Sierra Leone- Sources of Economic Growth and/or Development
The 5 Elements of Economic Growth:
1) Natural Resources- natural factors, such as land, minerals, climate, etc. Also, their quality and quantity.
2) Human Resources/ Population- Vaguely speaking, it’s the quantity and the quality of labor in a nation. The quality would depend on some specific factors, such as dependency ratio, fertility rate, birth rate, death rate, etc.
3) Physical factor and technology factors- it’s the quality and quantity of goods, such as roads, machinery, etc…
4) Institutional Factors- a quality of the health care system, the banking system, etc.
My country: Sierra Leona
1) Sierra Leone is a nation that is experiencing a strong form of poverty, and therefore contains a highly undeveloped economy. Its unemployment rate is 65%, and it contains a highly destabilized form of government. Sierra Leone is extremely rich in natural resources; especially mineral resources, such as diamonds. In fact, internationally speaking, it is one of the top ten diamond producers in the world. It also has great, tropical climate, which is great for agricultural goods. However, due to the recent civil wars, grave instability in the federal government (corruption, self-interest, etc.), and the high levels of black market and crime, the country has simply been highly INNEFICIENT IN ITS PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION OF THOSE GOODS.
2) The quantity of labor in Sierra Leone is considerable, but the unemployment rate is extremely high; it’s about 65%. Therefore, the quantity of laborers is not as grand of an issue, as the quantity of jobs available. The quality on the other hand, is a much more serious question. I will provide you with some essential statistics that will show the countries weaknesses in labor quality:
Birth Rate (per 1000 people): 46.3 per
Children Underweight rate: 9%
Dependency Ratio: 89 per 100
Life Expectancy at Birth (total population): 40.93 years
Total Expenditure on Health as % of GDP: 2.9%
Water Availability: 36,322 cubic meters
These simple stats tell us a lot about the quality of labor in Sierra Leone. After an observation of the statistics, it is evident that the people of Sierra Leone cannot even obtain their basic needs, such as food and water (water availability). Furthermore, the people are highly unhealthy; they are not only unable to obtain proper nutrition, but there is also a major lack of proper medication. This is especially strenuous, considering that these people experience some of the worst diseases, such as Aids. An average life expectancy in this nation is lower than 41, which is one of the worst expectancies in the world. People with such poor lifestyles are simply unable to provide a good quality of labor.
3) This is yet another area where Sierra Leone struggles. Being a third world country with poor labor quality, recent history of a struggling government, and factors such as corruption and high crime rate, Sierra Leone has very poor physical and technological factors. The countries GDP in dollars is 1.971 billion; there are individuals who could theoretically buy the entire nation. Much of this money goes into development, yet the country suffers greatly from a lack of a boost in industrialization. Simply put, the nation is unquestionably weak in its production of physical and technological factors, which creates a gravely inefficient form of production.
4) Since the quality of health is, in my opinion, top issue in this country, I will be focusing only dominantly on this factor. Sierra Leone is extremely weak in this area… as well. The people of the nation experience all kinds of unfortunate diseases, such as Hepatitis A and E, Typhoid Fever, Malaria, etc. there is even a high risk of an obtainment of a deathly disease from basic nutrition and water. Despite this, the % of the GDP that is actually used to improve the health care system is 2.9%. This may be highly unsatisfactory, but there is also a huge influence outside of the country, as many organizations focus on abetting the citizens of the nation, by providing them with medication, and/ or other forms of support.
CONCLUSION:
Out of the four elements of economic growth, I believe that the Institutional Factors of Sierra Leone should be the nation’s number one focus. As mentioned earlier, Sierra Leone is exceptionally weak in every economic growth category, so it has to start from the very beginning, in terms of prosperity.
Quick History of Sierra Leone’s Internal Conflict:
The history of Sierra Leone is full of rebellions, and civil wars. In 1996, Sierra Leone, for the very first time, managed to establish a democracy, as Ahmad Tejan Kabbah won the right for the presidency by 59.4% of the votes. However, in 1997, a violent military coup (lead by Lieut. Col. Johnny Paul Koroma) overthrew President Kabbah and his civilian government, and started a decade long reign of terror, mercilessly killing the citizens, crushing the economy, and obliterating institutional factors such as health care and education. This cruel rule was officially declared over in 2002, due to external aid from the West and the United Nations. In May 2002, Kabbah was reelected as the President of the nation, and the government again established a democratic form of government.
As can be seen, the nation has only recently recovered from the conflict and established a stable, democratic form of government. However, there is still an enormous quantity of damage that is still left behind the civil war. For example, the war caused the destruction of over 1,270 primary schools, which left a 67% of all children out of school in 2001. On top of this, the health care system greatly dissipated, as hospitals and clinics were destroyed by the rebels, and the banking system completely vanished. Now, it is crucial for the government to construct a strong education system, as well as the health care system, because this would improve the quality and the quantity of labor. Education would provide the nation with more skilled workers in their fields, while a good health care system would battle the pathetic expectancy rate of the country, letting less people experience the infectious epidemics of the nation. Eventually, I believe that with better institutional factors, the nation would be able to gradually improve the technological and physical factors. More skilled laborers and a larger quantity of them would improve the efficiency and quality of those same factors. Hence, institutional factors, in my opinion, are the
