Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:59

Just last week Wednesday, the Revenue Watch Institute, published its latest Resource Governance Index for 2013. The Resource Governance Index measures the quality of governance in the oil, gas and mining sector of 58 countries. After almost a year of assembling 46 expert researchers who gathered original data from all the 58 jurisdictions and the findings examined by 56 peer reviewers plus an independent review, the report for Sierra Leone and many other countries would make an uncomfortable reading. Overall, the index finds that only 11 out of the 58 countries have satisfactory standards of transparency and accountability. In the rest, the public lacks fundamental information about oil, gas and the mining sector. Most worryingly, more than half the sample, 32 countries, does not meet even basic standards of resource governance, performing weakly or simply failing.

So the question is: what does the report say about the quality of governance in the mining and extractive sector in Sierra Leone and how does Sierra Leone compare with its neighbour Liberia?

Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:59

AS BAN KI-MOON WARNS AGAINST CREATING A LOST GENERATION, OUR YOUTHS FACE A CRISIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT

As I write this article, young people around the world would be commemorating the International Youth Day, with the theme "Building a better world: Partnering with youth". In a sombre message, Ban Ki-Moon warns against creating a “lost generation of squandered talents and dreams". Yet, in a country of almost six million people of which 60% are young people, these youths are at risk of becoming a lost generation of squandered talents and dreams because of massive unemployment. Even President Koroma knows that all too well since 2007 when he wrote in his manifesto "to be sure youth employment if not appropriately addressed is a time bomb"

Five years on, in 2012, United Nations figures in Sierra Leone show 70% of our country's youth population is unemployed or underemployed and 50% illiterate or unskilled. In a report posted on the UNDP website "Sierra Leone: Tackling youth employment", the report states that there is a shocking estimated 800,000 youth between the ages of 15 and 35 who are actively searching for employment. Yet, the 800,000 figure does not include the thousands I normally regard as the working poor - those in full time activities which generate incomes below the international poverty guidelines of $1 a day!