On 12 July 2013, Sierra Leone’s president, Dr Ernest Koroma, launched the ‘Agenda for Prosperity’ (AfP).⁽²⁾ This agenda serves as the roadmap for the next five years, guiding the country to meet its goal “of becoming a middle income country and donor nation within the next 25 to 50 years.”⁽³⁾ The AfP follows on the ‘Agenda for Change’ (AfC), a document which served as roadmap for the country from 2007 to 2012 to combat poverty as part of its post-conflict peacebuilding process ⁽⁴⁾ in the aftermath of a decade of civil war.⁽⁵⁾ Furthermore, the country is about to “graduate” from the peacebuilding agenda of the United Nations (UN) in March 2014.⁽⁶⁾ Has sustainable peace been built and can Sierra Leone afford to focus its policy efforts on prosperity?

Sierra Leone civil war in brief

The Sierra Leone civil war raged from 1991 to 2002. Estimates have it that the conflict resulted in 70,000 casualties and 2.6 million displaced people. Atrocities such as the abduction of children and systematic rape marked the 11 years of civil war.⁽⁷⁾ Civil war erupted after the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), led by Foday Sankoh, invaded Sierra Leone with support from Liberia and Burkina Faso in March 1991. The RUF mainly operated in the southern and eastern parts of Sierra Leone, areas rich in alluvial diamonds, for the first year of the civil war. In 1992, a coup against the then authoritarian leader (Joseph Momoh) succeeded, after which the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) (led by Captain Valentine Strasser) was formed. In 1993, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) was successful in pushing back the RUF to the Liberian border. However, the RUF recovered and fighting continued.⁽⁸⁾ Years of turmoil marked by coups, political instability, civil disobedience and international condemnation followed.⁽⁹⁾

Because of negotiation efforts by various international and national actors, the Lomé Peace Accord was signed in 1999. This accord entailed “power sharing between Government and rebels, blanket amnesty for rebels, disarmament and demobilisation, and establishment of commissions for human rights and for truth and reconciliation.”⁽¹⁰⁾ In October that same year, the UN Security Council authorised the establishment of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). On 18 January 2002, after the final phase of disarmament and demobilisation was complete, the end of the Sierra Leone civil war was declared. In May 2002, presidential and parliamentary elections were held, and two years later reports on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were produced.⁽¹¹⁾ The country will, in 2014, be the first country to “graduate” from the UN peacebuilding agenda. What makes the Sierra Leone peace process so unique is the fact that managing belligerent groups is not a challenge to the conflict stricken country anymore, since the RUF completely disbanded without dissolving into criminal gangs or systems of warlords.⁽¹²⁾ Peace efforts after the civil war can thus primarily focus on peacebuilding.

Peacebuilding : The aftermath of conflict and the Agenda for Change

The term ‘peacebuilding’ was first coined by Galtung in 1976.⁽¹³⁾ In 1992, the then UN General Secretary (Boutros-Gali) popularised the term as descriptive of the path towards positive peace ⁽¹⁴⁾ in the aftermath of war. Peacebuilding differs from peacekeeping (focused on ending direct violent conflict), and peacemaking (concerned with bringing about change through mediation and dialogue and reconciliation, cultural peacebuilding). The main concern of peacebuilding is bringing about structural transformation after war, particularly to address the root causes of conflict in the political, social and economic spheres of the conflict affected society.⁽¹⁵⁾

Initially, the peacebuilding process in the immediate aftermath of the civil war in Sierra Leone was deemed successful. However, despite substantial aid from external sources and reconstruction efforts (by various international actors, such as the United Kingdom, United States and UN), the root causes of the conflict were said not to be addressed by these efforts.⁽¹⁶⁾ Consensus emerged over the core causes of the conflict, which included corruption and economic mismanagement, lack of opportunities for youth, and the underdevelopment of rural areas;⁽¹⁷⁾ with diamonds, resource mismanagement and greed mentioned to have had a role in contributing to the conflict.⁽¹⁸⁾

In 2007 the Sierra Leonean Government, under Dr Koroma, launched the AfC as a guiding document to develop Sierra Leone economically and socially, following on the ‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper’ which preceded the AfC from 2005 to 2007.⁽¹⁹⁾ The AfC framed four priorities for the government, namely reliable power supply to the country; raising quantity and value-added productivity in agriculture and fisheries as critical to poverty reduction; the development of the national transportation network; and sustainable human development through improved social services. The agenda was based on the principles of good governance, macroeconomic stability, financial and private sector development, and managing natural resources. The major risks to peacebuilding at the time were corruption, the illicit drug trade and youth unemployment.⁽²⁰⁾

Progress reports documented the impact of the AfC. By the time the first report was published in 2010, only one serious breakdown in security was reported, yet progress had been made in terms of initiatives to further good governance principles such as transparency and accountability. However, there were varying degrees of success in addressing the priority areas of the agenda. Numerous efforts were made to improve power supplies to the country, for example, but the sustainability of the efforts made was questionable. Moreover, little progress was made to improve transportation infrastructure, whilst developmental concerns (health, education and access to water) remained. Furthermore, in terms of natural resource management, the securing of marine territory was commendable, but questions concerning the quality of fisheries produce for export markets were raised. Serious efforts were also made to eradicate corruption, to address the illicit drug trade and to combat youth unemployment,⁽²¹⁾ but these three risks to peacebuilding still remained.⁽²²⁾

