Ω SIERRA LEONE PATHWAYS TO DEVELOPMENT - What We Know and Dont Know - ...Its not only about growth and development Development is about improving peoples lives through economic, social, political and technological change. it is a transformation that certainly requires incomes to grow but it is also about reducing poverty and inequality, building individual skills, having access to social services and raising the quality of life. Economic growth and development both depend on distributive politics ( which is absent in the agenda of Sierra Leones Politics) how society deals with vested interests and social conflict - spur by inciting and treachery media programs and individuals. New priorities are emerging as development economics reviews its track record over the 20th century. MIXED RESULTS SIXTY YEARS of development experience tells us that the pathways to development are varied, guided by different visions, different strategies and different definition of progress. If sustain growth is the measure, then progress has also been mixed. between 1990 and 2008, the developing economies have grown nearly twice as fast on average as the developed countries. But over the past decades, only a dozen countries have sustained their growth for twenty years or more because of frequent years or more because of frequent shocks, redistributive conflict and difficulty in sustaining reform efforts over time. The number of people in developing countries who live in absolute poverty (less than $i a day) dropped from 40% of the population in 1981 to 18% in 2004 (Courtesy of Ferreira and Ravallion 2008) the largest reduction have been in China and India, countries with high growth rates; the smallest countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (Sierra Leone). But inequality has been on the rise worldwide ( Courtesy of Ferreira and Ravallion, and Firebaugh and Goesling 2007). Clearly, the benefits of development have not yet reached the neediest. MARKETS VERSUS STATE: A False Dichotomy OVER THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES, economic theories have espouse various systems of resource allocation, ranging from free market to state intervention and centrally-planned systems. The collapse of the Soviet and various crisis in other state-controlled economies in the 1990s ( such as Sierra Leones Civil Unrest) prompted development thinkers to return to the Washington Consensus with its policies of economic liberalization, privatization and micro-economic stabilization programs. This yielded mixed results and considerable controversy. A number of countries, however, had successfully applied mixed models of government intervention in otherwise fundamentally market-based systems of resource allocation. Sierra Leone a typical case! There is an alternative pathway to economic development, describing a proactive role for the State in promoting selected industrial policies - a role that complements market mechanisms (which is a lost sheep in the Agenda for Prosperity) and compensates for negative externalities (Land lease, rent, etc to indigenes in the mining and extra extractive and multinational projects). KEY SUCCESS FACTORS WE KNOW that the upper middle and high income countries have grown mainly because they have become more productive. Most researchers believes that sustained long-term growth is a function of the quality and quantity of the factors of production (labour. land, capital-entrepreneurship and energy) all of which contribute to total factor productivity (TFP). Successful developers have, to varying degrees, emphasized five objectives in their pursuit of growth, with a view to increasing total factor productivity: • Creating Learning Economy that values skills, ideas and technology, and lays the foundations for domestic innovation. this includes the schooling and vocational training system, tertiary education, research by universities and public institutes and by domestic and foreign businesses ( As Africell Mobile Network in the Public Entrepreneurship public lectures for middle-class businesses), and the harnessing of digital information using state-of-the-art information and communication technology (ICT). Research has showed that labour productivity can be enhanced by investing in human capital and ICT. • Stimulating Entrepreneurship and Organizational Efficiency. Where entrepreneurship is weak, innovation and technology adoption is slow. Entrepreneurship must be complemented by strong managerial skills to keep the business going and to make the best use of existing as well as frontier technology. • Promoting Competition and Openness. Trade openness (as opposed to protectionism) is associated with higher growth and the adoption of new technologies. Public ownership, procurement rules, local regulations, and standards ( Acknowledgments to PRSU, HRMO, and The Anti-Corruption Commission), labour rules affecting entry and exist of firms and financial market constraints, can damped competition if they are not carefully designed or controlled. regional integration is enhanced by open borders and regional transport networks but the cost of doing business is a constraint. • Building Effective Institutions. In complex modern economies, government must craft and institutional infrastructure to implement their long-term strategies (not the unnecessary • increase of ministerial positions which undermines the consolidation funds of Sierra Leones financial and capital markets). Institutions such as the legal system and governance mechanisms in the public and private sectors, need to consider both labour and the business community, and to strengthen the administrative capacities of the State to formulate and implements policies and service delivery programs. on that note, there is the need for creating land market as a means of transferring land from lower productivity farming to the higher productivity manufacturing and services sector. especially in densely populated countries. • Managing Urban Systems That Take Advantage Of Agglomeration Economies and Positive Spillover Effects To Other Parts Of The Economy. Development relies increasingly on the urban