By John Mannah, Special Contributor, USA
Is there a connection between the First Lady of Sierra Leone’s Hands Off Our Girls campaign and the radical and innovative inclusion project of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and Human Capital Development initiative of the SLPP Government?
The answer to the above question is Yes! There is a direct correlation between these programs and the Human Capital Development policy of the current SLPP government headed by reformer president Dr. Julius Maada Bio.
It is the main pillar of the policy framework introduced by the Bio government upon taking office in 2018, and the government through this policy has drastically changed the growth paradigm and trajectory of Sierra Leone.
It is, however, instructive to note that before 2018, Sierra Leone’s economy was powered by the neoclassical economic growth theory pioneered and propagated by Robert Solow of Harvard University based on his research paper published in 1956. In their dynamic and groundbreaking neoclassical growth model entitled “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth”, coauthored with Swan (1956), Solow proved that economic growth that had stalled across the world as he put it due to “the measure of our ignorance or the ignorance of technical change” was now possible with the introduction of technical change into a country’s growth model by augmenting or supplementing low savings and investment rates combined with labor to improve productivity through technical change. That is, by using machines, building bridges, factories, medical centers to innovate and produce.
Before this time, the Harrod-Domar model of economic growth had postulated that economic growth was based on savings and investments through capital accumulation. In countries there was not much savings and investment such as African economies, particularly in Sierra Leone with high population growth rates, poverty becomes pervasive because majority of the population will live on subsistence income and low wages with very high unemployment.
This was how economies around the world faired, namely, low productivity with poverty traps all around the world when Robert Solow developed his exogenous (driven from outside the model) economic growth theory with technical change as the workhorse of the model. Solow postulated that in countries where there are high population growth rates and low capital savings and capital accumulation, labor and capital can be substituted. That is, where there is high population growth, more labor than capital should be used and vice versa. It was a clear break from Harrod-Domar conception that economic growth and improvement of living standards only happened through capital accumulation and savings and investments. The Solow model in this sense, transformed how the world thought about economic growth and economic growth took a leap forward with some countries registering growth numbers of about 5-10 percent across the globe.
However, even though the Solow growth model was revolutionary, leading to increased growth for countries and improved living standards, especially at it was utilized during the 10-years rule of former president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, and even at the early stages of the Koroma government under APC rule, when the Sierra Leonean economy grew on average by 5-8 percent, neoclassical growth model as espoused by Solow has fundamental shortcomings and disadvantages.
The model’s assumptions are based on the Cobb-Douglas production function, namely, constant returns to scale and diminishing returns to capital as well as labor. This means that as savings and investments take place in an economy, the economy will grow in the short run. However, in the long run, the return on investments, that is the profit rate gradually drops as more investment is undertaken. It gets to a point where the return on investments gets to zero. That is, as more investment is undertaken, there will be no more return or profit on the investment as the savings and investment rate in the economy will equate to the amount of depreciation – the amount of wear and tear of the machines, buildings, bridges etc. That is, as the exogenous drivers stop pushing, the economy will stop growing.
It is what growth economist call steady-state. For at the steady-state level of investment, there is no more profit to entice entrepreneurs to continue investing in the economy. The Sierra Leonean economy was at this steady-state level of long-run equilibrium standstill when the erstwhile APC government’s economic program stalled in 2017 due to external and internal weaknesses, namely, corruption, the Ebola and mudslide epidemics and other exogenous shocks. It is these forces that forced the government to move the economy into austerity because of low productivity, low revenue generation and high unemployment.
Upon winning the presidential elections in 2018 and taking office, the new Sierra Leonean president and recognized the dire straight the economy was in and decided to change course by implementing the Human Capital Development program he had campaigned on.
Indeed, the Bio government immediately launched the Free Quality Education program to improve the human capital of citizens currently in high gear to improve the foundation of the educational system across the country. Its main trust is that if the human capital of a country increases, through education, the country can have robust economic growth in the long run.
Human Capital Development is an economic model or paradigm that is informed by the endogenous (within the model) economic growth and development model of Nobel Laureate Romer’s, (1987) research paper entitled “Capital “Endogenous Technical Change” and Lucas (1988), an extension of the Solow growth model developed on the thinking that technological change is not just based on using machines, capital accumulation and technology, but people, and ideas can now be added as factors of production in achieving economic and social progress. According to Lucas, human capital development depends on the amount of time allocated to investing in human capital and the labor force, as well as the quality of education acquired. That is, how capable and ready will the student be after his or her education and training? Thus, if the workforce is well educated in science and technology, so will be the labor force of the country and long run productivity will ensue.
Interestingly, Nobel Laureate David Romer’s research captured the practicality of encouraging economic development in places like Sierra Leone where it had failed to occur in the past, and a role has been figured out for the entrepreneur to participate in the productive process through learning by doing, research and development brought about by educating citizens.
