Somaliland communities have traditional system of governance, in which customary law and the clan system from which it derived provided the model for conflict resolution and a hybrid political order in general. This system of governance has gained prominence and space after the collapse of the formal institutions of then Somali Republic. After Somaliland proclaimed its independence from the rest of Somalia on 18 May, 1991; it was envisaged that the empowerment of the traditional governance systems as the only immediate way out of the multiple threats to public safety. Empowering traditional governance processes, elders in the of the clans of the Northern regions (former Somaliland British Protectorate) started their peace-building process, in which a reconciliation process in Somaliland assumed the form of a consensus-based structure, strategy, process, and leadership that allowed communities to settle their differences through inclusive clan meetings. That arrangement later morphed into rebuilding formal security institutions and creation of the basic infrastructure of hybrid security governance system as a part of a state and nation-building initiative. The research reveals how locally owned peace-building processes preceded state-building initiatives that yielded a unique type of hybrid security sector governance. It also sheds a light on how the formal and non-formal security institutions interact and interface and how they function and cooperate in both urban and the rural context. It also provides an original analysis on the comparisons with Puntland, a region adjacent to Somaliland.
