March 3, 2021
Albert Baron Ansu
Donor Fatigue and Knock on effect on the country’s economy has been highlighted in the UN Country report. It is a ripple effect of the COVID 19 situation.
Coming from the context of war; passing through the emergency phase of reconstruction and staggering development, we have been so much reliant on donor support for many things in institutional building and service delivery. So the shock of the changing trend is just upsetting. But we have to live with and look inwards, believing in ourselves.
Excerpt from the United Nations Common Country Update 2021 states: The Government’s vision for national transformation and development has been articulated in the country’s Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP 2019-2023) entitled “Education for Development”.
It adds: However, the implementation of the MTNDP is challenged by the wide financing gap due to weak domestic revenue mobilization and relatively small donor community presence in Sierra Leone. ODA, a significant part of the financing landscape and private financing, remains small. The need to deepen domestic revenue mobilization, therefore, remains high amid the current donor fatigue.
The government of Sierra Leone is therefore treading a tight rope in the prevailing circumstance. Managing public expectation is therefore not going to be easy. And we are hearing the grumbles and opposition rants that fail to understand the extraneous factors that are hitting hard and creating delays in payment of subsidies to schools. How pathetic that there are Sierra Leoneans gloating over these challenges. But it is less surprising not everybody can be happy about development.
A serious government as the Sierra Leone Peoples Party is cognizance of these issues. We are appreciative of the astute measures and responses to keep afloat and steer the state craft enroute to a new direction headed to prosperity.
The low hanging fruits are all over the place for plucks and President Bio and his team have been reaching out. Checking it out we see the fiscal discipline that has been instituted to caulk wastage. In this regard, we can see that frivolous spending that was the modus operandi of the past administration has been curtailed. The lamentations of those compatriots who have been feasting on the crumbs can be heard: “d gron dry’ the idea that we are living in hard time.
Yes, this is a difficult time all over the world. It is a situation nobody wants and we must be adaptive to the realities of the moment. It is not a deliberate ploy to keep hungry. And the proofs of that are evident in the cushioning measures that the government has put in place and will continue to work on in seeing us through stormy days. Note that there is always respite after the storm.
You have heard about the ambience of micro finance support, the 100 billion Leones MUNAFA micro credit of marked difference to bail-out small businesses across the country. This is one veritable means of local resource mobilization that we all must support rather than sabotage. The target group women and youth inclusive of people living with disabilities makes it very strategic and people centered.
President Bio is precisely on the trajectory of social inclusion as advised by the UN. Let us read:
Although vulnerability in Sierra Leone is almost universal, certain segments of the society face additional challenges that impede their participation in the country’s sustainable development and are most at risk of being left behind. Despite strides towards social inclusion, the most vulnerable groups continue to face barriers in accessing social services, including education, health services, legal rights and public participation and representation. COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the challenges of the following most marginalized groups: women and girls; persons with disabilities (PWDs); youth; sexual minorities; people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA), and; older persons…
Now, it is appalling to hear that at the nascent moment of trying to kick off the cash disbursement to small businesses, crooks have penetrated the MUNFA Micro Finance scheme, roguishly registering people in the bogus name of awarding them loan. This is the extent of criminality that had been allowed to fester in this country. But trust the process that is grounded on the rule of law. The miscreants that think corruption will infest the MUNAFA loan scheme to make it a fiasco are going to be burnt in a metaphorical sense. They will feel it.
Where donor funding gets scarce, this government is saying let us believe in ourselves that we can be adaptive.
This is why we see the government working hard to ensure that the small companies that are around are protected not against local interest but have a win-win situation in augmenting a gaunt revenue base. The president has shown brinkmanship in helping to resolve the conflict between SOCFIN Agriculture Company as one of the biggest tax payers and the Malen Land Owners Association. I think this is the right way to go in the prevailing circumstance of global economic meltdown. It is an exercise in plucking low hanging fruits.
Then a serious government must prepare for after the rains. With the progress recorded in vaccine production and roll out, we can be rest assured that COVID 19 is going to be contained in the not too distant future. When normalcy returns, development partners will once again resurface and will seek partnership with governments that have stayed the course of promoting good governance and sustainable development action plans that are bound to pay off in the mid and long term. We believe the SLPP is on course and not leaving anybody behind except the fact that we can understand when it said: take the horse to the rive but you cannot force it to drink.