DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-SIERRA LEONE: United Nations And Donor Countries Offer Aid

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Mar 28 1998 (IPS) - The United Nation has embarked on a number of initiatives to help the Sierra Leone government rebuild the country’s war-ravaged infrastructure and economy.

Francis Okello, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Sierra Leone, told IPS in an interview this week that the world body has identified various areas for assistance and has called on various donors to “help in urgently tackling the numerous problems facing the West African state”.

“The immediate concern of the UN is to respond to the basic needs of the people, and therefore the organisation has pledged 12 million U.S. Dollars for Sierra Leone to cover a three month period (March to May) this year,” Okello said.

These funds, according to Okello, will be used for food, shelter and medicines for persons displaced by the civil conflict and for the repatriation, rehabilitation and resettlement of refugees.

Besides these funds, the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, on the instruction of the Security Council, has established a voluntary Trust Fund for the country. The United Kingdom has pumped in two million Pounds Sterling to the Fund, and according to the Minister for Presidential Affairs, Momodu Koroma, “there is light in the tunnel for greater donor assistance”.

The Trust Fund will assist the reinstated civilian government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to purchase needed equipment and other essentials for the police, hospitals, and schools. Humanitarian assistance to the country also has been provided by agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross, which brought in the first shipload of medicines and food about two weeks after the military junta was toppled by the Nigeria-led West African intervention forces (ECOMOG).

Sierra eonean exiled groups like TEGLOMA in the United States and the Help Sierra Leone Fund in the United Kingdom, also have pledged unspecified amounts to help the country.

In an interview with IPS Wednesday, Education Minister Alpha Wurie outlined some of the problems his ministry must tackle. He said the government currently has no money to pay teachers’ salaries, even though education activities are to resume on Nov. 30. Also, many schools are without furniture. “School furniture was used as fuelwood by the rebels and structures vandalised; it’s pretty hard,” Wurie said.

The returned government of President Kabbah faces a tough situation in many areas. Sierra Leone’s external debt is estimated at 1.2 billion U.S. Dollars, while inflation is put at 40 percent.

According to government officials, the deposed Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) stole more than 80 billion Leones (One U.S. Dollar is equivalent to 1500 Leones) from the Central Bank, destroying government’s economic foundation. The major commercial banks, Standard Chartered and Barclays, are still closed, and most commercial activity is beginning to pick up slowly.

Economic analyst Paul Sesay of the University of Sierra Leone, says President Kabbah, since his return to the country on Mar. 10, has taken several steps to instill confidence in the donor community. These include the downsizing of his Cabient from over 40 to 15, and the appointment of the former ambassador to the United Nations, James Jonah, as Minister of Finance.

President Kabbah also has pledged to fight corruption and to make his administration transparent. “I have decided to run a government of technocrats who are competent and who will be accountable to the people,” Kabbah told the nation last week in a broadcast.

Meetings between the government, non-governmental organisations and UN agencies have been taking place to identify areas of cooperation.

“I expect to see a smooth flow of donor assistance, once there is stability and determination on the part of government to deliver the goods,” Sesay said.