Washington, D.C., 27 October 2008 -Sierra Leone is making a turnaround and normalcy has returned to the country after years of turmoil marked by unspeakable atrocities. Six years on after democratic elections transferred power to the opposition, democracy is taking root. The government under President Ernest Bai Koroma, with the help of partners including the World Bank, is making headway in tackling a myriad of deep-seated challenges. It is a difficult task but there is evident commitment, and results to show for it. The country has moved up UNDP’s poverty ranking, its doing business score is respectable, and it has the most effective anti-corruption office in West Africa.
The country’s economic management is on stream despite bottlenecks. The focus is on supporting basic services, upping energy supply, investing in agriculture, and pursuing regional cooperation capitalizing on the inter-linkages between the country and Guinea and Liberia. An interesting aspect of Sierra Leone’s efforts to put itself on a firm development path is the government’s attention to the role of the 1.5 million strong Diaspora in the country’s development. Sierra Leone has a population of 6 million.
President Koroma has repeatedly implored Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora to go an extra mile for their homeland. He established an office of Diaspora affairs and he has called for better harnessing of the Diaspora support in order to align the remittances they make with the country’s development priorities. In a recent speech, Koroma called for a better structuring of engagement with the Diaspora. “Let us structure the resources of our Diaspora for meaningful investment in the country; let the business people [inject] their resources and ideas; let doctors and other health professionals, engineers and information technology experts contribute their knowledge, experience and skills. We salute the Diaspora,” he said. Close to half of Sierra Leone’s professionals are out of the country.
President Koroma’s call harmonizes with a new initiative by the African Union (AU) and the World Bank to involve the African Diaspora in a streamlined manner in the continent’s development endeavors. The initiative aims to tap into this potentially vast resource by developing activities and implementing tools that would leverage the Diaspora’s contribution to African development. Sequenced and focused programs of activities are planned by the Bank in partnership with the AU to maximize the benefits to Africa from this engagement.
In September, Koroma dispatched the director of Diaspora affairs, Michel Shoninkeh, to the United States to mobilize the Diaspora to support their country of origin. Shoninkeh’s first stop was Washington, D.C., where he met with Bank officials to drum up support and to ink an agreement with the Bank to support his Sierra Leone’s efforts to engage Diaspora.
Shoninkeh is an impassioned advocate for Diaspora engagement. A few years back, he was part of the Diaspora. He arrived in the U.S. as a teenager to join his father .He attended high school and graduated in psychology from Lehman College in the Bronx, New York. Later he attained graduated qualifications in chiropractic medicine from Life University in Marietta, Georgia.
Shoninkeh became an activist on behalf of the country. Although he did not witness the atrocities his compatriots endured back home during the eleven-year civil war, the singularity of their gruesome nature attracted international attention. During and after the civil war, Shoninkeh focused on the youth who were misused by all sides in the strife and mayhem. “My aim was to help the youth understand that they should not allow themselves to be misused by destructive forces,” Shoninkeh said. “My activism was centered on empowering the youth.” At first, his activities were in the United States among the Sierra Leonean Diaspora whom he canvassed for support. When the war ended, he returned home to engage directly with the groups he had championed. He challenged them to become more politically aware and to cultivate more positive attitudes appropriate to the development needs and challenges the country faced. He was instrumental in organizing the first political debates for presidential candidates leading up to elections.
Before long, Shoninkeh was identified as a progressive young man committed to helping his country to change and to grow. He was recruited to help direct a national campaign to change attitudes. “I strongly believe that a change of attitude is absolutely necessary in order to forge a unified nation,” he noted adding that Sierra Leone is lucky because there are no deep-rooted fissures among ethnic groups.
Shoninkeh explained that his focus now is on strengthening and garnering support for his country’s efforts to engage the Diaspora. His efforts are paying off. The Bank sees merit in the approach and has agreed to a $480,000 grant to strengthen the country’s efforts to mobilize the Diaspora. Other donors are also on board. Shoninkeh would like to see Diaspora efforts directed toward development projects. His office is working to create incentives to rationalize the engagement. There are plans to create a Diaspora Trust Fund and matching support for Diaspora funded projects.
According to Shoninkeh, the Diaspora is enthusiastic about the approach. He will explain the new approach to various Sierra Leonean Diaspora groups in various cities on the Eastern Coast of the United States.
“Only Africans can build Africa,” Shoninkeh believes. “African Diaspora must be more nationalistic, for instance, by lobbying the West regarding trade barriers to African products,” he said.
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