Local government is a vital part of democracy. The vast majority of interactions between citizens and the state take place through local government. It provides leadership for local areas and communities; democratic accountability for a wide range of public services; and is the key to effective partnership working at local level.

Somali Family Services held three day training programme targeting thirty six Puntland legislatures at Puntland Library and Resource Centre from April 1^st-3^rd 2009. The training program helped the parliament become more effective through stronger committee work, strengthening of its watchdog role over the executive’s public finance spending, and increased accessibility to its citizenry.

Somali Family Services was contracted by IREX to conduct a 4-day media training session for outlets in all parts of Somalia. The media training seminar started on 16^th March, 2009 in Hargeisa, Somaliland and ended on 19.

On March 16, 2009, Somali Family Services supported by Books for Africa and Counterpart International transported 40 feet container of books from St. Paul Minnesota, USA to Puntland State of Somalia. SFS is the leading transporter of donated books to the Puntland region. Since 2005, Somali Family Services has shipped over half a million high-quality text and library books to 60 institutions in Somalia.

Through the initiative that was started by UNDP and the World Bank, SFS was selected by the 7 participating Somali Centers (Amoud, Burao, University of Hargeisa, PSU, EAU, SIMAD and Mogadishu University) as the coordinating organization to ensure sustainability of the Centers beyond the UNDP support that ended in 2008.

Somali Family Services represented Somalia Civil Society Organizations in social protection training of trainers in Africa held in Nairobi Kenya from the 23^rd to 26^th February 2009. The aim of the workshop was to introduce participants to the essential concepts of social protection in East, South, Central and West Africa and to guide participants in fundamental training skills.

Somali Family Services (SFS), held 2 Civic Education workshops in Garowe and Bosaso on March 1-2 and March 29-31 of 2009.The workshop was funded by Diakonia, Sweden and National Endowment for Democracy and had the overall purpose of the workshops was to create the pathway for linking traditional mechanisms of ‘Heer’ and the ‘Geedka’ to modern concepts of democracy.

UNDP held workshop on the role of the Diaspora in Somali Development in Nairobi on March 13^th, 2009 where the SFS Executive Director was one of the keynote speaker to address UNDP’s interest in the Diaspora relates specifically to how they might work more effectively to enhance Diaspora development efforts.. The executive director presented a paper at the workshop.

SFS is currently training the legislatures in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as technology has become an important factor in democratic development. On March 1^st of 2009 thirty seven Puntland member of the parliament and their staff successfully completed two months training in basic computer hardware, windows Xp, word 2003, excel 2003, PowerPoint 2003 and using the internet.

Somali Family Services (SFS), held 5 Civic Education workshops in Garowe, Galkcayo and Bosaso.The workshop was funded by NED and DIAKONIA and had the overall purpose to bridge the gap between 145 members from the civil society organization and administration and to build the capacity of the youth, women, Puntland Administration, civil society organizations, and local religious leaders and secular leaders to create sustainable institutions and mechanisms for engaging citizens in promoting democracy-building and education processes in Puntland, Somalia.