Read longer reflections I have shared on development issues, post-conflict recovery, and natural resource management.
| Rethinking business reforms in post-conflict settings: the case of Sierra Leone | Conflict, Security & Development Volume 21, 2021 - Issue 1 | The literature on ‘conflict-sensitive’ business practices has burgeoned in recent years. Yet there remains a critical knowledge gap on the value of incorporating ‘conflict-sensitivity’ systematically to business environment reforms (BER) advanced by the public sector and its international partners. Wars and protracted conflicts reshape market environments in deeply distortive ways. The resulting transformation often enlarges the informal sector at the expense of formal state institutions, while it also reinforces high dependence on foreign aid and investments. Simultaneously, policy communication channels also become disrupted and unreliable. The existing BER literature remains generally insensitive to these peculiarities. Drawing on a case study of Sierra Leone, this article explores the implications of these omissions and shows that BER may even bring about adverse effects when the peculiarities of these conflict-generated market distortions are neglected. In order to avoid negative repercussions, conflict-sensitive BER needs to take into account the multiplicity of business environments and the heterogeneity of business actors operating within conflict-affected nations. |
| Private sector development and the persistence of fragility in Sierra Leone | Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2019 | Rhetoric from both domestic and international policy actors equated foreign direct investment and robust business growth in Sierra Leone with an exit from fragility. To the contrary, the trajectory of private sector development experienced from 2002 to 2014 contributed to Sierra Leone's socio-political challenges, replicating in the contemporary period dynamics of grievance and exclusion that were root causes of the country's endemic instability and then civil war. Brian Ganson and Herbert M’cleod |
| The underlying causes of fragility and instability in Sierra Leone | The LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development - 2018 | "The “social contract” has never been established in Sierra Leone at the national level. Rebellions and strikes before independence, and coup d’états and economic crises after independence, were repeated regularly. Yet the promises of a new beginning after every crisis up to and including the civil war, have never involved a systematic attempt to understand and resolve the contradictions of the existence of two parallel configurations of the State that were entrenching fragility. Brian Ganson of Univ of Cape Town and Herbert M'cleod of the International Growth Centre. |
| Building a Foundation on Rock | Address at the Prize Giving ceremony of the 164th Anniversary celebration of the SL Grammar School March 27, 2009 | St Matthew’s gospel chap 7, v 24 – 29 recounts the parable of the house built on a rock and compares it with the house built on sand. The moral is that as we build our lives and careers we must ensure that the foundation on which we are building is solid, not weak, and not shifting or vulnerable to the shocks of everyday life. |
| Dealing with the Dutch Disease in a Fragile Political Economy Environment | Paper presented to the International Policy Conference on Competitiveness and Diversification 2011 | One of the most daunting challenges confronting a Petroleum (or natural resource-rich) developing country in this period of commodities boom is the task of avoiding the Dutch disease while remaining competitive and simultaneously diversifying the economy. Paper presented to the International Policy Conference on Competitiveness and Diversification: Strategy Challenges in a Petroleum-rich Economy organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Accra, Ghana and UNIDO 2011 |
| Managing National Wealth and Reducing Poverty | Professor Kwame Adjei Public Lecture (IPAM) given at the British Council, Freetown, Sierra Leone on November 11, 2010 | Fifty years on, Sierra Leone is once again facing potentially considerable income flows from its minerals and agriculture. Failure to manage this wealth and reduce poverty will certainly take us back to the downward spiral and its inevitable ending. |
| Natural Resource Management as Part of the Development Agenda | Chapter in Natural Riches? Perspectives on Responsible Natural Resource Management in Conflict-affected Countries World Economic Forum Geneva, Switzerland 2013 | For a developing country facing high poverty levels, low revenue base levels, a sluggish economy with weak institutions, and a growing population with high expectations, and at the same time possessing abundant natural resources, the exploitation of these resources will present a relatively quicker and simpler source of additional revenues than the accumulation of domestic tax revenues or the negotiation of loans that in turn can be used to mitigate poverty, build and modernize infrastructure, access finance, promote competitiveness, and generally transform the economy. |
| On Video | A selection of talks and interviews available on YouTube | |
| The Role of Political Leadership in Post Conflict Recovery | Paper for the UN Vienna conference 2007 | This paper describes challenges facing the political leadership in Sierra Leone, in guiding the country from conflict, through a transition phase, to a path of sustainable development. |
| Speaking notes for Round table on Natural Resources | Convened by the Belgian mission for representatives of selected UN missions and officials, Mission of the Kingdom of Belgium to the UN, New York June 2, 2014 | A presentation in three parts: the first will contain some reactions to the excellent presentation by our colleague from the UNEP, the second will outline some of the underlying negative economic, political and governance forces unleashed by the extractives – the type of natural resource mainly targeted and that undermine the potential benefits in situations of fragility, even as we celebrate the obvious “blessings” emerging from their exploitation. With this background, I will attempt to respond to the three areas of concern raised by the organisers; mechanisms and policies for good NRM, lessons on the transformation of NR wealth to peace dividends, and the role of the UN. |
| The Athens of West Africa: Challenges for the University of Sierra Leone | Statement to the Workshop on Revitalizing the University of Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College Freetown, Sierra Leone 2014 | Call for a Renaissance, inspired by the legacy of Athens of West Africa, to get the University back to its leadership role in the pursuit of knowledge and education in Sierra Leone. Successful countries all boast of higher education establishments leading their transformation through research, producing high quality graduates, and enjoying academic freedom to challenge and confirm national policies and practices in all fields of human endeavor. |
| Managing Natural Resources in Growth Triangles: Opportunities for the Mano River Union | International Growth Centre – 2013 Growth Week. London, UK September 2013 | Conceptual basis and origins: •Improving competitiveness by exploiting complementarities •High degree of collaboration- but short of economic integration needed to succeed •Harmonised fiscal and regulatory frameworks •Private sector-led growth •Geographic zone, 3+ contigious states •(IMT 3 1993)Synchronized priorities and programmes around common objective |