“While technology, especially improved crop varieties, fertilizers and irrigation are essential components for productivity, it was agricultural policies that actually drove the success that was achieved in Asia. Until African countries shape their own Agricultural Policies based on realities, they will not be able to achieve a sustainable Green Revolution”, noted Mr. Mizengo P. Pinda, Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania.

According to him, for Africa to achieve its aim of becoming self sustainable in food production, it must revamp its Agricultural Policies, focus on support for its farmers on a consistent basis, support the private sector and ensure that markets work for millions of its farmers.

“Africa must take the bull by the horn and end the structural reason why it has not been able to feed itself. The global food crisis has provided that impetus for action, where we can say never again, Africa has the potential”, he added.

The AGRF, chaired by former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, is being held for the first time in Africa. With more than 800 delegates, it is one of the continent’s major gatherings of both public and private players focusing solely on agricultural development.

The event was opened by Mr. Kofi Annan, alongside the Vice President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, Jørgen Ole Haslestad, CEO of Yara International and Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Current Ministers and former Ministers from Nigeria, Tanzania and Malawi are also attending the AGRF.

Mr. Kofi Annan in his address stressed the need to empower Africa’s smallholder farmers, majority of who are women. “They are the people who grow our food. Transformative change will enable them to leave behind subsistence farming to run their farms as businesses and to market their surpluses”.

According to Mr. Annan, African agriculture must take a quantum leap by joining forces to achieve transformative change.  “Working together, we have the power, and partnerships are crucial to success”, he said to the applause of the gathering.

According to him, experts estimate that Africa will need $US32-39 billion annually to achieve the full economic potential of its farm sector, not including the cost of climate adaptation.

To that effect, Mr. Annan urged governments in the sub-region to take the challenge of developing Africa’s breadbaskets and transport corridors. “This is the time to scale-up progress to achieve a uniquely African Green Revolution. So much is at stake, and the time is ripe.

Today, as never before, the world cares about food production. It cares about water, it is concerned about climate change”, he noted.

The Vice President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, addressing delegates at the forum tasked African Leaders not to loose sight in initiating programs aimed at food security.

Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of NEPAD, commenting at the forum said: “the success of 21st century Africa will be defined by efforts drawn around agriculture and infrastructure – in order to move crops and agricultural products from the land to existing and new markets.  Cooperation must stretch from the highest levels of government and business to the farmers who toil our fields.”

The AGRF builds on meetings held in previous years in Oslo, Norway, at which governments and private sector companies agreed to energise an agricultural revolution through better policy and new catalytic private sector investment.

Executives from agribusiness and finance companies are preparing to form new partnerships to help Africans transform agricultural production in a way that improves food security and builds a greener future for the continent.

This is exactly what SLAJ was trying to prove when in February 2008 the association took a similar move to have our Supreme Court do what their Ugandan counterparts have done. Our highest court however saw the need to rule as such. We however remain steadfast in seeking a repeal of the obnoxious law that allows journalists to be locked up sometimes allowing for pre-trial detention.

“Sierra Leone should conform to the norms of civilised standards and repeal the Criminal and Seditious Libel law,” said Umaru Fofana, SLAJ president. “This is as bad a law today as it has always been, and it is bad for journalists and non-journalists alike.”

Mr. Fofana said the association still awaits a commitment made early this year by President Ernest Bai Koroma that he would review the law before the end of his current term in September 2012.

Francis Obai Kabia said his desire to see Sierra Leone being united as a nation has pushed him to declare his intention of leading the opposition and eventually Sierra Leone after the general elections two years from now.

“My aim is to unify the people of Sierra Leone in a bid to foster national pride and cohesiveness, bridge the regional, tribal, and religious divide in the country: to vigorously reinforce tolerance and
balance in that regard,” he said.

Kabia, who was speaking to Concord Times after presenting his Le10 million part payment to the SLPP executive to gain legitimacy to contest for the leadership at the party’s delegates’ conference in 2011, said he is confident of leading the SLPP to presidential and parliamentary victory in 2012.

Kabia is the eldest son of the renowned late Paramount Chief Madam Ella Koblo-Gulama of Kaiyamba chiefdom in the Moyamba district and the late Paramount Chief Bai Koblo Path Bana II of Marampa chiefdom, Port Loko district.

“I want to bring sustainable economic and social development to Sierra Leone, and to enhance the country’s role in its international obligation vis-a-vis the Mano River Union, the African Union, ECOWAS, the United Nations, the Commonwealth and Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Countries etc.,” he said.

Kabia is a retired Sierra Leonean Civil Servant and also an ex-staff of the United Nations. According to him, the present regime bloats the size of government with misguided beliefs that the economy would grow through the growth of the public sector. Though government has a vital role to play in economic development, Kabia’s firm belief is that his government – when he would have captured State House – would provide the rules and parameters to a nourishing economic environment in the furtherance of Sierra Leone’s economy.

