The News Review:

- Indian foreign minister visits Sierra Leone as part of south-south …
- What Hope for Sierra Leone’s Poor in 2009?
- SLARI Gets New Director General in Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone: Country May Survive Financial Crisis
- Mass vaccinations against yellow fever underway in Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone: Government Minister in Election Scam

Indian foreign minister visits Sierra Leone as part of south-south …
African Press Agency Senegal 
The highlight of the visit according to Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Zainab Bangura will be the commissioning of 400 military barrack blocks at Benguema outside of Freetown for the country’s army which faces acute housing problems since the end of the 11-year long civil war in 2002. “The visit is also aimed at strengthening the bilateral relations between India and Sierra Leone and also to open investment opportunities to Indians in areas of agriculture telecommunications and industry” Bangura adds. While here the Indian envoy is scheduled to sign a joint telecommunication and economic cooperation pact with his Sierra Leonean counterpart. The Indian government has set aside 5 billion US dollars as development aid to West African countries sources say and in Sierra Leone the envoy says some of that money will be used to develop agriculture rural development and hydro-electricity.
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What Hope for Sierra Leone’s Poor in 2009?
Awareness Times Sierra Leone 
Poor folks bearing the brunt of the nation’s economic woes cannot and will not understand the meaning of this economy performing better when their lives have not seen any improvement by any stretch of imagination and to many it has even got worst. How will these folks understand the significance of the IMF returning after a brief spell of time as an accomplishment when the cost of a bag of rice the nation’s staple food which all depend on continues to jerk up from LE 70000 in 2007 to LE 150000 in 2009? It is just difficult for folks to understand how this economy is performing better when prices of essential goods and services have soared from transportation food items to school fees medical dues to rents all of which are simply unaffordable to many folks and their families?PovertyIt really doesn’t matter where one lives to understand that the country’s working poor are going through very tough economic strangulation and anybody who pretends otherwise either do not feel their kind of pain or is being selfish or completely out of touch. The United Nations in their 2008 Human Development Index (HDI) again ranked Sierra Leone as probably one of the least developed or the poorest in the world? These grim statistics from a short life expectancy to high maternal and infant mortality occurrence to an illiteracy and poverty rate as high as 70 % and with more than 70 % of folks living on USD$ 1 per day as a matter of fact should make us all take a deep breadth and rethink our way of doing politics. For these are not just numbers; they are our brothers and sisters who deserves attention and wants to be treated with respect. The more than 70 % of folks living on USD$ 1 per day have suffered for very long time. They are anxious and want the rules re-written for them so they too can have a share in the national cake in a country that should never have been poor in the first place looking at the wealth of resources the nation has been blessed with. These folks are expecting to see this economy work for them too not just for the MPs or ministers government officials and their cronies families and kinsman? The average teacher teaching in RC Model School in Bo for example will want to see his or her salary be competitive to their colleagues teaching in a primary school in the Gambia.

SLARI Gets New Director General in Sierra Leone
Awareness Times Sierra Leone 
Alfred Gibert lujubeh Dixon has fully assumed his responsibility as Director General of the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI). The new director general will be responsible for the effective and efficient coordination and management of the eight research centers within SLARI. SLARI came into existence when the bill was enacted by the Sierra Leone Parliament in 2007. Prior to that there were only two agricultural research stations in the country; the Rokupr Rice Research Station (RRRS) and the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR). The former was mainly responsible for generating improved rice varieties sorghum and vegetables to help farmers increase their productivity and production while the latter was mandated to deal with the development of root and tuber crops grain legumes and maize. The two sister research stations were managed under an umbrella organization called the National Agricultural Research Coordinating Council (NARCC). The new arrangement of the research system has not only harmonized the various research areas for a robust and effective management of resources but has also brought at par with recognized international standards.

Sierra Leone: Country May Survive Financial Crisis
AllAfrica.com Washington 
51 million (about US$31. 7 million) including a portion of the augmented amount. In a letter of intent dated December 5 describing the policies that Sierra Leone intends to implement in the context of its request for financial support from the IMF minister of finance and economic development David Carew assured the IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of his government’s commitment. “The government of Sierra Leone believes that the policies set forth in the attached MEFP are adequate to achieve the objectives of its program for 2008 and 2009 but stands ready to take any further measures that become necessary for this purpose in close consultation with the Fund. While the country looks forward to the fourth and fifth reviews in May 2009 and November 2009 respectively the minister said they would hold discussions with IMF staff on the sixth review to be completed by April 2010 based on quantitative and structural PCs for end-December 2009. Meanwhile the IMF Board has granted waivers for the non-observance of two performance criteria related to domestic government revenue and the primary fiscal balance on the basis of remedial actions taken. The Board also completed the country’s financing assurances review under the arrangement.

Mass vaccinations against yellow fever underway in Sierra Leone
Medecins Sans Frontieres Belgium 
The five-day campaign started on January 10. Thirty-five MSF-led vaccination teams of around 10 people each are now working in and around Bo the second largest city in the country. Two cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in Sierra Leone in recent months and were treated at the MSF supported hospital outside Bo. The disease which is spread by mosquitoes is so serious that even one confirmed case of the illness is sufficient to call for a mass vaccination campaign.

Sierra Leone: Government Minister in Election Scam
AllAfrica.com Washington 
GA_googleFillSlot( “AllAfrica_Story_Inset” );bservers said his presence at the polling center was to deliberately woo voters to cast their ballot in favour of his party’s candidate Manley-Spaine. According to the party agent of the Sierra Leone People’s Party Francis P. Margai the presence of Pat-Sowe was to create avenues so that people would take advantage of the situation to perpetuate their plans of rigging the election. He said the transport and aviation minister was roaming about all the polling stations in the constituency even though he does not reside there. “His intention was to find ways of rigging the election in favour of his APC man lawyer Manley-Spaine” he charged adding that minister Pat-Sowe has no right to visit the various polling stations being that he was a cabinet minister. Margai said six of their supporters were unlawfully arrested by the police in the ensuing commotion and taken to the central police station.