Cause of Poverty in Sierra Leone

Cause of poverty in Sierra Leone

1. As a result of high population growth and civil war that ended in 2002, poverty remains wide spread throughout the country. The severe economic decline that went hand in hand with civil war and social unrest destroyed social and physical infrastructure and impoverished the country. In the aftermath of the war poverty has become intensified. Agricultural output has continued to decline having drastic effects on food prices and the dislocation of families during the civil war has led to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The actual reasons can be linked very clearly to Paul Colliers causes of poverty the ‘bottom billion’. Two of the main reasons for poverty in Sierra Leon fall under the ‘Conflict Trap’ and ‘Natural Resource Trap’. The conflict trap for Sierra Leone has been as a result of the civil war as already mentioned but the other main cause is due to the natural resources or ‘blood diamonds. The trade in the gems has essentially funded conflicts and perpetuated civil war. More recently more social causes have left the country in further poverty. The outbreak of Ebola in the country left 3,955 dead and 14,000 with confirmed cases. This for the country further increased poverty as the link between the two is both a cause and consequence, in this case the poor health traps communities into poverty.

2. The Millennium Development Goals were put in place by the United Nations with a ultimate goal to eradicate extreme poverty in the world. One of the goals was to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. In Sierra Leone HIV/AIDS prevalence has increased from 0.9% in 2002 to 1.5% in 2005 and has remained the same since 2008. UN AIDS is one of the organisations working with the UN to to try speed up the eradication of the disease and the stabilisation in the prevalence rates shoes work is being successful. Other planned campaigns such as the Roll Back Malaria initiative have helped to stabilise other diseases such as Malaria however there is still large amounts of work to be done. However with further stabilisation and even turning around the figures improvement in the quality of life will occur as people become able to work reducing the poverty.

Another development goal was the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. In Sierra Leone 52.9% of the population live below the poverty line and in 2015 more than a fifth of the population was malnourished. These rate are very high and is likely why the goal of reducing poverty by half by 2015 was not met. However despite not being met there have been changes and the help of UN led organisations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) who have made impacts. As a result of these goals these programmes have been put in place and for example the WFP provides Food by Prescription assistance to people living with HIV giving them the correct nutritional support.