Successive Somali governments have sought to stimulate production in all sectors of agriculture, commerce, and industry. However, drought, inflation, civil strife, and the rise of oil prices have severely hampered these programs. Government priorities prior to the civil war included the expansion of the fishing fleet, food self-sufficiency based on the development of the Baardheere dam project, livestock breeding, and meat export programs, and transport and telecommunication improvements.
Clan warfare has left Somalia without a central government since 1991. Economic development at the beginning of the new millennium was expected to be devoted in large part to the rebuilding of the Somali civil administration. Despite a continuing lack of infrastructure in the early 2000s, domestic trade was thriving and the clan system had sufficiently organized the economic system to support the population.