None Is Poor By Choice Says Abu Brima

None is Poor by Choice says Abu Brima

This is a statement delivered by the National Coordinator of the Network Movement for Justice and Development, Mr. Abu A. Brima, at the official opening of the National Sensitization and Capacity Building Workshop on the PRSP in the Northern headquarter town of Makeni. He made similar statements in other parts of the country.

Emerging from the ten-year brutal war with an unenviable record of being at the bottom of the UNDP Human Development Index reports for at least the last five years, Sierra Leone we are told has qualified for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt repayment initiative and is in the process of developing a country programme aimed at alleviating poverty and promoting good governance at all levels.

In this regard therefore, an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper was developed for the years 2000-2002 by the government of Sierra Leone. An assessment of this interim programme by the World Bank and related financial institutions resulted in Sierra Leone qualifying for the development of the full Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRPS) to be completed in June next year to be implemented in the next 3-5 years.

The PRSP is very important to the people of this country but especially the Northern province (which has a very high poverty record) of which Bombali is not only part of but also the seat of power for the entire North. The north is less endowed with mineral resources with less infrastructural investment and perhaps the region with the least available opportunities socially, economically, educationally coupled with serious political differences and manipulation. Need I say that these are not only serious signs of a desperate situation but also a condition imposed by political miscalculations and misdirected development agendas of past governments?

Today, in the development of the PRSP, we have not only an opportunity but a great challenge because it attempts at developing strategies to reduce poverty and lay the foundation for long-term development among Sierra Leoneans. This is our moment; we must take advantage of it. But we must not forget that in spite of the relevance and importance of the document (IPRSP) to the very survival of Sierra Leoneans, their participation in its development left a lot to be desired. So, we do not have to leave anything to chance, hence the PRSP development demands that we take active part at all levels.

It is from this background that we in NMJD feel urged in collaboration with our partners like UNDP and others to raise awareness and increase the knowledge base of the vast majority of the people of Sierra Leone about the background, content, rationale, strategies and implementation schedule/mechanisms (processes and structures) of the PRSP so that they are able to take direct and active part in the entire process. And if the PRSP is to create the intended impact, then the people of Sierra Leone should actively participate at all levels of the process from the development of the document itself right through to its implementation, monitoring of the implementation and evaluating the outcome and impact.

In the development of the PRSP, a major element will be the understanding of what it means to be poor as experienced by the poor themselves and developing a poverty agenda. It is evident that poverty in Sierra Leone is a serious social, economic and political condition in which the poor have insufficient feeding, ill-health, illiteracy, lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate housing as well as lack of equality of opportunity and access to information and powerlessness. Poverty has become a social crisis of huge proportions, denying the majority of the people a decent standard of living. But the poor as well as their children and dependants are Sierra Leoneans.

They are no less Sierra Leoneans than the politicians in positions of authority, business tycoons and all the respectable local government officials who fail to address their problems at national levels and yet quick to collect housing rent and other benefits/charges. Most of the poor are law-abiding citizens who only hope that those who govern them will try and solve their problems. None is poor by choice. Many are born in poverty stricken families and have little or no choice to get out of poverty.

The problems of the poor cannot merely be wished away by those in positions of responsibility, as has been the case in many decades in this country. Rather, their condition and problems require urgent and practical steps to address not only the immediate causes of poverty but its fundamental causes as well. In effect, eradicating poverty in Sierra Leone would require, as it demands, an enabling environment, political will and a national policy framework like the PRSP that is now being developed.

Under the Sierra Leone HIPC initiative, financial savings accruing to the country will be used to support programmes and projects approved within the context of the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy (SLPRSP). Civil society is expected to be actively involved in both the preparation and implementation of the SLPRSP. The participation of civil society in especially, its development and implementation will ensure that the poor for whom the policy is intended do actually benefit from it. By civil society participation the goals of economic growth and poverty reduction will also be achieved.

The goal of this programme today around the PRSP is to enhance the impact of the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy (SLPRS) on the livelihood, social security situation (including food security and stable income) and welfare needs (health, education and water etc.) of the resource poor people of this country. It seeks to achieve this by bringing together people from all works of life, from the formal and informal sectors, from all the urban and rural communities to input into the process directly.

