The Ministry of Finance ( MOF) has on Thursday 29th April 2021 engaged Ministries Department and Agencies ( MDA’s) on the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment ( CPIA) at the New Brook Fields Hotel in Freetown.
The CPIA is a diagnostic tool that is intended to capture the quality of a country’s policies and institutional arrangements. Its focus is on the key elements that are within the country’s control rather than on an outcome (such as growth rates) that are influenced by elements outside the country’s control.
Chairing the program, the Financial Secretary Sahr Jusu said the CPIA is a very important tool, which a number of countries have benefitted from. He stressed on the need for Sierra Leone to do well in order for the country to have the necessary resources to undertake key developments from the relevant authorities.
In his statement, the Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa said the objective of such an engagement with MDA’s is to raise awareness around CPIA, so that they will know what the process is all about.
He said it is the World Bank’s IDA Resources Allocation Index (IRAI) and is based on the result of the annual CPIA exercise that covers the IDA eligible countries, noting that if the country meet the required criteria, more funding will be available to Sierra Leone.
He said the CPIA rates countries against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters, such as economic management, structural policies, policies for social inclusions and public sector management and institutions.
Mr Jusu said the CPIA measures the extent to which a country’s policy and institutional framework supports sustainable growth and poverty reduction, consequently the effective use of development assistance. He then called for the highest level of commitment to the CPIA process from MDA’s. “Sometimes what affects our rating is the cooperation from MDA’s.”
Giving the importance of the CPIA, the Chief Economist in the Ministry of Finance Alimany Bangura said the CPIA is the World Bank’s independent assessment, not a subject to negotiation, to ensure effective utilization of the IDA resources at country level and to encourage government to embark on sound policy and Institutional Reforms that would be of benefit to the country.
He said the overall rating of Sierra Leone is down a bit to 3.2 out of 6 as the minimum threshold it stands at 3.5. He added that as a country they don’t want to continue in such a parth that is why they are having such discussions with the relevant bodies .
In order to make progress in the CPIA, Mr Bangura said there must be commitment by the government to implement the reforms, strengthen Collaboration amongst MDA, and improve capacity in Ministries Department and Agencies.
Discussions were done around the public sector management and institutions, economic management and structural policies and policies for social inclusions and equity, as questions and clarification climaxed the event.
MJB/30/04/2021