Early gains in Federalism in its rudimentary form: Today, in major cities in SL and PL, basic services including clean drinking water, electricity, telecommunication, clinics, schools to name a few, in their respective regions, albeit subsidised are available, with good examples being Boorama, Boosaaso, Garowe, and Las Anod to name a few; at the fall of the nation state institutions in 1990, said cities had never known of, or heard of a government in any form, besides the presence of military hardware and “guulwade” positioned to subjugate the poor public.
Let me offer another example in the education sector. Back then, if a student, say from Boorama, finished high school and wished to continue to higher education, in pre 1990, said student would have had to be relocated to Xamar, where s(he) had no family support, but today s(he) has a choice of going to a local institution, or to another city nearby, if s(he) could afford.
There are two technical colleges in Burco and Galkacyo, which have a great deal of potential.
In the medical field, if a child got sick in Hargeysa, the 2nd largest city in the country, in the old days, said child had to be transported to Xamar for medical attention, for the only General hospital in Hargeysa was not equipped, nor had medical doctors, to offer the most basic of medical services. Then, there was only one fully qualified GP, who worked part-time, along with Jr trainees, and a few nurses, at the General hospital. There were no private clinics. Today MRIs, CT scans, dialyses, diagnostic services etc. are available locally.
In telecom and Internet services, Somalia now offers some of the best in the world with even nomads having access to high speed Internet. I was browsing the net, and watching movies, with no buffering in Garacad. Some counties in rural America do not have fast Internet speed. Imagine that. Now, compare that to the pre 1990 where to make a phone call, one had to travel to Xamar for a permission to place a trunk call.
Said services had been enabled, if facilitated by devolved system adopted by the country, and it is no longer a city State dictatorship.