As a follow-up to this first step we also seek to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations, (in particular, development NGOs, women’s groups and faith-based organisations) working with farmers, fishermen, youth, women, children and other disadvantaged groups to plan and carry out participatory monitoring and evaluation of poverty reduction projects.

To achieve this goal of assisting to achieve poverty reduction, the Sierra Leone PRSP/HIPC Watch Project (as an initial name) will pursue the following objectives. It will:-

• Build awareness of CSOs on the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy (SLPRS) with the aim of mobilizing district-based development NGOs, faith-based organisations, women and youth groups to actively participate in and contribute towards policy making on poverty reduction strategies and programmes.
• Establish and strengthen the participatory monitoring capacity of a number of development NGOs, civil society groups and faith-based organisations so that they can collaborate with NMJD to carry out participatory monitoring and evaluation of the impact of SLPRS on the livelihood, security and welfare needs of the poor in all districts in Sierra Leone.
• Strengthen the partnership between the district assemblies/systems and CSOs in the implementation of the SLPRS in the districts in the country; the emphasis of the partnerships will be to promote CSOs-DAs monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the SLPRS on women, children, farmers and youth.
• It will collate data, synthesize and analyze them from the target districts assemblies on the impact of the use of HIPC Funds and disseminate the findings to policy-makers and the general public through the HIPC Watch Update (Newspaper), media briefings, The Network and other newsletters for advocacy purpose whose goal is to improve the policy-making and administrative environment regarding poverty reduction strategies and programmes.

Engaging civil society in the entire PRSP and HIPC processes is intended to address three critical issues including:

Governance

Governance refers to a system whereby, for example, a District or Chiefdom Assembly consults the citizens through their respective groups in public policy making and implementation, and empowers them to make inputs into such processes. Such a system makes political leaders like the District Officers and Assembly Representatives responsive to citizens’ needs, and ensures the success of the government’s poverty reduction programme as set out in the SLPRS document.

Accountability

Government raises money for development either through taxation or from abroad in the name of the people. HIPC funds are moneys government receives from the donor community under the HIPC initiative. Such moneys are to relieve the government of Sierra Leone from paying the principal and interest on debts the country owes to donors.

They are given to enable the government to reduce poverty in the country, especially poverty among people in rural communities as well as vulnerable groups.

HIPC funds are public moneys and must be used accordingly to lessen debt burden. It is therefore the duty of all citizens to ensure that such funds are accounted for properly. It is also the right of the citizens to make sure that such public funds are used properly. Accountability is about ensuring that political and administrative officials use and account for public funds properly.

Information about how much monies are received by political and administrative officials, and what the moneys are used for, how and why, is extremely important for ensuring accountability. It is therefore important for citizens to get information regularly about HIPC funds: how much is received from time to time, how the money is used, on what projects it is used, why such projects were selected for funding, and who benefit from the projects on which the funds are used.

Transparency (which is openness) promotes accountability. Therefore there must be openness, close cooperation and agreement between political and administrative officials on the one hand, and citizens on the other, especially so that political and administrative officials will share relevant information with citizens in a timely manner.

Equity

A major incentive for decentralization is the possibility it provides for ensuring equitable distribution of national resources throughout the country. Good governance ensures equity at the District level. Equity in the allocation of HIPC funds can be achieved at various levels: spatially among the various geographical parts/towns and villages of the District, socially among various social groups (e.g. women, the youth, children, the destitute, HIV/AIDS patients, the physically challenged, and ethnic groups where the district is multi-ethnic); and by occupation or professional groups farmers, fishermen, traders, the unemployed; and so on.

Conclusion

This workshop today is the second organized by NMJD in collaboration with UNDP and more will be organized all over the country to inform, encourage, challenge and enable all Sierra Leoneans to not only be part of and input into the PRSP but also to make sure that its implementation is effective and impacts positively on the poor for whom the programme is meant. Already many organisations and individuals had volunteered to serve as Task Team members ready to do all they can to mobilize, sensitize and facilitate a process of building a civil society coalition that will ensure that the Sierra Leone poverty programme will be the people’s agenda and that its implementation will be closely guarded by civil society to ensure that it addresses the needs and aspirations of the people that are poor and vulnerable.