Sierra Leone

The MDGs in Sierra Leone

UPDATE ON MDG-BASED PLANNING PROCESSES

Current Political Economy in the Country

Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world despite its vast resource endowments. This is due to a combination of the result of decades of economic decline, starting in the mid-1980s and an 11-year brutal armed conflict that saw the breakdown of civil and political authority, widespread destruction of economic and social infrastructure and untold human suffering. With the strong support of the international community a comprehensive recovery strategy has been implemented which has restored stability and rebuilt basic social and economic infrastructure. Successful Presidential and Parliamentary elections in August 2007 under the auspices of the United Nations have ushered in a new Government. Post-conflict economic growth has been robust. Real GDP growth was in the double digits during 2001-2002 and has been around 6%-7% in re­cent years fu­elled by broad re­covery in the productive and ser­vices sectors. Inflation has continued to decline from the high levels of the early years of the decade to about 12 percent by June 2006. Fiscal and external sector reforms have led to lower fiscal and external current account deficits, lower domestic borrowing, relatively stable exchange rate and rebuilding of domestic revenues and international reserves.

Status of MDG-based planning in the country and the key results realized

SL PRSP (2005-2007) ends in December 2007; as such Government has already initiated steps towards the preparation of a successor PRSP (2008-2010), including a review of the current PRSP. A comprehensive MDG Needs Assessment, with sectoral costings, was finalised in July 2007, with the view to making the next PRSP fully MDG compliant.

However, progress towards the drafting of the PRSP was delayed by preoccupation with the above-mentioned electoral process. Now that a new Government is in place, there will be need to initiate broad based consultations on the key development priorities to be translated into the next PRSP.

Key Challenges and the Way Forward

The ongoing MDG Needs and capacity Assessment exercise reveals that the country is likely to achieve some of the MDG-targets with sustained current ef­forts and resources, but is unlikely to attain some others even at current investments and efforts. Access to and the administration of justice is still significantly weak. Outdated laws and procedures, significant back­logs of court cases, extensive pre-trail detention periods, the overcrowding of prisons, inefficiencies in court administration are among the key problems Human rights abuses, particularly domestic violence, are often not addressed The role of civil society and dialogue between the Government and civil society require further strengthening. The TRC report cited marginalization of groups as one of the root causes of the conflict and recommended a Special Commission for the empowerment of women, among other things. Although some of the recommendations have been implemented, more efforts need to be focused on building the capacity of civil society, particularly women and youth organizations to dialogue on national development issues. Some of these concerns are to be addressed through interventions to be funded through the upcoming Peace-building Fund. Weak institutional capacities in the public sector and civil society coupled with shortage of personnel, gaps in expertise and skills and poor motivation are a major challenge for Sierra Leone. The Government recognizes the need for linking the MDGNA costings and needs assessment and macroeconomic framework and fiscal space; however, it is constrained by lack of an appropriate macroeconomic framework.

In order to support the MDG based planning process in Sierra Leone, the Government requires support in the following areas:

SL PRSP (2005-2007) ends in December 2007; as such Government has already initiated steps towards the preparation of a successor PRSP (2008-2010), including a review of the current PRSP. A comprehensive MDG Needs Assessment, with sectoral costing, is being finalised this month, with the view to making the next PRSP fully MDG compliant. 

However, progress towards the drafting of the PRSP was delayed by preoccupation with the above-mentioned electoral process. Now that a new Government is in place,, there will be need to initiate broad based consultations on the key development priorities to be translated into the next PRSP.