On Monday November 9th, The World Bank Consultant for the Institutional Reform and Capacity Building Project,(IRCBP) Brendan Glynn, confirmed that Sierra Leone’s Decentralisation programme has been viewed as a considerable success.

This assertion by Brendan Glynn, buttresses the views of successive World Bank Implementation Support Missions that have routinely visited the IRCB project since its inception in 2004.

Adams Tommy of the Local Government Finance Department makes his presentation

The World Bank Official made this point in a donor consultative forum in support of the decentralisation process convened at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Local Government and Rural Development.

In his paper titled, Support to the Decentralisation Agenda in Sierra Leone, Brendan Glynn disclosed that the first phase of the project which terminated in March this year was able to absorb almost 100 percent of allocated funds, with the bulk of the funding going to the Decentralisation & Capacity Building component.

He said that the co-financing agreement of mid 2006 by which EU and DfID are providing funds for the project seeks to consolidate support and deepen decentralization. However, he said that as the project’s life approaches it end, the management structure should be rationalized to respond to the challenge of mainstreaming into the parent line Ministries.

The Director of the Decentralization Secretariat, Alhassan Kanu gave an overview of the roles, responsibilities and achievements of the Secretariat, whilst Floyd Davis and Adams Tommy explained issues relating to the legal aspect of the programme and local government financing respectively.

Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Local Government and Rural Development present at the meeting

At the meeting,the Director of Local Government, A.J. Lebbie, stressed the need for Non Governmental Organizations to work in collaboration with Local councils in whose localities they operate. Mr. Lebbie said that instances have been reported of NGOs operating without the knowledge of the respective Local Councils. Mr. Lebbie called for better coordination of NGO intervention, and charged NGOs to make their resource packages known to the Ministry.

 

The forum was also attended by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Local Government and Rural Development, Dauda Kamara and his Deputies Raymond Kabia and Hadiru Kalokoh. Representatives from the donor community included those from the World Bank, EU, GTZ and UNDP.

© Copyright 2005, IRCBP.