FIVE years after the end of Sierra Leone’s devastating civil war, public safety in the west African country has been restored and democracy is taking root.

The election to determine the country’s next president, which culminates in a final vote on Saturday, has thus far been free, fair and largely peaceful.

Saturday’s runoff pits opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma, against Vice-President Solomon Berewa. In the initial voting on August 11, both men fell short of winning the required 55% needed to avoid a second round. On Saturday, a simple majority will suffice for victory.

But don’t be fooled: Sierra Leone is not working. According to some estimates, unemployment tops 90%. Infant and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world. Poverty confronts you around every bend of this staggeringly beautiful country. Sierra Leoneans expected a lot more from peace and democracy.

The same frustration is expressed by recently liberated populations from Afghanistan to Liberia which are heavily dependent on international support.

In Sierra Leone a large United Nations force kept the peace from 1999 to 2005 at a cost of $2,3bn. Former combatants have been disarmed and rehabilitated, a new army trained and equipped by a skilled British-led team of military advisers and a police force of 9000 established .

The diamond industry, which once fuelled rebel violence, has cleaned up its act and is now central to an economy growing at nearly 7% over the past few years.

With assistance from foreign agencies, parastatals have been earmarked for privatisation and measures to reduce corruption and promote investment drafted. The country’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) has proved a model institution. Yet despite the well-meaning international engagement and fine words from Sierra Leone’s leaders, the state has not delivered public goods. It was for that reason and bad governance that it failed in the first place and conflict erupted.

The outgoing president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, is credited with bringing stability to Sierra Leone. Although it required international intervention, he’s earned that legacy. But otherwise his record is poor.

In spite of development assistance, the country’s infrastructure is decrepit.

“People do not care about democracy, an independent NEC and free press,” one international observer said, “they care whether they have a road to deliver their vegetables to market.”

Today Sierra Leone imports food but was once the largest rice exporter in the region. So long as two-thirds of the country’s 6-million people are engaged in subsistence agriculture, the export sector will never recover.

Perhaps the most consequential failure of Kabbah’s government was its inability to articulate a vision for the country’s future.

By their nature, large international assistance missions often overwhelm nascent post-conflict governments. The myriad agencies involved have their own interests, which are not always in synch with the host government’s priorities. Leaders who cope best in harnessing these interests are those with a strong vision.

Long-term international commitment is necessary for recovery, but the longer foreigners stay, the more entrenched the culture of dependency becomes.

Sierra Leone may already be some way down that track. The flow of foreign aid is today greater than the government’s budget. Transforming such a donor- centric economy demands a focus on employment creation and quick growth.

One of the most potent antidotes to any future unrest is jobs. The two key ingredients to get Sierra Leone working again are a detailed plan and a new government capable of responding.

The former is certainly possible, the latter much more difficult, given ubiquitous capacity problems. This demands transforming the aid model. Such a “new deal” for Sierra Leone will need to include a widespread infrastructure rehabilitation programme, based around physical labour and aimed at key targets such as potable water delivery, electricity provision and roads. A surge in donor spending underpinning this would not only ensure the short-term stability of the new president, but should open up the country to long -term growth through private sector investment.

Sierra Leone’s many problems are rarely commented on outside its own media. The UK in particular cannot afford to sustain its level of engagement for much longer, given its huge commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq and priorities at home. So the country’s election may present the last opportunity for some time to galvanise international efforts to devise a new deal to lift Sierra Leone out of the mire.

Greg Mills heads the Joburg-based Brenthurst Foundation; Terence McNamee works at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Both recently spent time in Sierra Leone.

This article appeared in Business Day, South Africa

The views expressed here do not nessecarily reflect the views of the Royal United Services Institute

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