153,318 research outputs found
Sierra Leone's infrastructure : a continental perspective
No full textInfrastructure development in Sierra Leone contributed about half a percentage point to the economy's per capita growth rate in 2003-07. But if Sierra Leone could upgrade its infrastructure to the level of the best performer in Africa, per capita growth rates could be boosted by more than three percentage points. After nine years of peace, economic activity is flourishing at every level in Sierra Leone. But the 11-year civil war destroyed the country's infrastructure, and rebuilding the road network and ports while improving the electrical, water, and telecommunications infrastructure is proving difficult. Looking ahead, expanding electrification is a top priority because current access levels, at only 1-5 percent of the urban population and 0 percent in rural areas, are impeding other development. The water and sanitation sector faces similar challenges, as only 1 percent of the rural population has access to piped water. Sierra Leone has been spending about 66 million is lost each year to inefficiencies. Comparing spending needs against existing spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual funding gap of 278 million per year. If savings from greater efficiency could be fully captured, Sierra Leone would not meet its posited infrastructure targets for another 30 years. Sierra Leone needs to make difficult decisions about the prioritization of infrastructure investments and must think strategically about bundling and sequencing investments for maximum returns.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Infrastructure Economics,Energy Production and Transportation,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Public Sector Economics
Returning culture to peacebuilding : contesting the liberal peace in Sierra Leone
No full textThis thesis investigates the advantages and limitations of applying culture to the analysis of violent conflict and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on liberal peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. While fully aware of the critique of the concept of culture in terms of its uses for the production of difference and ‘otherness,’ it also seeks to respond to the critique of liberal peacebuilding on the account of its low sensitivity towards local culture, which allegedly undermines the peace effort. After a careful examination of the terms of discussion about culture enabled by theoretical approaches to conflict in Chapter 2, the thesis presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural aspects of conflict and peace based on the processes and effects of meaning-generation (Chapter 3), developing the conceptual apparatus and vocabulary for the subsequent empirical study. Instead of bracketing out the recursive nature of cultural theorising, the developed approach embraces the recursive dynamics which arise as a result of cultural ‘embeddedness’ of the analyst and the processes which s/he seeks to elucidate, mirroring similar dynamics in the cultural production of meaning and knowledge. The framework of ‘embedded cultural enquiry’ is then used to analyse the practices of liberal peacebuilding as a particular culture, which shapes the interaction of the liberal peace with its ‘subjects’ and critics as well as framing its reception of the cultural problematic generally (Chapter 4). The application of the analytical framework to the case study investigates the interaction between the liberal peace and ‘local culture,’ offering an alternative reading of the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone (Chapter 5). The study concludes that a greater attention to cultural meaning-making offers a largely untapped potential for peacebuilding, although any decisions with regard to its deployment will inevitably be made from within an inherently biased cultural perspective
Post-conflict transition and development in Sierra Leone: a case for the transformative-justice model
No full textIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.The focus of this mini-dissertation is the Sierra Leone post-conflict transitional and development process. The civil war in Sierra Leone lasted some eight years before finally ending with the signing of the Lòme Peace Accord on 7 July 1999. This Accord outlined the post-conflict transitional instruments to be employed in Sierra Leone, namely an investigative truth commission and a legal tribunal referred to as the Special Court. After the completion of the mandates of these two instruments, many developmental gaps still existed in post-conflict Sierra Leonean society. This particularly applied to women who continued to suffer from widespread inequalities and discrimination. This thesis suggests that a model of transformative justice, which advocates an integrated approach to postconflict transitions and the development process in general, would better have served the needs of women in Sierra Leone
Is the International Community Helping to Recreate the Pre-Conditions for War in Sierra Leone?