The Agenda for Prosperity as a roadmap

Following on from the AfC, Sierra Leone launched the AfP on 13 July 2013 as a starting roadmap for Sierra Leone to become a country with middle income status within the next 25 to 50 years.⁽²³⁾ The vision as stipulated in the document is an inclusive Sierra Leone with 80% of the population living above the poverty line. Dr Koroma expressed an emphasis on environmental affairs, gender equality, health, good governance, the rule of law, developing infrastructure, and supporting private sector growth, which can in turn generate employment opportunities and foster macro-economic stability.⁽²⁴⁾

Underlying efforts to reach the goals of the AfP are eight “prosperity pillars” that stipulate the country’s priorities in terms of policy-making, objectives and strategies to guide Sierra Leone towards its envisioned future. These pillars are labelled as follows: “Diversified Economic Growth”, “Managing Natural Resources”, “Accelerating Human Development”, “International Competitiveness”, “Labour and Employment”, “Social Protection”, “Governance and Public Sector Reform” and “Gender and Women’s Empowerment.”⁽²⁵⁾

Seemingly, a shift in emphasis has taken place from the AfC to the AfP. No longer is the vision merely to reconstruct and build peace, but more on empowering the Sierra Leonean economy and its people to thrive and prosper. Is this shift coming at the right time for Sierra Leone? Is the country ready for such a progressive vision and roadmap as the country graduates from the peace-building agenda?

Sustainable peace?

As stated earlier, the core causes for Sierra Leone’s civil war were corruption and economic mismanagement, lack in opportunities for youth, and the underdevelopment of rural areas.⁽²⁶⁾ Sierra Leone has aimed to address these concerns with limited success.

Corruption continues to proliferate at all levels of society. In June 2013, the managing director of Sierra Leone’s largest commercial bank (Sierra Leone Commercial Bank) was charged with fraud, along with dozens of other bankers and tax-workers. Shortly afterwards, Sierra Leone’s chief medical officer and other Health Ministry officials were charged with pocketing more than half a million dollars in grants.⁽²⁷⁾ Transparency International’s most recent corruption perception score for Sierra Leone is 31/100 (0 being absolutely corrupt and 100 being very clean).Other challenges that remain are the mismanagement of public spending, which in turn hurts the full implementation of necessary reforms. Furthermore, protection of property rights is weak, and the judicial system lacks transparency and independence.⁽²⁸⁾

Youth unemployment continues to be a challenging social problem for Sierra Leone. The country’s youth unemployment rate (60%) is amongst the highest in the West African sub-region.⁽²⁹⁾ Some fear that if this is not addressed, it might bring about tension and possibly conflict.⁽³⁰⁾ In addition, Sierra Leone’s social indicators are amongst the lowest worldwide, although improvements have been made. Further efforts are needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),⁽³¹⁾ whilst it seems like the rural areas remain less developed than the urban areas. An example of such inequalities is the difference in improved resources of water available to rural versus urban populations. In 2002, 33% of people in rural areas had access to improved sources of water. This percentage rose to 40% in 2012. However, in urban areas, 77% of people have access to improved water resources in 2002 – a figure that improved to 84% by 2012.⁽³²⁾

Furthermore, an assessment by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 2010 found that the war severely damaged the basic environmental resources of Sierra Leone, as well as affected the institutional capacity to manage these resources effectively. The same report made it clear that the country is not managing the exploitation of its natural resources in a sustainable manner at present. This poses challenges to development and the consolidation of peace. The UNEP report mentioned some of the challenges that include unmet expectations from natural resources, transparency and accountability concerns, unequal and improper sharing of benefits from the exploitation of resources, and the operations of extractive companies that undermine efforts made to address transparency and accountability concerns. UNEP also asserted that “[t]here can be no durable peace if the natural resources that sustain people’s livelihoods are damaged, degraded, or destroyed”.⁽³³⁾

Concluding remarks

Sierra Leone has come a long way since the end of civil war in 2002 – particularly with regard to human rights issues, addressing insecurity and the political will to develop the country Furthermore, international efforts and the engagement of the international community to bring about stability have been commendable.⁽³⁴⁾ However, it seems like only negative peace (the absence of violence)⁽³⁵⁾ has been reached. The core causes of the Sierra Leonean civil war remain and need to be addressed before it can be said that positive peace has been built. Moreover, the country’s “graduation” from the UN peacebuilding agenda in 2014 seems to have come too early given the fact that the country has yet to deliver in terms of bringing about political, economic and social structural transformation which will foster durable peace.

