Sierra Leone

Mr./Madam chairman, Head and staff of the Kissy Library, distinguished guests, invitees from the fourth estate, colleagues from the UN family, ladies and gentlemen.

We are here today to celebrate the completion of a small but very significant UNDP sponsored project (valued at Le. 10 million Leones) involving the renovation of the entire library. It is one of several ‘quick win’ projects around the country undertaken to commemorate the UN International Day – the 17th of October every year - for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP in Short). Few weeks ago, we were in Grammar School to congratulate and honour their staff and students for winning the IDEP 2006 Poverty Essay Competition.

On this day every year, the UN family joins the rest of the World to show solidarity with millions of men, women and children who continue to live in abject poverty, and to publicly acknowledge and encourage the work of organisations and individuals who are making significant contributions to the fight against poverty. It is also an occasion to raise public awareness and mobilize various actors to show their renewed commitment to the eradication of poverty and the Millennium Development Goals.

In order to show global solidarity in the fight against poverty, last year, state and non-state actors, including Civil Society Organizations, Trade Unions, Community-Based Organizations, Students, etc, organized themselves into groups and participated in a ‘STAND-UP’ event with instructions from their group leaders. The STAND-UP event was a global mobilization initiative to raise awareness about the eradication of poverty and the Millennium Development Goals, and to publicly demonstrate global support from world leaders and Governments to achieve these goals.

I consider UNDP’s support to the Kissy Library as part of our fight against illiteracy in the country, which is at a high rate of 65% (Adult illiteracy rate). I refer to this high level of adult illiteracy as “knowledge poverty”, which we must all join hands to eradicate. As my professor once told me, “the educated man is not the one who keeps every information in his head, but is the one who knows where to get the information when he needs it”. The library is our knowledge bank, and we must all maintain active accounts there. Please permit me to make a symbolic presentation of my “Pass Book” to this Library. It is a new publication of my doctoral thesis on the impact of microfinance on poverty in developing countries. Moreover, UNDP will make available to the labrary copies of national documents such as the PRSP, MDG Report and the soon-to-be published NHDR.

As I look forward to the conducted tour of the facility, let me, on behalf of UNDP, thank all of you for the various roles played in making this project and ceremony a success.

Stephen Bainous Kargbo (PhD)
Programme Specialist
Poverty and Human Development
UNDP – Sierra Leone