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USAID Information:
External Links:
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Sierra Leone
The Development Challenge: Sierra Leone has taken important steps toward recovery from its brutal 11-year civil war, which officially ended in January 2002. In the last two years, peaceful and democratic elections for president, parliament and paramount chief were held; some level of government authority is now re-established in all districts of the country; and the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program came to its conclusion in December 2003. While the formal DDR-sponsored reintegration program for ex-combatants is now finished, completing the more broadly defined reintegration process will take more time. That process requires people from all sides in the conflict in war-torn Sierra Leone - whether they were combatants, displaced, or otherwise victimized - to constructively engage in rebuilding their lives and communities. It also means that basic infrastructure and services necessary for normal life must become available. This is difficult to achieve in a country that ranks as the world's poorest country on the UN Human Development Index. Life expectancy is only 38.9 years, adult literacy is just 36%, per capita GDP is $490, and maternal mortality rates are the highest in the world. This appalling poverty is exacerbated by the damage inflicted on the country's infrastructure during the civil war, particularly in the North and East. The crumbling remnants of schools, roads, and hospitals give little clue to what existed in pre-war Sierra Leone. In addition, lingering social, political and psychological scars have been left on a population that lived for years in a state of conflict, experienced massive displacement and social upheaval, and lost faith in a corrupt and grossly mismanaged public service.
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Despite the poverty and damage seen today in Sierra Leone, the country's macro-economic performance gives some grounds for optimism. Real GDP growth continues to hover at an annual rate of more than 6%. Legal diamond exports increased from $41 million in 2002 to over $60 million in 2003. In addition, Sierra Leone was able to benefit from debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC), and has qualified for duty- and tariff-free status on certain export commodities to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). However, in the past year, inflation increased from -3.1% in 2002 to +6.6% in 2003, mainly as a result of shifting macro-economic priorities at the behest of the Bretton Woods Institutions, but also because of the end of war-time profiteering
The United States has several important interests at stake in Sierra Leone. The United States is providing approximately $135 million in 2003 to help support the world's largest U.N. Peacekeeping Force. It is in the U.S. interest to reinforce the gains achieved over the past three years to avert the need for future investment of this magnitude. In addition, the United States has a humanitarian interest in preventing a recurrence of the lawlessness and brutal violence that produced thousands of deaths, injuries, assorted war crimes, and hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The USAID Program: The following Program Data Sheets cover the two mutually supporting Special Objectives for which funds are requested for FY 2004 and FY 2005. FY 2004 resources will fund new or continued activities under a three-year extension of the Transition Strategy which now covers the period FY 2001 - FY 2006. Under the Reintegration Objective, USAID will continue to provide social, economic, and physical support to encourage resettlement and reintegration in war-torn communities. During this three year extension USAID-led reintegration efforts will see a marked shift towards the stimulation of the agricultural sector and income generation activities in the targeted districts. As reintegration advances and communities become more economically and socially viable, there is a corresponding need for these communities to develop a capacity to make political decisions and build the practices of a democratic society. This will be achieved through the continuation of USAID's Democracy Objective whose aim is to broaden participation of local communities and interest groups in key national and local issues, such as the utilization of Sierra Leone's diamond resources, the provision of social services, and the limitation of corruption. During this extension period USAID will step up efforts to focus on youth and gender issues designed to reduce violence, promote community healing, and safeguard human rights.
Other Program Elements: Displaced Children and Orphans Funds and War Victims funding provided by USAID's Africa Bureau is easing the trauma and suffering of the war-affected through programs that address the needs of the handicapped and abducted women and children through various prosthetics, socio-psychological therapy, and basic vaccination programs. The West Africa Regional Program (WARP) is funding two activities in Sierra Leone: one is the Western Area HIV/AIDS social marketing campaign; the other is the Kailahun-based regional human rights activity, which provides counseling, community information and training to victims of war-related sexual assault and post-war domestic violence and sexual assault. Future USAID/Global Health-supported activities include micronutrient augmentation, polio immunization, and child survival programs.
USAID's Office of Food for Peace (FFP) determined in October 2002 that CY 2003 would be the final year of emergency food assistance in Sierra Leone. A total of 26,100 metric tons of cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, and Corn Soy Blend (CSB) were provided valued at US$ 19.5 million. Nearly two thirds of these commodities were delivered to the World Food Program (WFP) largely for the support of Liberian refugees in eight camps in Sierra Leone. FFP's Cooperating Sponsors focused their final year of emergency activities on additional infrastructure repair including housing and community buildings as well as tertiary roads with an aim at enhancing overall productive capacity and long-term food security. Specifically, fish ponds were established and 6,660 hectares of tree crop plantations rehabilitated. Over 600 km of feeder roads were restored and 35 school buildings were either constructed or rehabilitated. Fourteen new clinics were built. To improve water availability and sanitation, 40 wells and 538 pit latrines were built. Particularly vulnerable groups were supported through periods of transitory food insecurity. NGOs with a focus on health and nutrition interventions received CSB and vegetable oil to support their therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs.
USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) focused its efforts on complementing overall USG priorities in Sierra Leone by supporting partners to re-establish life-saving basic services to some of the most vulnerable communities in the war ravaged northern and eastern districts. A total of US $8 million in FY03 OFDA funds supported NGO and UN partners to rehabilitate vital health, nutrition, water and sanitation services. In addition, OFDA funds assisted in the provision of emergency support to food-insecure farming families, and the coordination of activities aimed at systematically identifying the country's most vulnerable populations so that humanitarian assistance could be appropriately targeted.
Finally, joint program funding and coordination extends beyond USAID (for example, the Kailahun District Hospital is jointly planned and equipped in cooperation with STATE/Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) and Department of Defense.
Other Donors: In addition to the United States, the key donors active in Sierra Leone are the United Kingdom (governance, budget support, civil society development, mining sector), European Commission (health sector, transport and social infrastructure, budget support, decentralization, institution building, governance/accountability), the World Bank (HIV/AIDS, basic education, energy sector, transport sector, community development, capacity building, urban water supply) and UNDP (procurement reform, civil service regulation, infrastructure, youth development, resettlement, policy development for decentralization and devolution of service delivery, infrastructure, poverty reduction, and justice sector support). Coordination has been strong, with regular meetings being organized with the GOSL and major donors. For humanitarian assistance, the United States was the largest single donor to the U.N. Consolidated Appeal for Sierra Leone in 2003, providing approximately 46% of the total contributed. Both the European Commission and Japan each provided another 10% toward Sierra Leone's humanitarian needs. Other major donors providing humanitarian assistance include Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and Germany.
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