No full textSierra Leone, conflict, government, aid, corruption
Competitiveness assessment of tourism in Sierra Leone : a cluster-based approach
No full textSeven years out of brutal conflict, Sierra Leone is now a peaceful and stable country. Yet, its strides toward economic recovery and competitiveness have been modest even in sectors such as tourism, which used to be a major generator of foreign exchange revenues prior to the conflict. This paper presents a cluster-based analysis of the tourism sector in Sierra Leone. The analysis shows that tourism in Sierra Leone draws entirely on basic factor conditions such as natural endowments; high-end lodging, catering, and entertainment services are virtually nonexistent. The cluster mapping exercise reveals that several non-profit organizations are present and active within the Sierra Leone tourism cluster but that the role of commercial enterprises has been somewhat limited. A critical mass of basic service providers has emerged over time, but their functions are often hindered by the absence of a market-based incentive regime and weaknesses in backbone infrastructure services. There is a mismatch of effort by the public and private sectors. An important policy implication arising from the analysis is for Sierra Leone to initiate a joint action among tourism entrepreneurs and policymakers to develop a coherent business strategy toward overcoming the bottlenecks of skill deficiency, policy ineffectiveness, and lack of infrastructure and market access.Cultural Policy,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Cultural Heritage&Preservation,Tourism and Ecotourism,Accommodation&Tourism Industry
Sustainable development and mining in Sierra Leone
No full textPhDThe conflicts between pursuing mining activities to foster economic
development and protecting the environment in which such activities take place
is a recurring dilemma for mineral reliant countries like Sierra Leone. The
concept of sustainable development was designed on the international platform
to ameliorate such dilemmas. The concept functions as an arbiter to reconcile
biases between developmental goals and environmental objectives, by
advocating an integration of one in the other. This study presents sustainable
development as valuable recipe, by which mining ventures could be pursued as
an economic imperative (to meet the needs of present and future generations),
while protecting the environment and its components in the pursuit of such
developments.
The thesis begins with an introduction into mining in Sierra Leone. It illustrates
the international breeding of sustainable development in environmental
protection (as oppose to economic development), and emphasise the
importance of sustainability principles for sound legal and policy guidance at the
national level. It also establishes the applicability of the concept to mineral
resourced evelopmentsg enerally. Mineral-specificla ws and other legal controls
in Sierra Leone are then examined as a case study; their sustainability content
is ascertained and their capacity as a legal regime to direct or achieve
sustainable mining in that country is explored. Finally, aspects of
implementation of sustainable development in Sierra Leone's mining and its
domestic implications are examined.
This study shows that despite the definitional questions, sustainable
development has direct and primary relevance for environmental protection in
the economic exploitation of natural resources. It identifies a legal character in
the concept beyond legislative processes, and a flexibility in its principles that
allows for their interpretation within legal rules to enhance environmental
protection at the national level. It also illustrates the link between effective
implementation and ensuring sustainable mining
Literacy and Numeracy in Faith-Based and Government Schools in Sierra Leone
No full textThis paper provides a comparative assessment of the market share, reach to the poor, and performance of faith-based and public schools in Sierra Leone using data from the 2004 Integrated Household Survey. One-third of primary school students attend government schools and more than half are in faith-based government-assisted schools. Faith-based schools tend to serve children who live in poverty more than public schools, and after controlling for student and household characteristics and school choice, they also perform slightly better than public schools.Primary education; faith-based; poverty; performance; Sierra Leone
Hydrological conceptual model characterisation of an abandoned mine site in semiarid climate : the Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión (SE Spain)
