By Tanu Jalloh
Governments, especially in low-income countries like Sierra Leone, have had to put up with so much conditionality set by their donor partners and
traditional benefactors like Britain.
The first time I dealt with this matter was an effort meant to contextualise the extent of British support to this poor West African nation. I probably need to qualify that Sierra Leone is not a poor country, per se. It is its people that are poor.
Apart from the vogue in today’s private sector, leading the country’s economy, the government has had to endure a whole lot of comings and goings to
avoid a slump in the overall running of the country’s economy. They want a public-private partnership approach to economic governance. In this article,
like the one before it, I have chosen to profile some planned activities contained in a document (re)presenting what the British Department for International Development (DfID) would refer to as its “Operational Plan 2011-2015”, released to the public in April 2011. The single purpose of any British succor has been to alleviate poverty, or eradicate it altogether. To them this is cardinal.
The Plan under review “sets out the vision, priorities and results expected to be delivered in each country programme…it reflects what DfID can do to
reduce poverty, prevent a return to conflict and in doing so bring about real improvements to the lives of citizens throughout Sierra Leone.”
The UK Government is the biggest source of aid to Sierra Leone; a former colony she feels should be helped more than fifty years since independence in
1961. Britain provided 66.3 % of all aid to the recuperating war-torn but resource-rich country in 2007. About this same time 18 % of all official development assistance was channelled directly through the government budget. DfID nonetheless does not think aid alone would ever be a panacea to the grimness of things, but rather a means to an end and never an end in itself. According to the British government agency overseas, wealth creation and sustainable growth were probably some of the best ways to help people lift themselves out of poverty.
Most of what is being said about the relationship between Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, through DfID, has been at the macroeconomic level, the mainstay for a country’s overall economic growth. That is the reason such a report was being profiled as an issue under Business & Economy. Meanwhile, in the rest of this article, I have used most of what is in the original document, commenting in-between related texts and ideas to provide a not-too-adulterated piece but one that attempts to capture a bit of everything, ready for public consumption.
In May 2010, the International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, commissioned the Bilateral Aid Review (BAR) to take a comprehensive and ambitious look at the countries in which the DfID works through their direct country and regional programmes. The review focused on the best ways
for the UK to tackle extreme poverty, ensuring that they make the greatest impact with every pound they spend. In parallel, through the Multilateral Aid Review (MAR), DfID assessed how effective the international organisations they fund were at tackling poverty. The agency fears that Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest countries in the world and is unlikely to meet any of the Millennium Development Goals before 2015 with a GDP per capita of only $254, (compared to the Sub-Saharan average of $679).
“However, there is cause for optimism, Sierra Leone has over the last three years made a significant commitment to reduce maternal and child mortality, increase the opportunities for external investment and improve its revenue base. The UK remains one of Sierra Leone’s most significant development partners and DfID will be a key partner for the Government of Sierra Leone as it tries to accelerate the pace of development in the coming four years. DfID will continue to work to its relative strengths in Sierra Leone which are in governance, human development and wealth creation.
“Sierra Leone currently remains heavily dependent on donors’ aid which currently accounts for 19% of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI) and an even higher percentage of the national budget. The Government of Sierra Leone know that they have to both make the most of existing development assistance and also ensure they are developing new, more sustainable sources of income, in particular revenues from minerals (including the potential for hydrocarbons) and agriculture. A key part of the UK’s development strategy is to reduce the dependency of the Government’s national budget on donor
funds by generating a broader domestic revenue base and increasing foreign investment. Sierra Leone has one of the lowest revenue bases in Sub-Saharan Africa, currently standing at 12% GNI, compared to Liberia (in excess of 20%). It is also hard for entrepreneurs to obtain the finance they need to build their businesses and so create wealth and jobs.
“The Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (2009-12), called The Agenda for Change, is a clearly laid out set of national priorities for development…wealth creation is the key to sustained economic growth and development in Sierra Leone …while also looking to improve access to finance for the private sector. In addition DFID will support to the Government of Sierra Leone to ensure that it is able to manage its natural resource wealth more effectively for the benefit of all Sierra Leoneans.”
But getting the rest of the country to benefit from the engagements of DfID in the country was becoming a serious concern. Thus the agency has promised
to prioritise its interventions to ensure they directly contribute to its strategic objectives. It has committed itself to drop funding to any programme that does not perform well. In fact records are there that it has already stopped funding projects in public sector reform and has undertaken major redesigns of underperforming projects in audit systems and tax reform to ensure they perform to a higher standard.
(c) Politico 08/11/12
