The Oversight Committee for the UN joint programme on Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) met for the first time on 19 March 2021 at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED).

DRM is a two-year programme funded by the global Joint SDG Fund to catalyze domestic resources towards SDG and Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) investments, by increasing government revenues and building investment capital.

UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), a DRM implementing partner along with UN Development Programme (UNDP), said the private sector can contribute most to domestic resources and it is important to support businesses to transition from the informal sector to the formal economy. This was echoed by the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce representative, who welcomed the planned public-private dialogues on issues impacting small and medium-sized businesses.

The Bank of Sierra Leone representative underscored the importance of mainstreaming gender in resource mobilization, a view reinforced by several in the group. Ensuring the accessibility and capability of women to contribute to the taxation and revenue mobilization process in the country is key to advancing sustainable development in Sierra Leone.

Whilst women contribute greatly to Sierra Leone’s GDP, they have been limited in participating in the national revenue mobilization of the country. 75 percent of women are involved in the informal sector. More women than men are engaged in petty trade and subsistence agriculture in their communities1. Women’s potential to accruing higher income and to formalizing their businesses is hampered by the differential gendered roles. This means their income is just enough to feed their families. Additionally, men earn three times more than women in wage employment and two and a half times more in self-employment and twice more in agriculture2. In this regard, the UNDP Gender Specialist outlined strategies on how gender may be mainstreamed in DRM activities, noting that a large pool of untapped resources can only be harnessed by understanding barriers to women’s participation in the formal economy.

The DRM Project Coordinator presented the work plan, budget, and the oversight committee’s responsibilities. The National Revenue Authority representative and other participants stressed the importance of DRM complementing and not duplicating other partner initiatives, something to be taken up in smaller meetings between the Project Coordinator and relevant Ministries.

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development spoke of linkages between DRM and the Development Finance Assessment and Integrated National Financing Framework documents prepared for Sierra Leone. The Ministry of Finance noted how DRM relates to the Domestic Resource Mobilization Strategy being developed for 2021 to 2023.

The meeting concluded with a review of action items, a look at the Joint SDG Fund webpage for Sierra Leone, and recognition of Joint SDG Fund donors, including Sweden, the European Union, and the Netherlands.

This DRM initiative aligns with other projects under the strategy pursued by UNCDF of leaving no one behind in the digital era. One such project currently in progress with the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) is to develop new policy diagnostics which uses applied research to measure experiences of consumers and the conduct of financial service providers. This approach differs from traditional policy strategies which often focus on legal and regulatory reviews and stakeholder interviews as the primary sources of insights.

This research focused on consumer protection, uses a diverse set of applied methods to analyze the current context and issues. For more on this project read the article “From the Field to Policy Formulation – How Research is Informing Consumer Protection in Sierra Leone.”

1 Integrated household economic survey (Sierra Leone 2020)
2 2014 Labor Force Survey