Sierra Leone

Distinguished Chairman, with those few remarks, let me turn to the business of the day - the launching of the Global and National Human Development Reports for the year 2007. It must be known by now that as a global event in the calendar of the United Nations, other countries are also pre-occupied with this same event, which has become an annual event since the realisation that human development should come to the fore in all matters of socio-political and economic development. The Human Development Report of every year has been used to enrich and intensify both national and global debate on development issues, and in particular, serving as an instrument of advocacy by the UNDP for sustainable human development. Today, it is encouraging to know that the increased advocacy for the human being as the centre of development is gradually yielding good dividend at the global level. This year’s report indicates that much progress has been made in human development in a number of areas.

These improvements are gradually taking place because of the increasing concern for human development within the overall framework of the integration of the peoples and countries of the world. It is somehow painful to note that while these gradual improvements are taking place on the global scene, there are still wide disparities between nations and peoples on their human developments. For instance, in some Sub-Saharan Africa, human development continues to regress, with the lives of the very poor getting worse day by day.

The report identifies five tipping points, which could stall and then seriously reverse human development if we do not act together now to protect the planet we all share:

Clearly, the report is a call to action to the international community, and contains a number of specific recommendations and proposals for international cooperation and multilateralism to effectively address and forestall the negative impacts of climate change. These include developing a multilateral framework for avoiding dangerous climate change under the post-2012 framework, putting in place policies for sustainable carbon budgeting, strengthening the framework for international cooperation and putting climate change adaptation at the centre of the post-2012 framework and international partnerships for poverty reduction.

As regards strengthening frameworks for cooperation and putting climate change at the centre of our development efforts, the capacity of developing countries to assess climate change risks and integrate adaptation into all aspects of national planning needs to be enhanced. It would be critical to empower and enable vulnerable people to adapt to climate change by building resilience through investments in social protection, health, education and other measures. Moreover, all development partners should seek to integrate adaptation into poverty reduction strategies that address vulnerabilities linked to inequalities based on wealth, gender, location and other markers for disadvantage. In this regards, we should use Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) to conduct national estimates of the costs of scaling-up existing programmes, identifying priority areas for reducing vulnerability.

Without making any judgement on the situation in Sierra Leone, let us compare it with the global scenario by asking the following questions. Where are we? with the population living in extreme poverty; with primary school enrolments; with the population that has access to improved water supply and sanitation; with democracy, politics and human rights; with corruption, transparency, and accountability; and so many other issues that directly affect our daily lives.

Distinguished Chairman, we can find the answers to some of these questions in the reports that we are about to launch. But let me express a word of caution in our interpretation of the figures. While the ranking of Sierra Leone in the Global Human Development Index is of utmost concern to us, we must be more concerned to know whether the situation on the questions raised above are improving or deteriorating. Once this is established we can then move to take the necessary action.

In this year’s Global Human Development Report (GHDR), Sierra Leone’s human development index based on 2005 data is 0.336 which is greater than the 2004 index of 0.333. Life expectancy at birth increased by around three years over the last fifteen years (1990-2005), GDP per capita declined by 13% to $806, and the gross enrolment ratio grew by 16 percentage points to 44.6%. Because of lack of adult literacy trend data, the HDI trends for Sierra Leone were not calculated. Let me take this opportunity through the chair to appeal to his Excellency the President and his government to put some emphasis on data management in the country. One of the reasons for Sierra Leone’s last position in the Human Development Index I’m sure is the unavailability of (reliable) data on the country. However we must all work harder to lift Sierra Leone from the bottom.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen let me take this opportunity to inform all present that besides the Global Human Development Report, His Excellency will also be launching the National Human Development Report (NHDR) which is on Empowering Local Government for Sustainable Development. I am pleased, your Excellency, to note that the socio-economic indicators presented in the NHDR, show Sierra Leone in much better picture, and this is because the latest (2006) national level data were used in the preparation of the report. The HDI, for instance is 0.384 (instead of 0.336 as in the GHDR), and life expectancy since 1990 has increased by nine (9) years (instead of only three years as contained in the GHDR).

An important conclusion of the NHDR is that the decentralization process is very important for Sierra Leone’s effort in poverty reduction and has great potential in bringing about many gains to human development by allowing local government to better formulate and implement policies that are conducive to local development, and facilitating broad based participation in the decision making process. However, successful implementation of decentralisation policies does also pose challenges that can undermine the potential gains. The report finds that despite some obstacles, the global phenomenon of government decentralization is gaining ground in Sierra Leone and it highlights the importance of well-managed decentralization for human development. Not only can decentralization increase efficiency and equity by bringing governance to the people but it also has the potential to promote good governance through accountable public management. My colleague, Mr. Graham Chipande, will give highlights of both reports later in the programme.

I THANK YOU ALL