May 24, 2021
Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt has on the 20 May, 2021 participated in the Plastic Leadership Workshop of the Sierra Leone Circular Economy in Plastics for Sustainable Tourism and Economic Development at the Ministry of Finance conference room in Freetown.
The project is a World Bank-Executed Trust fund called PROBLUE and it is part of the joint efforts of the Government of Sierra Leone, through the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank within the initiative “Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project (SLEDP)”. The SLEDP aims to facilitate investment, SME growth and entrepreneurship in non-mining productive sectors in Sierra Leone, particularly the tourism sector.
Presenting the background of the SLEDP project, the Project Coordinator, Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project, Mary Jalloh said the project is a 14 million grant financing project from the world bank and focuses on supporting investments in non-mining sectors and also ensuring that the private sector has a platform to dialogue with government going forward, noting that the Plastic Leadership Platform (PLP) is the first they are doing under the project.
The World Bank Country Manager, Gayle Martin stated that, for the World Bank, resilient growth is an important dimension of how they see growth going forward. She acknowledged the Tourism Minister for their collaboration on ground breaking areas for the tourism sector.
She maintained that it is but important that the tourism sector is included in the SLEDP and that the Tourism pause globally offers an opportunity for all stakeholders including the plastic industry to rethink existing business models and apply circular economic strategies.
In her statement, the Tourism Minister, Dr. Pratt stated that according to UNWTO, each year an additional eight million tonnes of plastics end up in the world’s ocean where it is responsible for the deaths of up to one million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals, marine turtles and countless fish, among other statistics. She emphasized that plastic pollution is one of the major environmental challenges of our time, and that tourism has an important role to play in contributing to the solution.
She stressed that the problem of plastic pollution in the tourism sector is enormous and changes need to take place across the whole tourism value chain, hence tourism stakeholders around the world are working together and taking a systematic approach through the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative.
Minister Pratt added that the PROBLUE project is coming at a time when the World Bank is investing in several areas of Sierra Leone Tourism especially in sites development and providing the capacity support for a strengthen value chain in domestic tourism, marketing, tourism and wildlife, tourism and island development and up scaling Sierra Leone Tourism in meeting global international standards. She assured that the Ministry and its agencies plans on plastic management minimization in touristic areas are always going to be aimed at protecting touristic sites and attractions.
She on behalf of the Tourism Ministry and agencies made a presentation to the World Bank Country Director, Gayle Martin thanking her for the support to the government and especially revamping the tourism sector.
There were contributions from the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Environment towards the deliberation and also a presentation on Plastic Circular Economy-Trends and Challenges.