Just got back from a presentation to the Round Table on Managing Natural Resources organized by the Belgian Mission to the UN in New York for some Missions and selected UN officials. My message: (a) preaching to Governments in fragile states to implement good NRM policies is not good enough, we must empower the people […]
The Athens of West Africa
The new and dynamic Ag Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Prof Ekundayo Thompson and his team, recently launched an initiative to mobilize resources for revitalizing the University. In my statement to the Workshop, I called for a Renaissance, inspired by the legacy of Athens of West Africa, to get the […]
Do Local Content Policies capture increased value from the mining industry?
Is the current Local Content Policy (LCP) the answer for our iron ore industry? The idea of increasing local content for extractives and other natural resource products exported from a developing country has its roots in the 1960s and 70s when developing countries were mainly integrated into global markets through the exports of raw materials […]
Reverse the Curse
“Reverse the Curse: Maximizing the Potential of Resource Driven Economies” by Mckinsey is a very good reference document for evaluating how we are doing in realizing our 2035 Vision of Sierra Leone as a middle-income country. It not only confirms that we are on the right path, but gives us hope of better days to […]
How to Understand Mining Contracts
Just returned from a week out in an island off Chesapeake bay with a dozen or so people from different parts of world, where we produced a book on how to understand mining contracts. The book is intended for negotiators, civil society activists, parliamentarians etc. We used a known Civil Society activist Abu, as our […]
What Should Replace the MDGs after 2015?
Have been attending the meeting of the World Economic Forum at Abu Dhabi. One issue under discussion is what should replace the MDGs after 2015. There are many facets to the issue but one that I find curious is about how to set goals that can be applied universally given the different positions of countries […]