Despite all these reservations, the AfP – although focused on bringing about prosperity – seems to offer a lot of potential as a roadmap. The agenda is mindful of youth unemployment, the need for proper resource management, the importance of addressing corruption and the need for human development. If properly implemented, the AfP might bring about not only development, but sustainable peace as well. The political will for this to happen is there, but as Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen (UN envoy to Sierra Leone) stated,⁽³⁶⁾ the country will need the international and national community to engage fully in this process, as well as to keep officials accountable in order to bring about positive, sustainable peace and prosperity.

Written by Elnari Potgieter ⁽¹⁾

NOTES:

(1) Elnari Potgieter is a Research Associate with CAI. Contact Elnari through Consultancy Africa Intelligence's Conflict & Terrorism unit ( conflict.terrorism@consultancyafrica.com). Edited by Nicky Berg.
(2) ‘President Ernest Koroma launches Agenda For Prosperity with challenge to all Sierra Leoneans to go for it to make it successful’, Cocorioko, 12 July 2013, http://www.cocorioko.net.
(3) ‘The Agenda for Prosperity’, The Government of Sierra Leone, http://www.sierra-leone.org.
(4) ‘The Agenda for Change’, The Republic of Sierra Leone, http://unipsil.unmissions.org.
(5) ‘The armed conflict in Sierra Leone’, Human Rights Watch, 12 April 2012, http://www.hrw.org.
(6) ‘UN envoy urges Sierra Leoneans to work together to advance democracy, development’, UN News Centre, 26 September 2013, http://www.un.org.
(7) ‘Evaluation of UNDP assistance to conflict affected countries. Case study: Sierra Leone’, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Evaluation Office, 2006, http://web.undp.org.
(8) ‘Sierra Leone profile’, BBC News, 18 July 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk.
(9) Ibid.
(10) ‘Evaluation of UNDP assistance to conflict affected countries. Case study: Sierra Leone’, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Evaluation Office, 2006, http://web.undp.org.
(11) Ibid.
(12) Brown, O., et al., 2013. “Environmental assessment as a tool for peacebuilding and development: Initial lessons from capacity building in Sierra Leone”, in Jensen, D. and Lonergan, S., (eds.). Assessing and restoring natural resources in post-conflict peacebuilding.Earthscan, Routledge: New York.
(13) Galtung, J., 1976. “Three Approaches to Peace: Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, and Peacebuilding”, in Galtung, J. (ed.). Peace, war and defence - Essays in peace research. Christian Ejlers: Copenhagen.
(14) Boutros-Ghali, B., 1995. An agenda for peace (2nd edition). Department of Public Information: New York.
(15) Dudouet, V., ‘Transition from revisiting analysis and violence to peace: Intervention in conflict transformation’, Berghof Research Center for Conflict Management report no. 15, November 2006, http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org.
(16) Freeman, C.F., ‘The failures of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone and the threat to peace’, March 2008, http://www.beyondintractability.org.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Ibid.
(19) ‘Poverty reduction strategy paper’, Government of Sierra Leone, February 2005, http://www.imf.org.
(20) ‘The Agenda for Change’, The Republic of Sierra Leone, http://unipsil.unmissions.org.
(21) ‘Joint progress report on the Agenda for Change’, The Republic of Sierra Leone, January 2009-June 2010, http://www.un.org.
(22) ‘The Agenda for Prosperity’, The Government of Sierra Leone, http://www.sierra-leone.org.
(23) Ibid.
(24) ‘Key note address by His Excellency the President Dr Ernest BaiKoroma at the launching of the Agenda for Prosperity’, State House: The Republic of Sierra Leone, http://www.statehouse.gov.
(25) ‘The Agenda for Prosperity’, The Government of Sierra Leone, http://www.sierra-leone.org.
(26) ‘Evaluation of UNDP assistance to conflict affected countries. Case study: Sierra Leone’, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Evaluation Office, 2006, http://web.undp.org.
(27) ‘Corruption in Sierra Leone: Dodging the traffic police’, The Economist: Baobab Africa, 19 July 2013, http://www.economist.com.
(28) ‘2013 Index of Economic Freedom: Sierra Leone’, The Heritage Foundation, 2013, http://www.heritage.org.
(29) ‘Sierra Leone’, African Economic Outlook, 2012, http://www.african-minerals.com.
(30) ‘Sierra Leone: Could youth unemployment derail stability?, IRIN Africa, 3 March 2009, http://www.irinnews.org.
(31) ‘Sierra Leone’, African Economic Outlook, 2012, http://www.african-minerals.com.
(32) UNSTATS Millennium Developmental Goals website, http://mdgs.un.org.
(33) Brown, O., et al., 2013. “Environmental assessment as a tool for peacebuilding and development: Initial lessons from capacity building in Sierra Leone”, in Jensen, D. and Lonergan, S., (eds.). Assessing and restoring natural resources in post-conflict peacebuilding. Earthscan, Routledge: New York.
(34) Ibid.
(35) Galtung, J., 1964. An editorial. Journal of Peace Research, 1(1), pp. 1-4.
(36) ‘UN envoy urges Sierra Leoneans to work together to advance democracy, development’, UN News Center, 26 September 2013, http://www.un.org.