The erudite Economist and specialist Policy Analyst, Dr. Kaifala Marah was at his best once again at a workshop organized by the Human Capital Development Plus (HCD+) in Moyamba Town past Saturday, 14th September, 2024 when he took the stage to elucidate his views on “Human Capital Development – A Pathway to Achieving Sustainable Development.”
He was guest of H.E. Madam Finda Koroma, the Chief Executive Officer of HCD+.
Speaking as a Sierra Leonean and putting politics aside, Dr. Marah thrilled his audience which comprised of all the Paramount Chiefs from the Southern region and other southern stakeholders by the manner he spoke from his heart in sharing some perspectives on Sierra Leone’s development trajectory.
For him, development should be owned and driven by Sierra Leoneans, noting that they know their problems and are better positioned to identify and prioritize them for action. He expressed strong conviction that the country has the expertise but that this just needs to be harnessed and put into use for the purpose.
“Our social and economic problems are felt by us. It should be us coming together as a people, regardless of politics to discuss our felt needs and finding a collective solution,” the flawless former Minister of Finance and Economic Development and Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone and first Chief of Staff to the President at State House posited.
He lamented on the toxic nature of the country’s politics which he maintained, causes succeeding governments to shy away from the good works and positive socioeconomic pathways of their predecessors to start all over with their own promised agenda, which in most cases have never been completed.
“Let’s push the boundaries of politics to shape our development trajectory from the standpoint of patriotism. We should own and dictate our development pathways,” Dr. Kaifala Marah told Southern Paramount Chiefs and other stakeholders including representatives from the Njala University.
Dilating in the significance of human capital development, the technocrat turned politician said it is the most important tool to lift and move a country forward; pointing out that it develops the middle level manpower into the driving force of the middle level strata of the country’s economy which is the engine of growth for a country.
He called on his compatriots to inculcate a disciplined mindset as a culture that should be able to frame hearts and minds in developing realistic development policies in the best interest of the nation and that such policies, must be driven with equity. He however pointed out that this can only be achieved if it is concretized with solid coordination that does not take into consideration political affiliations and linages to benefit from.
“Sierra Leone can develop policies to framework her development agenda, but if it lacks coordination and a mindset put together, nothing on paper can work,” Dr. Marah opined, adding that countries that lend themselves to discipline and commitment have higher chances of development and growth.
On education, he shared the view that Sierra Leone’s education curriculum should and must be redesigned to align with national and international job markets, but foremost, on the development of skills needed for our local markets, such when oil and gas are ultimately found of commercial proportion in the country. He asked: who would serve as experts and technicians in that oil and gas boom? For him, if we don’t start investing in this segment now, it would be experts and technicians from other countries who will come and reap the economic fall overs.
“Our education therefore should be aligned with our skills needs and market needs,” he called noting that the country’s vast endowment in natural resources should not be allowed to go in vain to expatriate skills. “Our country’s national endowment must be a blessing to us as a people and to our country,” he appealed and suggested an affirmative action aimed at deliberate policies to empower and develop a middle-level manpower pool to fit in every sector of socioeconomic development needs and wants by clearly linking the country’s economic stimulus with the vast opportunity frontiers at our disposal as a people and a country.
He therefore suggested certain recommendations that included: a deliberate Direct Government Intervention (DGI) in achieving its development agenda in the interest of the people by harnessing the opportunity frontiers to its development agenda and linking talents with our natural resources endowments, train a pool of experts in various sectors and set them form them into Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)-this can be attained through the setting up of a deliberate skills development fund, that a people-led Government Transition Protocol (GTP) should be established and ratified by Parliament to serve as a national transition blueprint especially for all new governments. This GTP will lead successive governments into the development agenda of their predecessors, to create wealth and stamp out poverty by developing young entrepreneurial in every facet of the economy who would also be employers thereby helping in the spread of the economy and building a strong and viable middle-class, the holding of a bi-annual conference of entrepreneurs and by extension all other sectors of the economy to ask questions related to the economy and collectively finding generally acceptable answers -this will provide an impetus to a direct way forward to addressing our development problems, build partnerships with key stakeholders across the country to enhance people’s acceptability of government programs against their needs and wants.
Concluding, Dr. Kaifala Marah described HCD+ partnership with Paramount Chiefs across the country as one of the most impressive development intervention initiative that is happening in Sierra Leone for several decades that is directed specifically to addressing the development challenges of the country, by bringing onboard the Paramount Chiefs, who are custodians of the vast proportion of the country’s landmass to act as bridges to reach to communities and people in hard-to-reach parts of the country.
He stressed that development should and must not be politicized, noting that governments are formed to fulfill political campaign promises; promises that could have been made all across the country and as such the implementation of those promises must not be qualified by who voted or not for the political party in power.
He made a slight U-turn into the country’s past and immediate histories and drew the attention of his audience to the questions: Why in Sierra Leone? What has gone wrong with us as a people? What do we want as a people and a country?
These may have come directly from Dr. Kaifala Marah, but the answers must come from the people of Sierra Leone.
Human Capital Development Plus (HCD+) is a regional advocacy and technical assistance hub that contributes to increasing governments’ commitment, funding and accountability to developing human capacity across the African Continent. It serves as the African voice for the advocacy, accountability and transparency on issues of human capital development.
A senior citizen of Moyamba District observed that Dr. Marah did not only spoke from his heart which meant that he was genuinely sincere about what he was saying, but that he also spoke from the standpoint of knowledge and experience.
“I think this gentleman has something unique about him that this country should exploit. By the look of things, he seems to be someone who will not only talk, but will do you hat be talks in the best interest of the country,” the senior Moyamba District citizen from Bradford noted.