Sierra Leone Governance and Anti-Corruption (GAC) Assessment
The GAC Assessment in Sierra Leone responds to the demand for action on governance and capacity building received from the former Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr. Momodu Koroma, on behalf of the President, dated February 27, 2002. This project, a joint, collaborative activity with DFID, promotes learning through the creation of long-term partnerships between government and civil society, and in-depth diagnostics of the quality of governance. In addition, the Assessment serves as an input for the design of the local accountability and M&E components of the Institutional Reform and Capacity Building Project managed by the country team.
The first step was to ensure a sustainable collaboration among local stakeholders. For this purpose, DFID/WBI promoted the creation of a Steering Committee responsible for the implementation of the GAC Assessment and the design of a National Governance Strategy. The Steering Committee comprises the Sierra Leone Governance Reform Secretariat (GRS), representatives from the Vice-President Office and the Government, the Anti-Corruption Committee, the civil society, the Central Statistical Agency, the media and the donor community (DFID, UNDP, EU).
The following step was to design and implement three governance diagnostic surveys (to public officials, households and business people) to assess the institutional weaknesses and strengths in Sierra Leone. The diagnostic surveys were completed last February, by a local survey firm with the technical assistance of the WB. The results of these surveys have provided the Steering Committee with the necessary information for the design of the National Governance Strategy.
On October 28 and 29, 2003, the Vice-President launched the Governance and A-C report at the National Workshop in Freetown, for the development of governance and A-C action plan. The event was organized by GRS (with the WBI support). About 130 representatives of the government, civil society, the Media and the donor community attended the Workshop.
The main objectives of the Workshops were two: to release the results of the governance and A-C diagnostics and to have a draft governance and A-C action plan. The discussion of the governance report jointly with the PETS results, the ACC report and the 2000 Governance Report help participants to identify and prioritize problem areas. By the end of the first day, the participants had agreed on six problem areas:
1. inadequate structural environment, unclear institutions and laws (for example, over-centralization of the public administration, lack of independence of the ACC, inadequate organizational codes)
2. ineffective law enforcement (for example, political and external interference with the Judiciary, weak/non-existent complain mechanisms)
3. weak monitoring mechanisms
4. inadequate role of the civil society and the media
5. non-transparent management of public resources (for example, nepotism, weak procurement system)
6. need for capacity building (for example, lack of awareness of civic rights, unqualified government personnel, inadequate training infrastructure)
Participants were divided in six working groups with the task of developing a draft action plan for each problem. The action plan should include each of the following: expected outcome and timeframe; actions needed and timeframe; steps to achieve action; stakeholder responsible for the action; possible risks. The results of the discussion of each working groups were presented at the end of the second day to the other groups.
The next step is to prepare a draft National Governance strategy using as input the results of the National Workshop. The outcome of the National Workshop will be used for draft National Governance strategy by GRS. The target is to have a complete draft strategy ready for discussion by early/mid-December. The draft Governance strategy will be presented and discussed, jointly with the Governance and A-C report, at four regional workshops. The four Workshops will be organized by GRS for late January/ \early February.
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/sierraleone/index.html