By Allieu S. Tunkara
Under the EU Multi-Annual Indicative Programme, (2021-2027), new investment opportunities await Sierra Leone in months ahead, Ambassador Manuel Muller has revealed at a press briefing at Country Lodge in Freetown. A huge sum of Euros has been set aside for the new project for which the mobilisation of resources will be in two different stages.
“The EU has committed 245 Euros for the period up to 2024. Under the new EU programme with Sierra Leone, there will be two different stages in the mobilisation of resources,” the Ambassador told pressmen. The quality and performance of the partnership during the first period, he went on, determine the full amount to be mobilised during the second stage.
According to ambassador Muller, the European Union and Sierra Leone are strengthening their partnership within the framework of a broader alliance between Europe and Africa. Sierra Leone’s new partnership with EU would be sealed in a summit that will take place next month in the Belgian capital of Brussels.
Heads of states and governments including President Julius Maada Bio would part in the EU-AU summit. The MIP which is aligned with government’s Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP), 2023 will focus on several sectors of the economy to take Sierra Leone to higher heights. The new partnership is an improvement of a long-standing relationship between EU and Sierra Leone.
It is seen as a continuation of development interventions which EU has made over the years especially in infrastructure. The organisation has been supporting major roads projects in the country notably the Bo-Masiaka, Freetown-Conakry, Makeni-Kabala, Moyamba-Moyamba Junction among others.
Major bridges linking the provinces and the nation’s capital has been constructed by EU. Ambassador Muller identified green economy (agriculture and fisheries), human development, inclusive governance and human rights as priority areas for investment under the new partnership. He assured government that EU would foster sustainable and inclusive green economic transformation to create jobs and to enhance access to reliable energy.
It is hoped that sustainable employment-oriented agriculture and food systems for health and nutrition would be developed for the people of Sierra Leone. An increase in energy supply was also equally considered by the Ambassador who hoped that good results are sure to come out.
“Expected results include an additional 5MW installed generation capacity for 50, 000 more people to get access to electricity. This will support approximately 122, 500 jobs,” Ambassador muller further assured Sierra Leoneans.
Investment in human capital development in Sierra Leone is also an area that EU strongly considers a top priority. Basic, senior school and technical education is government’s flagship project.
Keen on investing in the human resource, President Julius Maada Bio campaigned on a platform of ensuring Free Quality Education which he actualised upon taking over leadership in 2018.
It is towards the actualisation dreams of the President that EU pledged to support education in the new partnership. Ambassador also told journalists that human development is necessary for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. Under EU’s proposed support to the education pillar, the inter-governmental agency aims at improving quality of education and skills as well as to reduce vulnerabilities and sustain growth.
By investing in education, the Ambassador further said, EU was supporting a key government priority. Hopes of increasing the percentage of girls and boys in schools remain high especially those who complete secondary education.
The tangible development indicators, according to the EU diplomat would go side by side with strengthening the country’s political system through inclusive governance and human rights. It is under this aspect that EU promised to ensure peaceful, transparent and credible elections in Sierra Leone. Government, the ambassador assured, would be supported to enhance its effectiveness and public service delivery at national and local levels.
Public finance investment, transparency and domestic resources mobilisation, the ambassador continued, would be enhanced to ensure economic governance and sustainable social policies.
These aim at lifting people out of absolute poverty. Moves by EU to ensure gender parity and women’s empowerment in Sierra Leone also featured prominently in the ambassador’s address.
The support, he said, would be cross-cutting, horizontal priority of the EU partnership and cooperation with Sierra Leone. Gender equality has been one of the greatest challenges in Sierra Leone as attitude towards women by men leaves much to think about.
Successive governments have been struggling over the years to bring women at par with men.
A gender empowerment bill is on the verge of passage into law to actualise government’s main objective of women’s empowerment. Ambassador Muller also informed journalists that through EU support, women in several districts have created farming groups to defend their land rights.
These women can now access land than before to sustain their source of livelihood. A bright example cited by the EU diplomat is the Sapah Women’s Farming Organisation, in the northern district of Kambia, which recently gained access to land for farming for the first time. The farming project has gone a long way to enhance women’s access to financial services in their community in the form of loans.
“The programme has also provided training and logistical support to strengthen women’s access to loans, and enable women to invest in other businesses to diversify their income,” the ambassador pointed out.
The empowerment of women is also one of the campaign promises made by government for which it is now taking concrete actions to implement. Considering the important role civil society organisations play in ensuring good governance, EU also pledged to support activists to make them active and effective.
European Union has been supporting various development activities in Sierra Leone especially in areas of education, agriculture or infrastructure that are positively impacting on the lives of the people.
Through the implementation of such projects, much benefit has been delivered to the people who government is under obligation to serve.
In the field of education, EU has supported the rehabilitation of 100 junior secondary schools with about 15, 000 pupils in four districts of Bo, Kenema, Bombali and PortLoko by local companies supervised by Ministry of Basic and Senior School Education.
EU has also supported digitisation of the teacher payroll and information education management systems in which real time sector-wide data is easily collected to support planning at all levels. EU’s contributions to several sectors of the country’s development are also visible ranging from roads, health, and governance among others.