As he launched the Research Training Workshops and Policy Clinics Minister of Finance Jacob Jusu Saffa has stressed the importance of having an evidence based research policy in place for the simple fact that when an economist makes a mistake the nation will perish. “I have been so disturbed that decision making in this country has been opinion based,” adding that “the research element was missing in the ministry as we often base our decisions on studies done by our partners” he said. Even though they were good he noted, but some of the local contexts were out of place. As a result, the Minister says he decided that it is necessary to split the Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU) to enhance economic management through the Macro fiscal and Research wing. There was no money set aside for that he said and so he approached the project head of an EU funded program within the ministry about the idea of establishing a research division. The Minister said that it is not going to be an institution only for the Ministry of Finance, as it will be focused on fiscal policies, they are going to see how they can link up to the universities, the National Revenue Authority (NRA) and existing think tanks in the country. The unit, he said will enable those sectors to conduct evidence based research as and when the need arises. “When we conduct our research, that research should inform our policy decision making. The research division will be part of the capacity building of the staff” he noted. He disclosed that the research will be done by different people at different times so that the staff will be properly engaged as some people in the Ministry “don’t really work” and have not written three pages since they joined the Ministry. Another product he said will be the production of quarterly and an annual roundtable discussion, as they will be challenging people outside to be writing articles for publication. “It is an opportunity for them to be able to learn and compete with others outside” he said. The resource center he said will have a space of 20 computers with all types of programs, so that students who want to access those facilities can come there use it for their academic work, backed with some journals to enhance their research work. “We did enjoy that facility somewhere in the Central Bank as there was nobody who studied economics at FBC who did not come there. Research findings are good but they have to be disseminated and be used” he said. “Because sometimes the research findings could be so political that they are difficult to play with, but let it be there let the politicians know it is there” he added. Cyprian Kamaray, EU State Capacity Building Project Team Lead, said that the project is being supported by the EU through the European Union State Building Contracts and State Projects based within the ministry, and that it will ensure that they separate research from policy management. They however brought in two economists Marios Obwoma from Uganda who will be helping out with the policy and research training workshop and then Yakama Jones will be supporting the policy clinic projects.
Financial Secretary Sahr L. Jusu said that they at the ministry looked at their strategic objective and how they can improve their delivery services to the public and engage with their partners. Speaking from his experience in finance, he said there is the need for them to undertake risk from time to time as they sometimes prepare Finance Acts with wide ranging implications on the people, the business community, NGO’s and their partners without well thought out and articulated research. “There is need for us to do a broader financial management to engage and dialogue with the key stakeholders and sometimes test the policies. This is not perfect and we are not expecting people to say it’s perfect, we expect to improve on it moving forward” he appealed. Chief-Economist Alimamy Bangura at MoF said that over time they have realized that the demands of economic policy management tend to outweigh the demands of economic policy research and given the staff situation the department did not have much time to actually focus on core research issues. “We spend most of the time in economic policy analysis coordination at management, and we always hear the ADB, the World Bank and other development partners giving funds to government, but you don’t know the technicality of it. Sometimes you think its politics, but they do not provide these monies for free. So the research aspect has been weak so to speak” he added.
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque
Monday January 21, 2019.