*****Sierra Leone *****

This is a flag of my country Sierra Leone:

The map of Sierra Leone :

Some Background Knowledge about Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone was one of the first areas in West Africa to have contact with Europeans and it quickly became a hub for the slave trade.

Slaves were taken mainly to plantations in South Carolina and Georgia in the US, where they were sought after for their knowledge of rice farming.

In 1787, the British helped freed slaves from Nova Scotia, Canada and Britain return to Sierra Leone, then called Province of Freedom.

Despite threats from disease and local tribes, by 1792, more returnees had arrived and the city of Freetown was established as the first British colony in West Africa.

It became a base for fighting the slave trade and the British patrolled the coastal shores of Freetown for illegal slave ships.

The British expanded their territory, despite heavy resistance by indigenous tribes, and by 1896 Britain declared a protectorate over the country.

Sierra Leone gained independence in 1961, opting for British parliamentary-style rule with a prime minister as head of state.

The first elections were held the following year and Sir Milton Margai won but died mid-term and was replaced by his half-brother.

The elections of 1967 were marred by contested polls and violence, and after three successive coups Siaka Stevens became prime minister in 1968.

He made the country a republic in 1971 and amended the constitution in 1978 to ban all parties except his own, the All Peoples Congress (APC).

In 1985 Stevens stepped down and chose his own successor, General Joseph Momoh, who ruled with an increasingly firm hand.

In 1991 the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) began attacking villages near the Liberian border in the south, taking over diamond mines in the Kono district and destabilising the country.

The rebels sold diamonds illegally to buy weapons and became notorious for chopping off the limbs of their victims.

A military coup in 1992 sent Momoh into exile and brought Captain Valentine Strasser to power.

He hired mercenaries to repel the RUF who had taken over much of the country.

A brief return to civilian rule in 1996 was quickly interrupted by another coup that was eventually repelled by the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, led by troops from Nigeria.

The RUF continued its brutal advance and fighting reached Freetown before a peace agreement was signed in 1999, incorporating RUF leaders into the government.

That year, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) arrived but the RUF took members of the mission hostage and confiscated their arms and ammunition.

The situation continued to deteriorate and violence resumed.Fighting did not end until 2002 with the aid of international forces, including 200 British troops, who helped to disarm rebels. An estimated 50,000 people died during the war.

The country is now trying to rebuild itself.

The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission were set up in 2002 to consolidate peace.The Special Court has indicted several of those allegedly involved in the civil war on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who is accused of backing rebel groups, and RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who died of a heart attack in custody.

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HDI ( Human Development Index )

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Sierra Leone is ranked 176 out of 177 countries evaluated to compare poverty, life expectancy, literacy, education, and other factors. [The UN HDI (Human Development Index) 2005]

The average life span of a Sierra Leonean adult is 37 years for men and 40 years for women [WHO website]

Sierra Leone has one of the world’s lowest adult literacy rates at 30% (UNICEF, 2006 )

Only approximately 36% of people have access to medical care.

There are an estimated 340,000 orphans in Sierra Leone. (UNICEF, 2006 )

Sierra Leone has the highest childbirth mortality rate in the world. The most recent figures show that about 1 in 6 women are at risk of dying during childbirth, compared to approximately 1 in 29,800 in Sweden. [WHO MMR report 2000]

Sierra Leone has the world's worst infant mortality rate - 28% of all children (or roughly 1 in 4) die before they turn 5 years old. Many die from preventable causes such as dehydration or malnutrition. [UNICEF website]

United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 29% of all under-five deaths in Sierra Leone are caused by diarrhea.

Sierra Leone is 60% Muslim, 30% indigenous religions, 10% Christian.
Young girls are under great pressure to conform to social “norms.” Female genital mutilation is still as high as 90%. Many young girls also become pregnant before their skeletons are fully formed.

Although the official rate of HIV/AIDS sufferers is 3% of the population, real figures may be much higher, and lack of education could mean that these statistics rise in coming years.

The UN estimates that there are over 500,000 children in Sierra Leone who do not have access to basic education.

