This is a Quarterly forum, The Puntland Democratic Forum at the Dirad Institute for Research and Development is a leading Democratic Forum for research, debate, discussion, thought, and analysis on the theory and practice of democracy around the Somalia. 

Established in 2022, the Forum strives to bridge the gap between academic research and the practice of democracy through several roadmaps, DIRAD Institute hosts experts for democracy activists, journalists, and scholars, Coordinating and organizing research initiatives and conferences to explore critical themes for democratic development.

The Work of DIRAD Institute in Democracy
Citizen Participation
Making democracy work requires informed and active citizens who understand how to voice their interests, act collectively and hold public officials accountable. The Institute Targets to work with more than 1000 civic groups within Puntland and Somalia. 

DIRAD civic programs — including civic and voter education, issue organizing and advocacy, budget oversight, and government monitoring — help citizens engage actively in the political process and serve as a link between citizens and elected officials.

The Institute partners with politically marginalized and socially excluded groups, such as minority clans, helping them build awareness and influence around their priorities. In this way, the Institute helps give a voice to citizens who traditionally have no access to government decision-making.

Democracy and Technology
The Internet, mobile phones, and social media are helping citizens engage in politics in increasingly innovative and participatory ways. DIRAD has been a pioneer in the use of technology as an integral component of democratic development. 

The Institute aims to help citizens create and refine tools to advocate, organize and mobilize in ways that encourage Somalia and Puntland governments to be more accountable and create opportunities for citizen-led social and political change. 

The Institute also works with the government to find better technological solutions for constituent services, bill tracking, and outreach, as well as with political parties on technological tools for outreach, targeting, fundraising, and resource allocation.

Democratic Governance
DIRAD views the development of effective, democratic, public-sector institutions as a critical component of its mission. 

It is through improved governance that the benefits of democratic development most directly impact the lives of citizens. Conversely, the inability of public sector institutions to function effectively and democratically undermines the sustainability of democratic reform.

In a rapidly changing world, democratic institutions must become more innovative in adapting to new technology and evolving citizens’ expectations. 

Working with the legislature, executive offices, local governments, and good governance advocates, DIRAD’s governance programs seek to promote effectively, 21st-century public-sector institutions and processes that operate in a manner consistent with democratic values of transparency, representation, pluralism, and accountability.

Elections
DIRAD’s approach to election-related programming seeks to maximize the opportunities presented by elections to help advance democratic progress. 

DIRAD programs promote the integrity of electoral and political processes based on international standards and the practicalities of mobilizing citizen participation. 

DIRAD’s election-related activities are tailored to the broader political process in each district to promote citizen action as electors and as electoral candidates to achieve democratic governance, mitigate the potential for political violence, and improve the lives of people.

Gender, Women, and Democracy
Women have made significant strides in girls’ education, maternal health, and labor force participation – and in politics as well. Women’s participation in politics is socially transformative. 

Research shows that women in politics raise issues that others overlook, pass bills that others oppose, invest in projects others dismiss, and seek to end abuses that others ignore. 

Where women are able to participate in peace processes, the chances of reaching an agreement at all improve, and peace is 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years. 

Yet women face many barriers to their political participation. At current rates of progress, political parity will not be reached until 2080, making equality in politics the highest hurdle women face. DIRAD works to accelerate progress toward gender parity on an individual, institutional, and socio-cultural level.

Political Parties
Political parties are essential institutions of democracy. By competing in elections parties offer citizens a choice in governance, and while in opposition they can hold governments accountable. 

When citizens join political parties, volunteer their time, donate money and vote for their leaders, they are exercising their basic democratic rights. Participation of citizens in political parties offers unique benefits, including opportunities to influence policy choices, choose and engage political leaders, and run for office. 

However, in some instances, political parties do not respect the rights of citizens to participate and are not accountable to voters. DIRAD supports the development of vibrant, accountable, and inclusive multiparty systems that offer citizens meaningful choices and opportunities for political participation. 

Through networks, DIRAD fosters peer-to-peer exchanges and consultations. The Institute also facilitates constructive engagement between political parties and other institutions, such as Puntland Government, Civil society, the media, and election management bodies e.g., TIPEC.

History of Puntland Local Elections
Kindly Refer to the Below Report from Interpeace’s Somalia Country Representative
https://www.interpeace.org/2021/12/local-government-elections-in-puntland-pave-the-way-for-somalias-democratization/