRI Somaliland Country Director Bojan Ristic, and consulting partner Steve Pier, of Occident and Orient Development in Texas, trained over 150 people. Professions of attendees included physicians, camel and goat herders, fishermen, religious sheiks, educators and small business owners.

“Working with the good people of Somaliland was truly a humbling experience,” said Mayor Waters, “an experience where it was my intention to help make a difference in helping to enhance their democracy and improve the political process for the benefit of all Somalilanders.”

Somaliland is an unrecognized, self-declared de-facto sovereign state that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia. They have been a democracy for only 22 years. The country’s government is comprised of a president, cabinet, parliament and three branches of national government, as well as local government with mayors and councilors.

“Those who attended the training gained a great deal of knowledge on how to be effective elected officials, how to organize and plan community outreach events, and to how to better communicate constituents in their villages and communities,” Mayor Waters said. “Political parties benefited from trainings on how to help elected officials be successful, and how to grow their party influence and membership.”

Source : Tampa Bay Newspaper