74
opment of strategies to promote TVET across
Sierra Leone and (d) the Ministry of Agriculture
who provided training to the youth in the areas of
aquaculture and sustainable agriculture. YEEP
through NAYCOM has partnered with international development agencies such as UNDP, GEF
Small Grants Programme, World Bank, GIZ
Skills Development and the TVET initiative as a
way of providing collaborative approaches to
addressing issues relating to youth development,
entrepreneurship and sustainability.
Reflection of Emerging Issues:
Institutional Corruption
Institutional corruption has emerged as a fundamental development challenge facing developing
countries. The Government of Sierra Leone and
the AfDB have taken this problem as a development challenge that affects the successful implementation of development projects funded by the
bank. The bank took stringent measures to
address these issues as over 80% of the projects
funded by the AfDB encountered implementation
problems. During the latter half of 2019, the
AfDB requested a meeting to discuss corruption
with agencies responsible for the implementation
of projects funded by the bank. Of all the projects
implemented in Sierra Leone, only three agencies
were represented at the meeting, and two of these
agencies were involved in YEEP. The officials of
the bank spoke of the severe difficulties they are
facing surrounding corruption and encouraged
whistleblowing as a strategy to address the corruption problem. The area of corruption is not an
area of interest to the implementation of the
YEEP; however, judging from the high priority
AfDB placed in the issue, it is critical to explore
issues relating to the impact of corruption on
development projects such as the YEEP. Although
there is an absence of imperative data on the
impact of corruption on AfDB-funded projects in
Sierra Leone, are the implementation difficulties
encountered by the AfDB’s sponsored projects a
result of poor project management, corruption or
a combination of both?
The Government of Sierra Leone established
an Anti-Corruption Tribunal in Freetown and publicly has a zero-tolerance stance on corruption.
Many high-level public officials and senior politician settled out of court to pay back a considerable amount of money stolen from the public
coffers as a way of escaping the public humiliation of going before the tribunal to answer to
charges. There were numerous reports in the local
media on the financial resources that were supposed to go to development projects in education,
health, social welfare, clean water and other infrastructure areas but instead went into the pockets
of senior government officials and politicians.
According to Guterres, UN Secretary-General,
the issue of corruption in public spaces is an area
of grave concern internationally, especially
among development agencies and governments,
and the root causes of this development menace
must be found so that appropriate solutions can
be devised to deal with the problem. Tackling
corruption in developing countries must be the
priority of governments and the international
community to achieve sustainable development
goals. Guterres said:
Corruption is the sinister enabler of some of the
world problems we face. Corruption threatens the
well-being of our societies, the future of our children, and the health of our planet. It must be fought
by all for all. It is one of the most severe problems
facing developing countries. It eats away the
money spent on poor people and sizable money on
infrastructure projects. (Guterres 2019)
The International Monetary Fund (2016) estimated bribery to cost the global economy 1.5–2
trillion dollars per year. Efforts to reduce corruption have the potential to decrease poverty and
raise the living standards of marginalised people.
Agencies such as the Commonwealth Secretariat
provide technical assistance to national anticorruption agencies of member countries to
enable them to be more effective in stamping out
the incidence of corruption. Although it is still
early to state the effectiveness of the AntiCorruption Initiative implemented by governments in developing countries like Sierra Leone,
the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat
4 The Emergence of New Climatic Storms: Global Perspective on the Application…
opment of strategies to promote TVET across
Sierra Leone and (d) the Ministry of Agriculture
who provided training to the youth in the areas of
aquaculture and sustainable agriculture. YEEP
through NAYCOM has partnered with international development agencies such as UNDP, GEF
Small Grants Programme, World Bank, GIZ
Skills Development and the TVET initiative as a
way of providing collaborative approaches to
addressing issues relating to youth development,
entrepreneurship and sustainability.
Reflection of Emerging Issues:
Institutional Corruption
Institutional corruption has emerged as a fundamental development challenge facing developing
countries. The Government of Sierra Leone and
the AfDB have taken this problem as a development challenge that affects the successful implementation of development projects funded by the
bank. The bank took stringent measures to
address these issues as over 80% of the projects
funded by the AfDB encountered implementation
problems. During the latter half of 2019, the
AfDB requested a meeting to discuss corruption
with agencies responsible for the implementation
of projects funded by the bank. Of all the projects
implemented in Sierra Leone, only three agencies
were represented at the meeting, and two of these
agencies were involved in YEEP. The officials of
the bank spoke of the severe difficulties they are
facing surrounding corruption and encouraged
whistleblowing as a strategy to address the corruption problem. The area of corruption is not an
area of interest to the implementation of the
YEEP; however, judging from the high priority
AfDB placed in the issue, it is critical to explore
issues relating to the impact of corruption on
development projects such as the YEEP. Although
there is an absence of imperative data on the
impact of corruption on AfDB-funded projects in
Sierra Leone, are the implementation difficulties
encountered by the AfDB’s sponsored projects a
result of poor project management, corruption or
a combination of both?
The Government of Sierra Leone established
an Anti-Corruption Tribunal in Freetown and publicly has a zero-tolerance stance on corruption.
Many high-level public officials and senior politician settled out of court to pay back a considerable amount of money stolen from the public
coffers as a way of escaping the public humiliation of going before the tribunal to answer to
charges. There were numerous reports in the local
media on the financial resources that were supposed to go to development projects in education,
health, social welfare, clean water and other infrastructure areas but instead went into the pockets
of senior government officials and politicians.
According to Guterres, UN Secretary-General,
the issue of corruption in public spaces is an area
of grave concern internationally, especially
among development agencies and governments,
and the root causes of this development menace
must be found so that appropriate solutions can
be devised to deal with the problem. Tackling
corruption in developing countries must be the
priority of governments and the international
community to achieve sustainable development
goals. Guterres said:
Corruption is the sinister enabler of some of the
world problems we face. Corruption threatens the
well-being of our societies, the future of our children, and the health of our planet. It must be fought
by all for all. It is one of the most severe problems
facing developing countries. It eats away the
money spent on poor people and sizable money on
infrastructure projects. (Guterres 2019)
The International Monetary Fund (2016) estimated bribery to cost the global economy 1.5–2
trillion dollars per year. Efforts to reduce corruption have the potential to decrease poverty and
raise the living standards of marginalised people.
Agencies such as the Commonwealth Secretariat
provide technical assistance to national anticorruption agencies of member countries to
enable them to be more effective in stamping out
the incidence of corruption. Although it is still
early to state the effectiveness of the AntiCorruption Initiative implemented by governments in developing countries like Sierra Leone,
the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat
4 The Emergence of New Climatic Storms: Global Perspective on the Application…