African Development Bank (AfDB) staff from the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department (ONEC3) and the Sierra Leone Field Office (SLFO) undertook a mission from September 3-7 in Sierra Leone to support the Government in its efforts to mainstream green growth into its Agenda for Prosperity.
The Agenda for Prosperity, which is the country's third Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP3), is currently being drafted by a broad spectrum of stakeholders across all government ministries. With the AfDB's green growth intervention in the PRSP, the country will establish itself as the first fragile state in Africa to embrace green growth as a development opportunity.
In the technical mission, AfDB staff and national stakeholders worked together to agree on key development priorities and green growth opportunities in the PRSP. To accomplish this, the mission staff held key meetings with development partners and stakeholders in the Ministries of Finance and Economic Development; Agriculture, Food Security and Forestry; Energy and Water Resources; Trade and Industry; Lands, Country Planning and the Environment; and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The AfDB team and partners also gathered in a Bank-organized workshop to examine the green growth concept for Sierra Leone and to consider how to mainstream the concept in the eight pillars of the Agenda for Prosperity. More than 70 representatives of government, civil society, and development agencies, including UNDP, the World Bank and IMF, joined in the one-day workshop.
The event was co-chaired by Dr. Samura Kamara, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Oluniyi Robin-Coker, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, and Mr. Yero Baldeh, AfDB Resident Representative for Sierra Leone.
Going forward, ONEC3 and SLFO will produce a Stock-Taking Report with a proposed Pathway to Green Growth based on the draft Agenda for Prosperity, and will work with the national technical teams to refine policies and actions to help mainstream green growth into the pillars of the Agenda for Prosperity.