By Hajaratu Kalokoh
Government and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have concluded an engagement session in Freetown aimed at reducing inequality in Sierra Leone in the areas of public spending, taxation and in the labour market.
The policy forum was part of a commitment by both Movement against Inequality Sierra Leone (MAISL) and OXFAM Sierra Leone.
MAISL is a coalition of over 45 CSOs with structures at the district, regional and national levels.
OXFAM is a member of international confederation of 19 organizations working together with partners and local communities in the area of humanitarian development and campaigning in more than 90 countries. It is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty.
The forum focused on addressing contemporary issues surrounding inequality, the impact it has on the country and possible approaches and solutions to the issues.
Executive Director of Institute for Governance Reform, Andrew Lavalie, who chaired the engagement process, noted that the country’s resources do not reflect its economic status because a lot of people live on the borderline of malnutrition and low wages and income.
‘’We have the assumption that if we consolidate our wealth and share wealth equitably, we will reduce inequality. That is why at any time we talk about inequality we do not only talk about how people are suffering but we also talk about what we are losing and how we ensure that we share the resources well,” Lavalie said.
He went on to say that they had already done some study on illegal fishing in Sierra Leone, one key sector where the country is losing huge amounts of money.
In July OXFAM SL and MAISL launched the first Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRII) Report. The MAISL Chairman, Charles Lahai made a presentation on that report.
According to the findings, “112 of the 152 countries surveyed are doing less than half of what they could to reduce inequality. The report findings further states that there is an urgent need for coordinated global investment to significantly improve the data on inequality and related policies to reduce it together with much greater concerted action by governments across the world to reduce inequality.”
Lahai said this was a high-level policy forum which sought to set the basis for discussion at the country level.
OXFAM’s Influencing Coordinator, Nuru Deen explained that accessing social services like health care and education was a citizen’s right and that there were challenges in the mining sector in terms of compliance especially in the aspect of Cooperate Social Responsibility.
‘There are certain factors that drive inequality in the society and we have realized that change in course might not be just a cosmetic process and solution and these factors are more structural than the way we see them,’’ he said.
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