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Dates Of The History Of Sierra Leone

ca. 2500 B.C.
Beginnings of agriculture, settled life, pottery making.

ca. 600 A.D.
Introduction of iron making.

ca. 1450-1700
Mande migrations into Sierra Leone.

1462
Portuguese navigator visits the coast, names the peninsula "Serra Lyoa" (Lion Mountain)

ca. 1540
Mane Invasion.

1727
Futa Jallon Jihad. Expansion of Islam.

1787
Province of Freedom established.

1789
Koya Temne destroy colony.

1792
Freetown established.Arrival of the Nova Scotians.

1800
Arrival of the Maroons

1808
British declare the Crown Colony of Sierra Leone.Recaptive slaves begin to arrive.

1827
Fourah Bay Institution established.

1845
CMS Grammar School established. First secondary school in West Africa.

1863
New constitution adopted. John Ezzidio becomes first African elected to the Legislative Council.

1876
Fourah Bay College affiliated with Durham University.

1884
Samori invasions begin in northern interior.

1896
British declare the Sierra Leone Protectorate.

1898
The 1898 Rebellion ("Hut Tax War") (begins in the South on April 27).

1906
Bo School opens for "the sons and nominees of chiefs."

1908
Railway reaches Pendembu.

1914-1918
World War ISierra Leonean troops fight in Cameroon.

1924
New constitution adopted.Chiefs sit for the first time in the Legislative Council.

1937
Native Administration system established.

1939-1945
World War IISierra Leonean troops fight in Burma.

1946
District Councils and Protectorate Assembly established.

1951
New constitution adopted.Unified governmental system.Protectorate representatives in the majority.

1961
Sierra Leone achieves independence (April 27).Sir Milton Margai — 1st Prime Minister.

1964
Sir Albert Margai — 2nd Prime Minister.

1967
Siaka Stevens appointed Prime Minister. Military coup.

1968
Siaka Stevens — 3rd Prime Minister.

1971
Sierra Leone becomes a republic.Siaka Stevens - 1st Executive President.

1978
Sierra Leone becomes a one-party state under the banner of the All People's Congress.

1985
Major-General J. S. Momoh - 2nd Executive President.

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Historical reason for Sierra Leone's present state

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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (“TRC” or “the Commission” was established in 2000 )has identified four distinct phases in the historical evolution of Sierra Leone, which it regards as crucial to understanding the roots of the conflict and some of the challenges that the country still faces today. These four phases are analysed below in the following order:
1) The Colony and the Protectorate. Rather than constructing a unified Sierra Leonean state, the colonial government effectively created two nations in the same land. The divide between the entities known as the ‘Colony’ and the ‘Protectorate’ had far-reaching implications for issues such as citizenship, land tenure rights and conflict of laws.
2) The Era of Party Politics (1951-1961). After the 1947 Constitution had amalgamated Sierra Leone’s ‘two nations’ in preparation for independence, party politics became the greatest obstacle to national cohesion and identity. Party allegiance proved just as divisive as ethnicity, class or regional prejudice in the battle over who should succeed the British. On the cusp of independence in 1961, the ten-year-old Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) was joined in the political arena by the All People’s Congress (APC), which would become its main rival in contesting elections.
3) The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in Power. The euphoria and perceived unity of the immediate post‑colonial period appear with hindsight to have been artificial. The first independent government, formed by the majority SLPP party, served to polarise public opinion in the country, introduced notions of cronyism in many state institutions and laid the foundation for military involvement in politics. This period had terrible, albeit foreseeable consequences on the unity of the young state and served to deepen existing cleavages.
4) The 1967 Elections and their Aftermath. The elections of 1967 were scarred by bitter power struggles based on ethnicity, personality and party affiliation. Although the APC won the most seats, the leadership of the SLPP stoutly refused to concede defeat. The resultant standoff signalled a watershed in the political fortunes of the country and ultimately led to the destruction of the multi-party system.

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Physical Reasons of Sierra Leone

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Presence of raw materials in Sierra Leone

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Sierra Leone, with its fertile land and plentiful mines, contains ample fishery, agricultural and mineral resources. It is most well-known for its diamonds, which comprise half of the country's exports. After mining, its major exports are rutile, cocoa, coffee and fish. Sierra Leone's major import/export partner is Germany, followed by the Cote D'Ivoire, the UK and the US.

