MOFED holds 2nd Quarter Development Partnership Committee Meeting
The Donor Aid Coordinating Office in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED], has on Wednesday 16th July 2013 held the 2nd Quarter Development Partnership Committee [DEPAC], at the Ministry’s Conference Room.
In his welcome address Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr Kaifala Marah (in photo), started by welcoming all and sundry to the second Quarter DEPAC meeting, while thanking his colleagues and partners for the support provided financially and morally. He went on to say that the developed “Agenda for Prosperity” has led to a successful launched by His Excellency the President. He noted that they are aware that launching the “Agenda for Prosperity” is one thing and that the key challenge is how they should take it forward.”
He spoke of the commitment they all as partners have made is still in that document, that they should implement the document within the next five years and made it clear that this time around they will have a result framework so that they will know where the gaps are in order for them to have proper insight to the document.
Dr Kaifala Marah, expressed hope of them being in a better position to discuss the feedback of the “Agenda for Prosperity” which has been launched. He noted that in order to implement the document it will be useful to take Aid effectiveness into consideration, in particular many of the ideas that they have all committed themselves to, particularly the new deal and the Mutual Accountability Framework, while expressing hope of them to be able to identify the lead Donor that would champion that element, as well as ensure that if they are not able to finalize all the element relating to the framework that will be able to agree in the next step. He concluded by thanking the committee members and Donor partners for attending the meeting.
The Representative of the ERSG Gon Myers, in his welcome statement started by thanking the members for being part of the program which he described as very important, as it is the first meeting after the launch of the “Agenda for Prosperity”. He expressed hoped of them coming up with a consensus by the end of the meeting on the subjects they would be discussing while thanking them and encouraged them to participate actively during the session.
In his address the World Bank Country Director, Ato Browne, stated the launching of the “Agenda for Prosperity “is very important as the work for the next five years started the very day the document was launched. He described the document as refreshing, a very bold assignment and that the process was very rich, and made it clear that it always begins the day after, and what they commit to and they are going to organize themselves to deliver. He pointed out that the process is a very challenging one, it reducing poverty by 80%, stating that the target is very ambiguous.
He reiterated that Donor should commit themselves to support the Government of Sierra Leone to deliver that, making it category clear that they would march the speed determination and commitment of the Government. He maintained that they had been looking forward towards the consultative meeting, raising the resources while noting that they would be looking forward to the Government strategy ensuring revenue generation as well as craving the economy and also be looking forward to a very discipline implementation.
Ato Browne highlighted that they are aware that the biggest challenge will be financing and that the Government has estimate a five billion, which is a billion dollars a year, official development assistant is running between 300 to four hundred million dollars a year, which means there is a big gap for the Government, adding that it means using resources wisely but also mobilizing additional resources. He opined that they need to commit to the next in terms of how they mobilize resources and also manage resources efficiently.
Giving feedback on the launch of the “Agenda for Prosperity” The ERSG representative Gon Myers, congratulated the government of Sierra Leone for a very successful launch which set a blue print for development visions for the next five year. He said they are basically gathered at that point to have feedback from Development partners about the launch and to solicited ideas on how they should help the government of Sierra Leone or collectively collaborate to achieve the ambiguous goal that they set in the “Agenda for Prosperity”
Responding head of DFID Sierra Leone Phil Evans, expressed delight for the launch of the Agenda for Prosperity as the process has been ongoing for some time and lot of people have been involved. He went on to say that there is a very strong consensus and that the document established is the right approach in the stage of Sierra Leone’s history. He pointed out that they strongly support the module though there are challenges such as the essential funding gap in the current calculation about how that should be filled, and stated that there are also challenges around prioritization in the early part of the activities of the plan as there is quite a work to be done across government . He noted that those aspect domestic revenues mobilization roles are very important, and Sierra Leone needs to think about how it should manage and generate its revenue. He added that the Goals are clear, though the process of delivery is a bit goodin the whole process in order for them to understand what their goal might be.
The European Union and Government Minister also made meaningful contributions towards the successful launch of the “Agenda for Prosperity”.
A presentation on localizing the new deal – Adopting a Mutual Accountability Framework was led by the Minister of Finance Dr Kaifala Marah. A presentation on the 2014 population and Housing Census was done by the Statistician General and a presentation was also done by the Millennium Challenge Cooperation Coordination Mamoud Idriss, on the MCCO, on Millennium Challenge Cooperation.
By Hawanatu Bockari
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