Sierra Leone became a member of the International Development Assistance (IDA) programme in November1962, and so this year marked 55 years of this partnership.
Parminder Brar, Country Manager of World Bank Sierra Leone, said, “During these 55 years we have provided overall direct IDA support over $1.6 billion USD to the country. In addition to this we have funding from the International Finance Cooperation (IFC), Multi Literal Investment Agencies (MIGA) and also funding from regional project”.
Brar said “If you include all of this support from the agencies overall support to Sierra Leone will be around $2.5 billion USD. If translated for the past 55 years, it will translate around $45 million USD every year since independence over the last 55 years”.
The World Bank Country Manager said with this support, it shows that the “Bank is here for the long term and have worked here since 1962 till today and we have been here through the war period from 1962 to date. We have supported you and we will continue to do so”.
Furthermore, Paminder Brar explaind that support to Sierra Leone has increased and this will double for the next three years, “So IDA 17 closed on the 31st June 2017, and during the next three years, the country is going to receive at least double the support that the country has had in the previous three years. It will be more than double because the way that the IDA system is currently structure, the country’s allocation has gone up by 100%”.
Maintaining under the current structure, the country will also have access to other windows, which are available in IDA 18. Two specific windows, one is the private sector window. Under this window, the Bank showcased the private sector window, which has $2.6 billion USD for fragile countries like Sierra Leone.
The country will benefit from the project as there is large number of private sector projects and this window saw the private sector development forum was held in Freetown.
The other window, which is of particular interest to Sierra Leone, is the Crisis Response Window (CRW), which Brar said, “Under this window there is another $1 billion USD that has been put aside and when we increase the budget support in June 2017 from $20 million USD to $30 million USD the extra $10m came from the CRW. We expect the support to Sierra Leone in the next years to be at least $500m from the World Bank group,” he noted.
Comparing the World Bank structures in terms of how they operate, Parminder Brar said, “The world Bank is a little different from other donors in the way it is structured. We do not use NGOs. Every single cent of the Banks money for the past 55 years has to go through the Ministry of Finance. We have the IFC, but the way it is structure it does not gives money to government its support private sector”.
“The World Bank works and supports the government. Our money is channeled through the government. We either work through the government which is more than over 90%, or we can use UN Agencies like what happened during the Ebola crisis when used UN agencies. It is an MOU signed but government monies should be used by government”.
He said, “Our current portfolio today is $571 million and it is all channeled through the government. We closely watch how the government uses the money and we have an on-going discussions on how to strengthen systems. This is why we are creating a new unit in the Ministry of finance called Project Financial Management Unit so all World Bank money will be channeled through this unit instead of 10 or 12 units that are in existence right now”.
BM/28/11/17
By Betty Milton
Wednesday November 29, 2017.
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