Mining

Sierra Leone's government recently rehabilitated the bauxite and rutile industries, adding two burgeoning industries to the country's rich extraction potential. Rutile is a titanium ore used in paint and welding. Sierra Leone has one of the largest deposits of rutile in the world. An example of the high earnings rutile exports garnished was in 1990, when $75 million, or 88,000 tons of the ore, was exported.
Sierra Leone is also contains a wealth of titanium ore, iron ore, bauxite, gold and chromite mines. It has long been known for its high number of diamond mines. The diamond mining industry is increasingly subject to regulation and improved standards of work. Initiatives include a USAID-sponsored move to label diamonds that come from local, sustainable sources.
In 2000, Sierra Leone diamonds began going through an export certification system approved by the UN. As a result, legal exports increased. One year later, the government founded a community development fund that funnels a percentage of diamond export taxes back to mining communities, raising their stake in the diamond trade.

Manufacturing

Raw materials processing and manufacturing are a growing industry in Sierra Leone. Raw materials processed include foodstuffs such as palm kernels and rice. Products manufactured include footwear, beverages, salt, cement and textiles for domestic consumption.

Agriculture

52.5% of the Sierra Leonean population engage in subsistence agriculture (US Department of State). In 2000, agriculture comprised roughly half of the country's GDP. Mainstays include rice and millet, with tomatoes, yams, cassava, peanuts, pineapples, coconut and pepper as additional staples. Coffee, cocoa and palm kernel are major exports. 30% of Sierra Leone's land is potentially arable. It is also rich in forests and fresh water.
Agriculture is a focal point for redevelopment. The national government is assisting this recovery through efforts to increase cash and food crop production as well as teaching farmers updated skills. It is also involved with outside donors in agricultural and rural development projects, leading to an improved food supply.

Fisheries

Sierra Leone has a large natural harbor that can accommodate cruise ships, cargo ships and private vessels. It is known for its abundant inshore and offshore fishing, which includes shrimp, tuna, snapper, lobster, crab and mackerel. Domestic, or artisanal fishing occurs mostly at inshore estuaries, lakes and rivers, while larger (often foreign-owned) vessels trawl for shrimp, a main export, and other catches offshore.

Construction

Cement mills and other sources of materials are helping residences and commercial real estate spring up all over the country. There are several real estate developers in Sierra Leone. Together with engineering consultants, they are overseeing reconstruction. Other initiatives include an affordable housing industry and machinery manufacturers. In 2005, the World Bank approved completion of the Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project (BHP), a hydroelectric power plant projected to help stabilize the country's power supply by the end of 2007.

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Climate in Sierra Leone

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The climate is tropical and is characterized by the alternation of the rainy and dry seasons. Conditions are generally hot and humid. Mean monthly temperatures range from 77° F (25° C) to 83° F (28° C) in low-lying coastal areas; inland the range may be from 73° F (23° C) to 82° F (28° C). In the northeast, where extremes of temperature are greater, mean daily minimums fall to 56° F (13° C) in January, and mean daily maximums rise to 90° F (32° C) in March. During the rainy season, from May to October, humid air masses from the Atlantic dominate. The sky is cloudy, the winds are southwesterly, sunshine is minimal, and rain falls almost daily, especially during July and August. Precipitation is greater on the coast than inland; as much as 200 inches (5,080 millimetres) of rain falls annually on the Peninsula Mountains, while the northeast receives about 80 inches a year.

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Economic Reason for unequal development in Sierra Leone

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Economy - overview:
Sierra Leone is an extremely poor African nation with tremendous inequality in income distribution. While it possesses substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, its economic and social infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social disorders continue to hamper economic development. About two-thirds of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the domestic market. Plans to reopen bauxite and rutile mines shut down during an 11 year civil war have not been implemented due to lack of foreign investment. Alluvial diamond mining remains the major source of hard currency earnings. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad, which is essential to offset the severe trade imbalance and supplement government revenues. International financial institutions contributed over $600 million in development aid and budgetary support in 2003.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$3.335 billion (2004 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
6% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $600 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 49% industry: 30% services: 21% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
1.369 million (1981 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture NA, industry NA, services NA

Unemployment rate:
NA

Population below poverty line:
68% (1989 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 0.5% highest 10%: 43.6% (1989)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
62.9 (1989)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1% (2002 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $96 million expenditures: $351 million, including capital expenditures of NA (2000 est.)