sector which is much more productive and innovative than the primary or the rural sector. Urban populations will continue to grow and urban gross domestic product (GDP) already accounts for between 60 to 80 percent of total GDP. Industries gravitates to urban centres and there has been a correlation between urbanization and development. But, over the past years, feedback from different samples show that the composition of industrial production and the size of cities are interrelated and can raise productivity through agglomeration (a lot of different things gathered together, often in no particular order or arrangement) and scale economy. ...AND OTHERS CONSIDERATIONS LONG-TERM SUSTAINABLE GROWTH and development also depends on other factor. Fir example, population growth is negatively correlated to per capita income levels and its growth across countries. one of the main challenges is to productively employ working age people. To do so requires public policies that invest in health, education, and labour thereby promoting more rapid economic growth. In contrast, the growth of aging-populations that is occurring in many countries places a burden on public budgets and curtail productivity. What are the best social safety nets for the elderly and the vulnerable? Energy is another factor that affects sustainable green growth. it shows that higher growth creates higher per capita energy consumption, which if unchecked could lead to higher carbon emissions and global warming. To reduce carbon emissions to zero over the next two decades, research and development spending on new technologies will have to increase fivefold, which in turn requires carbon pricing and perhaps some government funding to support research. Although we know a great deal about the role of public budgets and finances in development, we cant seem to avoid periodic fiscal and financial crisis. there are many questions that still need to be answered: what are the limits to globalization- that is, the free movement of capital, labour, goods and services across countries? what is the optimal regulation of finance? of Utilities? How does one manage economic booms and busts? What is the policy of economic booms and busts? What is the policy for affordable housing [Case: National Social Security and Trust (NASSIT) Sierra Leone)]. UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN SIERRA LEONE EVERY GROWTH and development policy has an economic and social dimension. In my observation taking Sierra Leone into consideration, there is increasing recognition that institutional and political economy factors are central to economic development. Many problems of development result barriers to the adoption of new technologies ( Fibre Optic - which is still epileptic), lack of property rights over land ( one person owns over 40 to 50 acreage of land while the poor cant have one piece of acreage - the advantage of steel over iron), labour and business ( underemployment vs. unemployment, and only the strong survive), and policies distorting prices and incentives.(more to think about). Typically policymakers introduce or maintain such policies to remain in power or enrich themselves, or because politically powerful elites oppose the entry of rivals, the introduction of new technologies, or improvement in the property rights of their workers or competitors. Affluent individuals or groups, private firms, or oligarchs attempt to capture the state, that is, to shape the laws, public policies, rules, and regulations to their own advantage. This shaping may be done by private firms (African Minerals, ADDAX, London Mining, Avivit Mining, Lions Heart, OCTEA, Cape Lambert, to name but few etc), rich elites [ Hon. Alpha Khanu, Hon. Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, Hon. Kemoh Sesay, Moseray Fadika, Sisay, Petito, Prince Harding, Richard Konteh, Sierra Rutile, ALICO Diamonds, Tropical Farm, Golden Tree, SUCFIN, Hon. Samsumana, Keilie, ethnic groups (Mende, Temne, Krio ) or the military. In Sierra Leone, where the State is highly captured, all or most of institutions may be affected: parliament, political parties, the executive including ministries and public enterprises, judicial courts, and key bureaucracies. Omega-Salone, assess participatory approaches to development and find out that decentralization of resources and more authority to local governments can lead to experimentation and innovation and, under the right conditions, improve welfare of the many and not only the few. NOTE The pathways to development are narrow and winding and all too often blocked by political obstacles. Successful development depends not only on good policies but also on domestic political dynamics that under ideal circumstances should be highly supportive or at least neutral. ΩIntegrity comes from deep within Indeed, Integrity comes from deep within... Names mention on this note are by any form of malice, their names are mentioned. They should know their status in the minds of Sierra Leoneans. If one may think of those that mortgage our country for cocoa-porridge, their names should be written down in the Guinness Book of World Record and in the history of Sierra Leone. Taking into consideration the relentless and immeasurable efforts PRESIDENT KOROMA is making to see a country which can sufficiently provide the necessities for its countrymen, a country where one could good to bed with sufficient feeding, a country where one could comfortably invite a foreign friends and have something to show them, a country where education can resurrect its glory; [sigh]his followers are deepening in patterned and twisted corruption and immoral. It is frustrating to hear that only three institutions met the benchmark of Statehouses performance model. My question is, what our loving President Koroma is waiting for, they should be fired, investigated, confiscate their unjustified properties and dirty monies; and bring other Sierra Leoneans who can dedicatedly and dyed-in-the-wool to come work for the people. Over and out.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 02:17:03 +0000
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