No full textA comprehensive study at Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión (SE Spain) abandoned mine site was carried out to characterise the regime and water quality of the groundwater system after the mine closure. The system consists of five geologic fractured blocks belonging to the Alpujarride and Nevado-Filabride complexes. The aquifer units are composed of limestone and dolostone materials. Recharge is mainly controlled by the N-130 fault system, man-made induced fractures, open-pits and underground workings. Discharge is indicated from open pit lakes by the proximal dome-shaped groundwater level contours. Aquifer natural recharge, assessed by fracture density maps and chloride mass balance, provided consistent results. The water hydrochemical facies show a marked sulphate concentration and acidic pH (average pH of 2.53-6.30). A maximum concentration of 4,100 mg/L of Zn and 40,000 mg/L of sulphate was observed in open-pit lakes. Springs present the lowest residence time and are low mineralised with an average pH of 7.6. Geochemical modelling based on the PHREEQCI code indicates water undersaturation with respect to almost all related mineral species and anoxic conditions prevail in the system. Although an adequate understanding of the regional system is provided, a further detailed hydrochemical study is necessary to assess the undergoing geochemical changes
Tectonic denudation and topographic development in the Spanish Sierra Nevada
No full textThe denudation history of the rapidly uplifting western part of the Spanish Sierra Nevada was assessed using apatite fission track (AFT) ages and 10Be analyses of bedrock and fluvial sediments. Major contrasts in the denudation history are recorded within the 27 km2 Río Torrente catchment. Upland areas are characterized by low-relief, low slope angles, and locally the preservation of shallow marine sediments, which have experienced <200 m of erosion in the last 9 Myr. However, AFT age determinations from samples collected close to the marine sediments imply >2 km of denudation since circa 4 Ma. The minimum denudation rates of 0.4 mm yr−1 derived from AFT also contrast with the slow medium-term (104 years) erosion rates (0.044 ± 0.015 mm yr−1) estimated from 10Be measurements at high elevations. The local medium-long-term contrasts in denudation rates within the high Sierra Nevada indicate that much of the unroofing occurs by tectonic denudation on flat-lying detachments. In lower elevation parts of the catchment, rapid river incision coupled to rock uplift has produced ∼1.6 km of relief, implying that the rivers and adjacent hillslopes close to the edge of the orogen are sensitive to normal-fault-driven changes in base level. However, these changes are not transmitted into the low-relief slowly eroding upland areas. Thus the core of the mountain range continues to increase in elevation until the limits of crustal strength are reached and denudation is initiated along planes of structural weakness. We propose that this form of tectonic denudation provides an effective limit to relief in young orogens
The liberal peace and post-conflict peacebuilding in Africa : Sierra Leone
No full textThis thesis critiques liberal peacebuilding in Africa, with a particular focus on Sierra Leone. In particular, it examines the interface between the liberal peace and the “local”, the forms of agency that various local actors are expressing in response to the liberal peace and the hybrid forms of peace that are emerging in Sierra Leone. The thesis is built from an emerging critical literature that has argued for the need to shift from merely criticising liberal peacebuilding to examining local and contextual responses to it. Such contextualisation is crucial mainly because it helps us to develop a better understanding of the complex dynamics on the ground. The aim of this thesis is not to provide a new theory but to attempt to use the emerging insights from the critical scholarship through adopting the concept of hybridity in order to gain an understanding of the forms of peace that are emerging in post-conflict zones in Africa. This has not been comprehensively addressed in the context of post-conflict societies in Africa. Yet, much contemporary peace support operations are taking place in these societies that are characterised by multiple sources of legitimacy, authority and sovereignty.
The thesis shows that in Sierra Leone local actors – from state elites to chiefs to civil society to ordinary people on the “margins of the state” – are not passive recipients of the liberal peace. It sheds new light on how hybridity can be created “from below” as citizens do not engage in outright resistance, but express various forms of agency including partial acceptance and internalisation of some elements of the liberal peace that they find useful to them; and use them to make demands for reforms against state elites who they do not trust and often criticise for their pre-occupation with political survival and consolidation of power. Further, it notes that in Sierra Leone a “post-liberal peace” that is locally-oriented might emerge on the “margins of the state” where culture, custom and tradition are predominant, and where neo-traditional civil society organisations act as vehicles for both the liberal peace and customary peacebuilding while allowing locals to lead the peacebuilding process. In Sierra Leone, there are also peace processes that are based on custom that are operating in parallel to the liberal peace, particularly in remote parts of the country
- …