Agriculture- products:
rice, coffee, cocoa, palm kernels, palm oil, peanuts; poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs; fish

Industries:
diamonds mining; small-scale manufacturing (beverages, textiles, cigarettes, footwear); petroleum refining, small commercial ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
NA

Electricity - production:
255.3 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 100% hydro: 0% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
237.4 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
0 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
6,500 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA

Oil - imports:
NA

Exports:
$49 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)

Exports - commodities:
diamonds, rutile, cocoa, coffee, fish (1999)

Exports - partners:
Belgium 61.6%, Germany 11.8%, US 5.4% (2004)

Imports:
$264 million f.o.b. (2002 est.)

Imports - commodities:
foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, fuels and lubricants, chemicals (1995)

Imports - partners:
Germany 14%, Cote d'Ivoire 10.7%, UK 9.1%, US 8.4%, China 5.6%, Netherlands 5%, South Africa 4.1% (2004)

Debt - external:
$1.5 billion (2002 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$103 million (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
leone (SLL)

Currency code:
SLL

Exchange rates:
leones per US dollar - 2,701.3 (2004), 2,347.9 (2003), 2,099 (2002), 1,986.2 (2001), 2,092.1 (2000)

Fiscal year:
calendar year

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Social Reasons for unequal develpopment in Sierra Leone

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Education ( Adult Literacy Rate )

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SANAA, 21 January 2007 (IRIN) - Specialists say that Yemen’s illiteracy rate is set to decrease substantially in the coming years, particularly because the number of adults attending literacy classes has risen over the past few years.

“The rate of illiteracy has decreased from 56 percent in 1994 to 45.7 percent in 2004,” said Ahmed Abdullah, head of the Department for Erasing Illiteracy at the Ministry of Education. “In 2006, there were 128,080 people attending literacy classes nationwide, while in 2001 the number was only 66, 151.”

The study period at the literacy centres is two years, which is equivalent to reaching grade four at primary school. Students can also study for a third year, after which they can immediately join grade seven at school, according to Abdullah.

Abdullah also said that efforts were being made to fight illiteracy by improving literacy programmes, increasing the number of schools nationwide and spreading awareness about literacy through the media.

Education specialists say illiteracy is most rife in Yemen’s rural areas, where 75 percent of the population live. “These [rural] areas suffer from a lack of basic services, especially schools, which makes it difficult for some to receive education,” said Dr Arwa al-Deram, executive director of SOUL, an NGO dealing with education.

“Poverty also plays a big role in this regard as many poor families cannot afford to send their children to school,” she added.

Official statistics show that women are more illiterate than men in Yemen. The Department of Erasing Illiteracy said that the illiteracy rate stands at 29.8 percent for men and 62.1 percent for women.

“In rural areas, families prefer to send only boys to school, while girls remain at home to help their mothers,” said al-Deram adding that the traditions of Yemeni society do not encourage women to get an education, especially in rural areas. Yemeni men prefer women to stay at home rather than go out to work, al-Deram said.

A study carried out by SOUL found that girls often opted out of school and that a high percentage of parents did not want their daughters to continue their education. The unavailability of female teachers in villages, too, lead to girls dropping out of school.

Al-Deram said her organisation will begin educating illiterate women by using computers – a new method in Yemen - which will be provided for free to the students. This, she said, would encourage more illiterate women to study. “Literacy is rising among women more than men,” she added.

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Population growth rate in Sierra Leone

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Population (2002 est., no census since 1989): 4.9 million

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Polictical Reasons

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Poictical Conflict
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Since 1991, the civil war between the Sierra Leone government and the Liberia- backed rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has crippled the country. In July 1999 the warring parties signed the Lomé Peace Agreement. The UN Security Council established the Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in October 1999 to help implement the Lomé Agreement but despite UNAMSIL’s presence fighting continued. In May 2000 the crisis peaked as the RUF took 500 UN peacekeepers hostages.

