The Macro Fiscal Policy Division at the Ministry of Finance has on Thursday 14th, December 2023, engaged Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) 2023 annual meetings/ workshop to present reforms implemented for 2023 for onward submission to World Bank for rating at the Ministry’s Conference Hall George Street Freetown.
The Director of the Macro Fiscal Policy Division, Dr Samuel Bonzu, who Co-chaired the meeting, explained in his statement that CPIA is a resource mobilisation tool that assesses the economy as a whole.
He further stated that in 2021, the country scored 3.1, which triggered $100 million in grant budget support; in 2022, Sierra Leone scored 3.2, expected to bring additional concessional resources into the budget.
Dr. Bonzu further stated that the rating is divided into four clusters: economic management, structural policies, social inclusion and equity policies, and public sector management and institution.
“In all these, the cluster with the highest scores is the Public Sector Management and institutions like HRMO, Anti-Corruption Commission, Public Reform Sector Unit, Sierra Leone Police,” he said.
The Principal Deputy Financial Secretary (PDFS) Samuel E.B Momoh, in his keynote address, said the marks another milestone in our efforts to improve the country’s CPIA ratings by saying the meeting is the start of the validation of the 2023 policy reforms implementation of the CPIA and assessment of the progress in line with the 2023 CPIA score policy guide across MDAs.
Mr. Momoh furthered that this inception meeting will be followed by a technical workshop for focal persons scheduled for 15th-21st December at Leisure Lodge Hotel Aberdeen in Freetown.
He noted that the CPIA is an annual assessment of a Country’s policies and Institutions and how they support poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth—noting that it is part of the performance-based allocation system used by the World Bank and the African Development Bank to allocate concessional resources to least-developed countries to support various projects.
The PDFS also stated that Sierra Leone’s CPIA rating declined, increasing from 3.1 in 2014 to 3.3 in 2015, averaging 3.2 from 2016 to 2018, and declined to 3.1 in 2019 and 2020 before rising to 3.2 in 2021 and 2022.
“External resource mobilisation is important to fill any fiscal gap, especially now that development assistance resources are limited; therefore, countries must compete to access these resources, which are allocated based on peer performance,” he said.
A representative from the Chief Minister’s Office, Dr. Gaima, said that improving CPIA rating, policy and institutional assessment, sound policies, and resource mobilisation are critical to this.
That policy audit is essential to all government institutions so that every policy enacted would be accurately reported to foster good results.
Participants offer suggestions and recommendations to be considered in the implementation process.
The technical writing meeting continues on the 15th-21st for onward submission to the bank for next year’s rating.
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