A flourishing private sector can lift Sierra Leone out of poverty with effective employers' organisations being a crucial part of that equation; as Memuna Forna argues.
The Sierra Leone Chamber of Mines was launched last week, giving the mining industry a voice both at home and abroad and, in the process, becoming the latest addition to the burgeoning and crucially important landscape of organisations representing the interests of Sierra Leone’s business sector.
There is now broad recognition by the international community that entrepreneurial activity and enterprise creation and development are vital to tackle persistent poverty in a sustainable fashion. Successful companies invest, employ and train people, pay salaries, buy and sell goods and services, generate profits and pay taxes. As former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan emphasised, “it is the absence of broad-based business activity, not its presence, which condemns much of humanity to suffering.”
If the private sector is the engine of sustainable economic development, macroeconomic stability and poverty reduction; effective employers' and business organisations are its mouthpiece - with the ability to help create the necessary conditions for economic growth. Their primary role is to ensure a positive business climate, by influencing government policy and advocating for regulatory change. They can also pay a decisive role in collective bargaining, training the workforce, setting professional standards and promoting best practice. In developing countries, where enabling business environments are still in their infancy and business challenges abound, the role of employers' and business organisations should be absolutely central.
There is a sizeable body of research to substantiate this view. Empirical research for the Research Programme Consortium on Improving Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth (IPPG) covers several countries and indicates a direct positive correlation between economic growth and effective business associations, in South East Asia, East Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. Another IPPG paper examining the Zambian business climate found that membership of a business association enhanced the performance of Zambian firms.
Unsurprisingly then, building the capacity of employers' and business associations in developing countries is seen as a priority. A 2011 report into employers’ organisations in West Africa argues that “the restructuring of the Federation of West African Employers’ Associations (FWAEA) is critical in vamping up the West African private sector as African economic development is related to the existence of a dynamic and world class competitive private sector.” Unfortunately the same report went on to say that West Africa’s “employers' organisations are ill-organised, lack resources, poorly execute their mandate and hardly deal with the challenges they face.”
These conclusions are supported by the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO). Employers' organisations are seen as so essential to sustainable economic development that the ILO makes it a core objective the strengthening of their capacity particularly in developing countries, countries in transition and countries emerging from conflicts. But adds that “all too often employer and business organisations are weak, and lack the necessary capacity to become an effective voice of business and to provide services required by their members.”
Sierra Leone’s employers' organisations are making strides. The Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture is just one example. It stages the annual Trade Fair and exhibition. It is also one of the few employers’ organisations with an up-to-date, functioning website, which makes accessing its services much easier.
But without exception all our employers' organisations need to extend their reach, improve their relevance and attract members. To do so they need to build their brand and consider their strategic development in the same way every business owner should. Basic member services should include published research-driven responses to government policy, lobbying for changes to inefficient and out-of-date regulation, as well as setting the agenda for skills development and best practice in their sectors. A value-added portfolio would include an effective online presence, the provision of industry specific research, information and resources to members and non-members; and networking opportunities and events.
Of course, all this takes time and money. To be effective in these ways, employers' organisations need premises, staff and funds. As a benchmark, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has over 200 employees and had a total income of £24.6m in 2013. Tellingly membership fees are just the first step. Almost £4m of the CBI’s 2013 income came from commercial activities, and the British Chambers of Commerce’s £4.5m turnover, less than £1 million comes from membership.
In Sierra Leone, several of our employers' organisations are perfectly poised to diversify their product and service offerings. They have the market and subject knowledge, industry expertise and contacts, as well as the initial capital and a relatively captive market to be able to build credible commercial arms offering courses, conferences, seminars, publications, consultancy and events. From these they could develop sponsorship and endorsements as a further source of income. Furthermore, with the country’s workforce skills deficit, they have both the opportunity and obligation to partner with workforce training providers to improve the skills’ levels in their sectors to the benefit of our economy and their members.
Without this sort of diversification, Sierra Leone’s employers' and business organisations will find reaching their full potential, a long, slow - and for some - an unachievable process.
Memuna Forna is a journalist and corporate communications consultant based in the UK and Sierra Leone. She wrote this for Politico.
(C) Politico 22/07/14