The civil war in neighboring Liberia complicates the Sierra Leone conflict. In 2000 the UN officially accused President Charles Taylor of Liberia of being involved in RUF’s illegal trade of diamonds, arms, and timber. In May 2001, the Security Council imposed “smart” sanctions on Liberia. France’s interests shaped the sanctions in a way that allowed Taylor to continue the timber exports, which finance his regime and the RUF.

In January 2001 the Guinea-backed rebel group LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) invaded the north of Liberia. The expansion of the conflict thus engulfed all three state-parties to the 1980 Manu River Union treaty. Taylor’s government continues to fight the LURD without a real desire to enter into a peace process.

The May 2002 democratic elections brought only a relative political stability to Sierra Leone. Occasional RUF incursions and flows of refugees, fleeing the civil war in Liberia, pose a threat to the peace in Sierra Leone and undermine UNAMSIL’s efforts to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate the RUF.

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Leadership in Sierra Leone
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After 45 years of independence, Sierra Leone faces challenges of an unprecedented scale, complexity, and importance. Sierra Leone officially ended its 11-year brutal civil war four years ago, and has since benefited from substantial international investment. But its leaders and people must deal with popular dissatisfaction with a public service operating in an environment bedeviled by a culture of corruption, fraud, financial mismanagement, scandals, and civil service apathy; environmental degradation; an underdeveloped financial system; an inadequate health care system; a marginalized rural population; urbanization on a massive scale; and deep social inequality. All of these problems, of course, had existed during the 24 years of poor governance under one-party rule before its brutal civil war that started in March 1991; but four years after its war officially ended in 2002, thanks to the United Nations peacekeeping force, the current government has still not shown the ability to manage needed reforms.

Focusing on any "snapshots" of the isolated parts of these problems would make it hard for them to be solved. A systems approach is required to deal with the interconnectedness of these problems at once. Because the national character is known to be apathetic with minimal popular participation, success depends on the energy and ideas of its leaders. Strong and visionary leadership can be trusted to determine what cultures are conducive to better management practices and what represents a threat to basic public administration, because any civil service reform cannot be disengaged from the issues of improved governance as they affect accountability, rule of laws, and transparency.

Yet the current government has no system in place to attract, develop, and retain talent. There are no appropriate organizational structures, processes, resources, and management styles that would make it possible for its workforce to perform to the best of their talents and skills. Graduates from the country's universities are not appropriately trained to deal with the country's problems. What is not also there is the capacity to train in technical areas such as surveying, draftsmanship, architecture, mechanical engineering, accounting, and medicine to meet its needs in these technical areas. A United Nations Development Program study group recently reported that the country's principle training institute — I.P.A.M. (Institute for Public Administration and Management) — "is claiming to have the capacity to meet 90 percent of the training requirements of the public source despite the fact that there is no factual information on the magnitude of training requirements since there has been no training needs assessment done for the public service." What is clear, the ability of the universities and I.P.A.M. to meet national training needs is limited due to resource constraints.

Moreover, most talented Sierra Leoneans are instead choosing to pursue careers abroad where there are opportunities for them. Due to low salaries, poor working conditions, and to some extent, political interference with the professionalism of the public service, senior experienced civil servants have left the civil service for the private sector, international organizations, and greener pastures in other countries. Worse, many Sierra Leoneans who remain, and the few returning home after many years abroad to accept government or political appointments, become corrupt, eroding the government's effectiveness and feeding popular discontent with the system.
Of all Sierra Leone's challenges, none is more critical — or more daunting — than that of nurturing a new generation of leaders who are skilled, honest, committed to public service, and accountable to the people as a whole. Unless Sierra Leone manages to produce or attract such leaders, any government in power will fail to meet the country's challenges and its public promises of a more prosperous and democratic future will remain unfulfilled.

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By: Tan Jia Han(36)

Class: 4E2

Group: 5

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