Guinea recently emerged from decades of authoritarian government and a period of instability to hold, with strong support from the international community, the country’s first ever credible polls heralding a new beginning for one of the world’s poorest countries.
The new elected President and his government have inherited a fragile political and precarious economic situation. Poor governance and weak institutional capacity are at the heart of the development challenge in Guinea.
The Government is working on establishing its priorities in close consultation with stakeholders and members of the development community in Guinea.
Therefore, the European Union is working with the new government to draw up a list of programmes to be financed under the 10th European Development Fund, 2008-2013.
One of the first steps in this direction was the holding of a recent technical cooperation learning event in the capital, Conakry.
“I think that this event has arrived at a good time,” said Ibrahima Sory Diallo, an economist in the Guinean Ministry of Economy and Finance. “Guinea is renewing its relations with donors and that flow of donors returning to Guinea means that the government has to prepare its activities, actions and programmes.”
Capacity development is a major issue in Guinea where institutions are extremely weakened after decades of non-investment by dictatorial former leaders.
At the recent seminar, attendees from the EU delegation to Guinea and government representatives were able to discuss the challenges surrounding ownership, alignment, leadership and the management of programme implementation arrangements.
Key priorities for the attendees included ensuring that future donor technical cooperation is based on home-grown needs and country-developed processes.
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