Preparing Communities To Receive Investors

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In recent times, there has been quite a bit of fuss made over the way local communities are being treated in relation to land for large scale agriculture, and this has given rise to the use of the term “land grabbing” in the development worker jargon. All over the developing world, concerns are being raised about communities being dispossessed of their ancestral lands without adequate provision being made for their livelihood. With the current Sierra Leone government’s Agenda for Change, there is an increased emphasis on not just agriculture, but on large scale commercial agriculture as a pathway to economic growth and development. Consequently, there are moves being made to attract both local and foreign investors into the commercial agriculture sector. Leading this process is the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA). And unlike what has been happening in other countries and indeed in Sierra Leone, in the past, SLIEPA has embarked on a process that will ensure both investors and the communities that own the land enjoy a mutually rewarding relationship. In the first place, SLIEPA has done significant research to determine the crops for which Sierra Leone has a comparative advantage and is making an effort to attract investment for commercial farming of these crops, one of which happens to be sugar cane for the production of sugar and ethanol. Already, there is significant interest being shown by large scale investors. Although this is not the first time interest is being shown in the country as a suitable location for sugar cane cropping and production of sugar (the Magbass Sugar Complex has been in operation in Sierra Leone for over a decade) this is the first time that a government agency is doing the level of preliminary work being done by SLIEPA prior to investors engaging landowners/communities with investment proposals. According to SLIEPA’s CEO, Patrick Caulker, “SLIEPA is not only committed to ensuring that investors do not encounter bottlenecks in the process of investing in Sierra Leone, we are also committed to ensuring that local communities are in a position to negotiate favourable terms with investors and are not disadvantaged in the process.” This commitment on the part of SLIEPA has led to the establishment of the Agriculture Investment Task Force (AITF) and the hiring of Nestbuilders International as consultants to do the work needed to ensure investors and communities work together in a mutually beneficial relationship. As part of its mandate, the AITF recently embarked on community sensitisation, participatory boundary mapping and soil testing at Rogbonkoh Mathaka Vilage in Kholifa Rowala Chiefdom, Tonkolili district. The team, which included Francis Minah and Victor Bangura, SLIEPA’s Marketing and Communications Manager and Investment Promotion Manager respectively, arrived in the village in the morning to find the village baray already full of an expectant crowd of men, women and children. The leader of the team, Prince Nallo, who is the CEO of Nestbuilders, introduced the team and explained why they had gone to the community. He explained that they were there to sensitize the community about possible investment in sugar cane, and they wanted to get their views. The lead facilitator, Dr. Bob Conteh, an economist from Njala University, led an interactive session during which he explained to the community members what is likely to happen when investors come to them. He stressed the need for the community to identify someone from the community that they trust to speak on their behalf with any investor, pointing out that the person should be enlightened and capable of engaging the investor and adequately presenting the community’s concerns. During the session, Dr. Conteh was able to draw out the hopes and fears of community members related to large scale commercial agriculture. The Village Head of Rogbonkoh Mathaka Village, Amadu Turay, pointed out that they practice subsistence farming in the area and expressed concern that they may lose the land they need to grow the food they eat. He also pointed out that they need a secondary school, good road, pure drinking water, health centre and better toilet facilities. He wanted to know whether the investor will provide these amenities for them. The Village Arabic Teacher, Sheik Mohamed, added that they also need scholarships for their children to pursue higher studies. The Public Relations Officer of the Village, Amidu Bangura, on the other hand, was afraid they would be sidelined in the provision of job opportunities. ”We should be the first priority for jobs, except for those jobs that we do not have the skill,” he said. Amidu was concerned because of past experience with another commercial agriculture project in the area where even when they are offered part time jobs, they are not told what they will be paid at the end of the job. In addition, their services are terminated without prior notice. Because of this they are not gainfully employed and at the same time they cannot do their farming effectively. The AITF team was pleased that these kinds of issues were being raised because, according to them, these were the kinds of issues the community needed to take up with any investor in order to ensure that the community needs are met. They however cautioned that investors are business people and the community needs to be reasonable in making demands so they do not drive away the investors. Following the general discussion session, another member of the AITF team, Andrew Johnny, led a participatory boundary mapping exercise, which saw members of the community identifying structures in the community, land ownership, the uses to which various parcels of land are put, as well as land that could potentially be available for commercial agriculture. The process saw community members actually walking around the village with the AITF team and pointing out the various structures and parcels of land. The information gathered from this exercise will be used by Mr. Johnny to create maps of the area that will eventually be handed over to the community to be used in negotiations with investors. The process being adopted by the AITF is in line with the Equator Principles which are a voluntary set of standards for determining, assessing and managing social and environmental risk in project financing. According to Mr. Nallo, the CEO of Nestbuilders and head of the AITF, they have to ensure the process adheres to the Equator Principles because these principles are now the worldwide standard for agricultural investment financing. Another aspect of preparing communities for investors which the AITF undertook on the visit to Rogbonkor village, was the technical task of assessing the suitability of the land for sugar cane cropping, a task which was no less important than the community sensitization. This task was led by Mr. Alie Kamara, a soil scientist from Njala University. Working with the community, he cut transect paths and dug pits at various distances to enable him analyse the soil in areas that could potentially be available for commercial agriculture. He also collected soil samples for further analysis in a lab. By the time the AITF team left Rogbonkor village, it was clear that the people were energised and excited about the prospect of large scale investment in agriculture coming to their community. It was also very clear that unlike other communities where this kind of work being done by the AITF had not been done prior to investors engaging the communities, Rogbonkor was now well placed to negotiate favourable terms with any investor and the landowners are not likely to wake up one day and find themselves with no land to farm on or saddled with a project that is not beneficial to the host community. By A Special Correspondent

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