By using human capital to increase productivity, increasing returns on productivity is no longer restricted to the use of machines such as the steam engines, the printing press, etc., but increasing returns is now a feature of adding a customer to a network, electricity to a village through solar light and energy, innovation in agriculture, or farm fishing, among others. It is a new era in economic activity and the leaders in the SLPP government have been strategic in capturing this reality, thereby marking a new dawn that will change the economic reality in Sierra Leone by helping her cope with the uncertainties and turbulence in global affairs.
Who then are the key players working to help the president implement his maiden program of Free Quality Education to engender endogenous economic growth in Sierra Leone? Two able strategists have been instrumental in implementing the human capital development program in Sierra Leone. They are, the First Lady Madam Fatima Bio and the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education Dr. David Sengeh.
The First Lady of Sierra Leone’s, actions in making endogenous technical change a possibility in Sierra Leone through actualization of the Free Quality Education in Sierra Leone.
To say that the leadership of the First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone has been pragmatic and strategic in implementing the Free Quality Education program, the maiden education program of the SLPP government is an understatement. As a Pan-Africanist with a zest for women’s empowerment, Sierra Leone’s First Lady Madam Fatima Bio.
has been prescient in making the connection between the social and economic conditions of the girl child in Sierra Leone and their poor learning and school attendance outcomes. Unfortunately, the school attendance statistics for school going students is alarming in Sierra Leone, with attendance ratio of 39.9 for boys and 33.2 percent for girls. The school attendance ratio is low for girls because of challenges such as early pregnancy, gender-based violence, child marriage, cultural biases and other social norms.
To reverse this trend and make meaningful use of the Free Quality Education for girls in Sierra Leone, First Lady Madam Fatima Bio launched the “Hands Off our Girls campaign” that has culminated in the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in the parliament of Sierra Leone with serious teeth that bites would be offenders. Furthermore, the First Lady has traversed the length and breadth of the country giving out free sanitary pads for school going girls to help them stay in school during their menstrual cycle and cut down on girl’s absentee rate in school during that time of the month. To crown it all, First Lady Madam Fatima Bio took her Hands Off Our Girls Campaign international, and with the support of international partners such as the United Nations, she succeeded in tying her project to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, thereby making the “Hands Off Our Girls Campaign” with the objective to reduce early child marriage and rape in Sierra Leone and Africa a pillar for the promotion of Human Capital Development as espoused and postulated by the two Nobel Laureates in economics, Robert Lucas and Paul Romer.
Thus, because of her belief in education, especially for the empowerment and independence of the girl child, First Lady Madam Fatima Bio is a champion for women’s education not only in Sierra Leone but across the African continent at large, and it is no coincidence that the United Nations has recognized her work by honoring her as the new champion of the United Nations Education Plus Program.
The Transformational strides of the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education of Sierra Leone.
The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Moinina David Sengeh is no ordinary Minister of Education because he can be counted among the leading strategic thinkers of this century working to make their mark on the world. Like Robert Solow who developed the neoclassical exogenous growth theory, and Robert Lucas one of the developers of endogenous growth theory, they all attended Harvard University the premier university in the world. Moreover, Like Robert Solow, Robert Lucas, and Paul Romer, they came to economics from physics and science and mathematized economics thereby transforming economics to being the scientific innovative subject it is today and also respected as a social science.
Analogously, Minister Sengeh hails from science and physics and is using his global scientific knowhow to change the educational landscape in Sierra Leone.
It is the reason minister Sengeh’s educational reforms in Sierra Leone aligns with the endogenous growth theories of Robert Lucas and Paul Romer. This is because for economic growth and transformation to take place through endogenous technical change in a country, the education system must prepare students for the jobs of the 21st century. To make this happen, the minister has introduced several reforms in the education system, from the radical inclusion program where pregnant girls who were culturally denied further education for being pregnant are now allowed to continue with their education and graduate, to revision of primary and secondary school curriculum by putting premium on STEM subjects and improved learning outcomes for school going children in Sierra Leone, and harnessing advances in technology and governance to improve teaching and learning as well as strengthening the way education is delivered in Sierra Leone. As a result of these transformations, more than 2 million children are in school today in Sierra Leone benefiting from the Free Quality Education with an increase in the national budget of 21 percent paid to education from 14 percent. These strides will surely help in preparing future leaders to participate in growing the Sierra Leonean economy for long run growth and prosperity.
It therefore goes without saying that the transformation of the Sierra Leonean economy through endogenous technical change and the support system that has been developed by president Dr. Julius Maada Bio from the office of the First Lady, and the Minister of Basic Education and Secondary Education as well as the support from the international community will go a long way to help Sierra Leone improve the lives of its citizens. It is the reason why most visionary presidents have been reelected into office for a second term and the Sierra Leonean people must return president Dr. Julius Maada Bio to State House for a second term to continue with the groundbreaking work to grow the economy and improve their lives.
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