By Kemo Cham
Because of their exclusion from national economic growth, rural areas in Sierra Leone languish in poverty, a new report has revealed.
The African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2015 shows that the country`s rural areas are seriously excluded from the national economy with a particularly high prevalence of poverty in mineral rich districts like Tonkolili, Moyamba and districts far away from the capital, Freetown.
The report was launched last week, alongside the Sierra Leone Country Note, and its details were made known to the media on Tuesday. It reveals that the most important spatial nexus in the country is the rural/urban with very high prevalence of poverty in rural areas.
This confirms long held views by many Sierra Leoneans that urban areas, particularly Freetown, were favoured over rural areas in terms of development opportunities. It also explains the reason for the mass rural-urban migration which has led to serious environmental and social repercussions on Freetown in particular.
With no explicit sound spatial economic policies and financial governance essential for poverty reduction, rural areas remain largely excluded from economic growth, the report, done with the support of the UNDP, notes.
The AEO titled: ‘Regional Development and Spatial Inclusion’, was launched by the Minister of State for Finance and Economic Development in Freetown.
“Despite the grim picture, all is not lost as Sierra Leone will bounce back after Ebola,” Minister of State, Alhaji F.B.L. Mansaray, said at the launching ceremony.
Mansaray said economic gains and advances in human development made following the end of the civil war had been reversed considerably as a result of Ebola epidemic, citing the most recent forecast which says Sierra Leone`s economy was expected to contract by 21.5% in 2015.
The senior Finance Ministry official however assured that the already launched post-Ebola national economic recovery plan was bound to put the country back on track to economic growth and achieving middle income status by 2035 as articulated in the government`s development blue print, the ‘Agenda for Prosperity.’
But for this to be achieved, deliberate policies seeking to reduce inequalities and promote inclusion of rural areas would be needed, said African Development Bank Resident Representative Dr. Yero Baldeh.
Baldeh noted that there was no dedicated strategy and policy for spatial inclusion that would deliberately ensure growth centres in rural areas of Sierra Leone.
“The Government should strive to promote the growth of rural centers in order to create a platform for the re-distribution of wealth and development gains to all citizens while at the same time mitigating the negative consequences of rural-urban migration,” he said.
UNDP Country Director, Sudipto Mukerjee said Sierra Leone’s diverse regions were key to accelerating economic transformation and spatial inclusion and also called for deliberate strategies to enhance development in order to “unlock the potentials of lagging regions and progressively develop local resources.”
“People and places should be at the centre of development strategies that create productive jobs and accelerate demographic transition,” Mr Mukerjee said, calling for investment in education and the promotion of intermediary cities to capitalize on urban/rural dynamics.
“This will make spatial development much more even on the one hand and on the other reduce the diseconomies of urban primacy where Freetown bursts at the seams with sprawling slums, increasing pollution, piling garbage dumps, and increasing risks of floods and other disasters,” he added.
(C) Politico 13/10/15
