By Amin Kef Sesay
“We are lucky that as a country we are able to meet the threshold of MCC compact eligibility but more needs to be done.” These were the words of the Minister of Environment, Prof. Foday M. Jaward while addressing the Millennium Challenge Coordinating Unit (MCCU). He added that with Government’s commitment, Sierra Leone could accomplish the ultimate goal of the NRPI
Millennium Challenge Coordinating Unit (MCCU) Executive Officer Ndeye Koroma and team have stated that Sierra Leone has made a shifting goal below 64% of the medium term scorecard at 54.5% on the National Resource Protection Indicator (NRPI). She made this disclosure during bilateral discussions with the Minister of Environment, Prof. Foday M. Jaward and representatives from different supervising Agencies at the conference room of the Ministry of Works.
She noted that the purpose of the bilateral discussions is to devise a strategy to improve the performance on the NRPI of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Scorecard. Whilst explaining the specific methodology MCCU used to calculate vital information relating to the NRPI, she noted that the scorecard is used by MCCU to inform the country on its performance against other countries in its income category.
Ndeye Koroma maintained that the annual scorecard is made of three categories notably, Economic Freedom, Ruling Justly and Investing in People. She noted that NRPI medium scorecard is 64% which is calculated by Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a third party from Columbia University in the United States.
She further said that this third party develops all indicators on an annual basis for countries around the world. In this regard, she stated that Sierra Leone made improvement over the years but called on Government to make more improvement so that it could meet the 64%.
She intimated that MCCU is planning to review the indicator on NRPI in detail to ascertain the gaps in the data and where there are areas that need protection. She said that upon completion of the review, MCCU will make it known to CIESIN for its assessment to further consider it as part of NRPI overall scorecard in order to improve Sierra Leone’s performance.
Conclusively, she confirmed that there are three specific areas that are being protected in Sierra Leone notably, tropical and sub- tropical most precisely in the South-East, tropical and sub-tropical grass land, savanna and shroud, and the mangroves in the Western Region. She encouraged all stakeholders to work assiduously in order to improve Sierra Leone’s performance on the NRPI medium scorecard.
Meanwhile, Prof. Foday M. Jaward intimated that the MCCU scorecard is critical for the Government of Sierra Leone including stakeholders to plan and discuss the modalities of passing NRPI of MCC.
Prof. Jaward noted that the Presidency of Julius Maada Bio is passionate to see Sierra Leone pass the scorecard. He encouraged all stakeholders to show strong commitments to meeting the 64% scorecard of MCC.
