Genuine Ownership

In the literature of development studies and other relevant disciplines, we often hear and discuss the importance of sense of ownership among project beneficiaries. Hardly, this loved and much-fantasized principle is interpreted into reality.

However, the violent demonstration that took place in Borama on January 30, 2013, though bloody, revealed an inspiring story, when looked from different  prospective, far from politics. The demonstration was against visiting delegation and as a result, angry young men and women took into the streets. They blocked roads and burned tires along the roads. Interestingly, they did not burn anything in the middle of the newly-constructed roads, as the common practice is. The main reason they were doing this is nothing else but a serious sense of ownership that prevailed deep in their hearts and minds!  They know that those roads were not built through multi-million donor funds but were financed through aggressive local fund raising mechanism that left no stone unturned. They are mindful that their parents contributed generously to the construction of these roads. They know that many of the local people tightened up their shoes and saved from their meager income to help construct these roads. They know that local leaders with proven leadership qualities are in charge of both mobilization of funds and construction of roads. Finally, they fully recognized that they own these roads and hence protected them!

This is both encouraging and moving as local people demonstrated an improved understanding of communal properties and the significance of protecting them. In a country whose people are known to be destroying communal belongings with their hands, without feeling any remorse, this unusual move could be described as a positive change on the very way that people think. 

I could foresee the day that what started in Borama (caring and protecting public properties) would be expanded to other Somali-inhibited regions.

Finally, what happened in Borama in that violent atmosphere is a bright example of real ownership that development theories and thoughts often define and debate and many are struggling to realize it.