In this interview, Alfred Brownell details his extensive involvement with the reform of management of natural resources in Liberia. Specifically, Brownell elaborates on the experiences that led him to work for the creation of the Association of Environmental Lawyers of Liberia (Green Advocates), an organization that has played a pivotal role in Brownell’s campaign for improving the country’s forestry sector. Brownell describes the steps he took in obtaining much-needed cooperation from the government and private institutions to pass legislation that would safeguard the exploitation of forest cover, empower local communities living near such forests and stem resource-related human rights violations. Brownell also provides insight into the efforts that culminated in the incorporation of the Liberian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). In explaining the successes achieved, Brownell describes how coalitions were built and campaigning was organized to receive support from both the populace and international organizations.These efforts resulted in the imposition of sanctions by the United Nations Security Council. These sanctions were a crucial leveraging tool in obtaining government cooperation. Recounting the many challenges involved in the process of obtaining successful reform, Brownell stresses the importance of oversight and institutional capacity building in ensuring the sustainability of reform.
At the time of this interview, Alfred Brownell was the president of the Association of Environmental Lawyers of Liberia (Green Advocates.) In 1997, while a law student at the University of Liberia, Brownell launched Green Advocates and put into place Liberia’s first framework environmental law. Brownell was also the lead campaigner for Liberia’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, successfully pressing for the passage of legislative reform in the national forestry sector. Between 2000 and 2003, Brownell’s work helped bring about the imposition of sanctions on Liberia’s timber exports, a travel ban and an asset freeze on corrupt government officials. Through the years, Brownell has devoted himself to campaigning for national policies that stem corruption and abuses related to natural resource extraction.
Neneh Dabo describes her experience with public sector reform as part of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone. Outlining the circumstances surrounding the creation of the commission, she elaborates on how the move for reform was spearheaded by the desire to address institutional corruption and meet the need for a professional cadre of civil servants. Dabo discusses the steps taken to ensure efficient delivery of public services, starting with the consolidation of information to determine key reform priorities and going on to discuss the efforts to downsize the civil service and streamline recruitment. Acknowledging the challenges involved in improving the service, she stresses the importance of ensuring management accountability and compliance monitoring when working for the success of reform. Dabo further elaborates on the subject of capacity building and discusses existing training and recruitment procedures, emphasizing the need to increase the attractiveness of a civil service career, possibly through fiscal incentives. Ultimately, she stresses the importance of both training and oversight for effective reform, noting the need to learn from the successful stories of others.
Neneh Dabo was the director of corruption prevention and community relations of the Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission. She served in the government civil service before she was seconded to the commission, which she joined upon its inception in 2000. Dabo’s career in public service involved her appointment as permanent secretary in both the Ministry of Works & Technical Maintenance and the Ministry of Labor. She also served as assistant secretary, and later, deputy secretary, in the office of the president. A graduate of the University of Sierra Leone, Dabo attended several post-graduate courses in public sector management, human resource development, general administration and commonwealth diplomatic training.
Senator Sumo Kupee provides insight based on his experiences as Chairman of the Senate Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committee. He describes the committee’s endeavors to ensure that the oversight responsibility of the legislature with respect to the executive is filled, specifically by scrupulous monitoring of the approval and implementation of the national budget. He further outlines the committee’s work in drafting a public financial management law, and improving the existing investment incentive code, looking to bring about economic revitalization to facilitate poverty reduction. Kupee stresses the importance of the decentralization of the budget, and details the committee’s efforts to ensure that the budget is county-sensitive and efficiently allocated. He also discusses the creation and plans of the Legislative Modernization Committee, going into depth about problems with appointed personnel and the need for qualified/trained staff. In this respect, Kupee describes his experience with his own staff and the training strategies he employed. Acknowledging the competing factional interests that often need to be overcome when conducting negotiations within governance, he outlines the fragmented conception of loyalties within Liberia and discusses how these play out in Liberian politics. Kupee also stresses the need for reconstruction and infrastructure building within Liberia, considering this a major national task. He concludes by providing information about the avenues he explores when looking to draft new legislation.
Sumo G. Kupee served as a senator in the National Legislature of Liberia, being elected to the position in 2005. Kupee was also the chair of the Senate Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committee. In the past, Kupee has served in various capacities at the Ministry of Finance, starting as Commissioner, Bureau of Income Tax, progressing to Special Assistant and Policy Adviser to the Minister of Finance, and later becoming Commissioner of Customs and Excise, the latter being a position he held immediately prior to elections. With an MSc in Development Economics from the People’s Friendship University of Russia (PFUR), Kupee taught at the University of Liberia from 1986-1997, and served as Chairman of the Department of Economics for six years.
Between 1999 and 2001, the powerful Directorate of Public Service Management in Botswana decentralized personnel authority to line ministries. This process was critical in enabling ministries to be more efficient while also allowing the directorate to focus on more substantive issues concerning the public service. The Botswana case demonstrates three components that contributed to the successful devolving of responsibility from a central public service ministry: 1) the training for and establishment of new human resource mechanisms within the line ministries, 2) the creation of new accountability mechanisms to ensure that new powers were not abused, and 3) the creation of a new role and identity for the relatively disenfranchised central public service ministry.
Daniel Scher drafted this case study on the basis of interviews conducted in Gaborone, Botswana, in July 2009.
