FREETOWN, May 11, 2009 – Sierra Leoneans view governance and government effectiveness as key to reducing poverty and achieving sustainable economic growth, according to a newly released World Bank client survey for Sierra Leone.
Carried out in January and February of this year, the survey – the second survey conducted by the Bank in Sierra Leone -- shows a shift since 2005 in client perception about the country’s development priorities.
“The emphasis on governance and government effectiveness as the number one outcome of the survey comes as no surprise,” said World Bank Country Manager for Sierra Leone, Engilbert Gudmundsson. “In our ongoing dialogue with government, we are already planning support for its plans to strengthen governance, including public financial management, decentralization of authority and the decentralization of basic service delivery, among other activities, under our new strategy, which we are doing jointly with the African Development Bank as a Joint Assistance Strategy (JAS)."
Changes in Perception Since 2005
In the first survey, conducted in 2005, respondents were far more focused on basic development areas. They identified infrastructure, agriculture, education and poverty as the key development priorities. Today, stakeholders would like to see more Bank involvement in the area of governance as opposed to infrastructure, which had only 10 percent of respondents saying the Bank should be involved. Ten percent of the respondents also said the Bank should emphasize foreign direct investment, an important finding for the private sector.
Governance is a top priority of the World Bank. The Bank in Sierra Leone has been taking the lead in supporting the Institutional Reforms and Capacity Building Project (IRCBP), which drives governance and fiscal decentralization and promotes capacity building initiatives at the local level.
A number of other governance projects are also in the pipeline. Notable are the Public Financial Management Project and the Decentralized Basic Services Delivery Project.
The Bank has also provided major analytic support to the country’s policy dialogue on social accountability. In the form of a study “GOVMENT BIZNESS NA WI BIZNESS: Building Demand for Good Governance and Enhancing Conditions for Social Accountability in Sierra Leone,” the dialogue proposes a number of recommendations aimed at strengthening the “demand side” of good governance and accountability by empowering citizens and civil society organizations with adequate and appropriate information, voice platforms and negotiation skills to engage the state and its development partners, including international donors and the private sector, on accountability issues.
Participants in the survey were drawn from various offices of the Executive, the Legislature and Judiciary. Some were from traditional authorities, bilateral or multilateral agencies, the private sector, civil society, the media, independent government institutions, academic and research institutions. The respondents also came from different regions of the country. The survey had a response rate of 52 percent.
The findings of the survey are expected to inform the Joint Assistance Strategy (JAS) which the Bank is currently developing in partnership with the International Finance Corporation and the African Development Bank. It will also empower the Bank’s Sierra Leone Country Team with needed data about the country context in which specific analytic products, development programs as well as partnership and outreach activities will be considered and developed in the coming years.
Views of the World Bank in Sierra Leone
Broadly speaking, stakeholders in Sierra Leone were quite positive about the World Bank’s work and relationships. They expressed very positive views about the Bank’s relevance and alignment with development priorities on the ground.
On a ten-point scale, stakeholders in Sierra Leone gave a 7.2 rating on whether the Bank treats stakeholders with respect. Other countries in Africa registered an aggregate rating of 6.3 in the 2008 Country Survey Review (two countries), a 6.1 in 2007 Country Survey Review (eight countries), a 6.4 rating in 2006 Review (six countries).
In the area of outreach, a much greater percentage of stakeholders in 2009 said the Bank should work more with local councils while there were fewer who said the Bank should work with central government. Very few said that the Bank should work more with NGOs. Approximately one-third of respondents said that the most trusted source of information in the country is local government.
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