“I want to eliminate corrupt practices which are endemic and pervasive in almost every sector of society, and to enforce strong democratic principles and values through free, fair and transparent elections,” he said.

Kabia pointed out that his leadership will bring about sustainable economic and social development by establishing economic tax free zones and encouraging local, diaspora and foreign investors, education and health care providers to invest in the country within the framework of a free-trade/open market system thereby creating employment opportunities, comprehensive education, effective and efficient health care system and a safe environment for families to raise their children.

“I want to ensure a fair, independent and non-corruptible Judiciary and to cultivate physical and legal respect for private property rights, through the recruitment, training and retention of judges that are unfettered to meet out justice. Simultaneously, to raise the salaries and benefits of judges so as to avert any intent of corrupt practices or ways to pervert an independent, free and impartial judicial system,” the former UN staff concluded.

What constitute to the process of women empowerment

In other to understand the process and the context of women’s empowerment initiatives, Schular and Hashemi (1994) identified a set of eight major domains of empowerment.
These domains includes: mobility and visibility, economic security, ability to make small purchases, ability to make large purchases, status and involvement in major decisions within the household, relative freedom from domination and violence within the family, political and legal awareness and participation in non-family groups.
In effect, it can be said that the process of empowerment is the development of a consciousness of opportunity and the capacity to act.
Research around the world suggests that programmes that address poverty by providing economic opportunities also allow vulnerable and poor people, especially women, to exercise greater control over all aspects of their lives. One of the most important effects is on reproductive health and behavior.
For instance, a study of rural villages in Bangladesh, where the Grameen Bank provided small loans to women’s groups for economic activities, found all women including even those who were not participants, to have greater control over their lives than women in similar villages without these opportunities. As a consequence, they were also more likely to use contraception. This is very significant because it is now generally recognized that national development and poverty reduction of women is poverty reduction of the family.
Another study conduct in Ghana on problems facing leadership in self-help activities, revealed among others, that the communities that fail to involve women deeply in leadership positions in their self-help activities also failed to execute the minimum of self-help projects initiated. On the contrary, communities that involved women in their self-help activities executed many of the initiated self-help projects.
Commenting on a study on gender and leadership, Schemerhorn Jnr. (1996) revealed that evidence clearly supports the view that women can be effective leaders as men. However, women and men may end, generally speaking to use somewhat different styles in their work. Women may be more prone to behaviours typically considered democratic and participative, such as showing respect of others, and sharing power and information with others.
This style of leadership exhibited by women is sometimes referred to as interactive leadership style, which focuses on building of consensus and good interpersonal relations through communication and involvement.
Men by contrast, may be more transactional in their leadership tendencies. They are prone to more directive and assertive behaviours that use authority of a leadership position in a traditional “command and control” sense. Hence, deep involvement of women in self-help activities or any other activities would help promote maximum participation of people and successful execution of projects in our communities.
It behooves all the stakeholders, including the National Population Commission, Ministry of Women’s Affairs and other Government Departments and Agencies, NGOs and the private sector to step up their advocacy programmes and activities on women’s empowerment.
It has been established that for any effective poverty reduction programme to succeed, it must first start from the recognition of the rights of women, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights that would free them to realise their fullest potential. Thus, programmes designed and structured for the rural and deprived urban communities must deeply involve women to play leading roles so as to ensure the sustainability of the programmes.

A delegation from China representing Shandong Iron and Steel led by the company’s vice president Li Qiang Ro has ended a five day visit to Sierra Leone during which the delegation met with President Ernest Bai Koroma and ministers of government.

Shandong Steel company has developed interest in African Minerals’ Tonkolili Iron Ore Project and ready to pump into it US$1.4billion. This partnership between African Minerals and Shandong Steel is a source of revenue for government and employment for the people of Sierra Leone.

During the meeting in the mines ministry conference room on Friday 27^th August, every minister present saw African Minerals as a development partner. For the minister of Trade and Industry David Carew, “investment of this nature brings a lot of benefits from growth of commodities market, stimulation of Foreign Direct Investment to infrastructural development.”

The Minister of Transport and Aviation Allieu Pat-Sowe claims that there has been great improvement in air and sea transport. Likewise the minister of Labour and Employment Minkailu Mansaray emphasized job creation as another direct benefit of the Tonkolili Project to the people.

African Minerals came to Sierra Leone immediately after the war and since then the company has been engaged in exploration work. AML spent about $300million on the exploration and the result shows that Tonkolili holds 10.5 billion tons of iron ore.

Records of the mines ministry shows that there are 135 exploration companies registered with the ministry but only two are operating and African Minerals is one.

Having graduated from exploration to mining, African Minerals has paid crop compensation to locales of chiefdoms whose farmlands fall within the railway path and haul roads being constructed.  In an interview with Mohamed Kamara a farmer living in Lokomasama Port Loko District, he said that the crop compensation he received from African Minerals clearly shows that the company means well for the people and government.