ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the empirical realities of the cycle of empowerment -powerlessness for poor communities within the historical context of the complex emergency of Somalia 1991-1994. It examines the decline of vibrant communities racked by war and ethnic conflict and the tentative piecing together of shattered local policies against a broader background of United Nations armed and humanitarian interventions. The chapter assesses the socio-political framework within which a transition from relief to rehabilitation could have been possible and various institutional delivery mechanisms for agricultural producers, with a view to restoring production capacity. It discusses the results of a rapid rural appraisal at village level in war-torn areas. The response of the major militias to the transitional National Council has been to move away from a concept of 18 regions, the administrative units established under the Siad Barre regime and to view the areas that they control militarily as the appropriate sub-national units.
