Poverty in Sierra Leo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Poverty in Sierra Leo - Essay Example The destruction of the infrastructure and the decline of the economy led to impoverishing of various communities. Such poverty was evidenced by poor health and nutrition indicators. The economy of Sierra Leone has for a considerably long time been distinguished by high unemployment and inflation rates (Christiaensen et al, 2002). Majority of the unemployed youths are former combatants that have no stable source of income. Such unemployed youthful population remains a principal threat to national security and economic stability. In simpler terms; unemployed youths enhance insecurity and other social evils such as prostitution. This paper seeks to explain poverty in the context of Sierra Leone, a country that has been defined as the poorest country in the world for a considerably long time. Sierra Leone is a third world nation or banana republic in West Africa. It has a total population of just about six million people from different communities and a diversity of cultures. Considered one of the most financially weakest countries in the entire world, Sierra Leone is not expected to be self-sufficient anytime soon, thanks to the ten-year-old internal armed conflict (Fosu, 2009). The civil war that lasted from late nineteen ninety to mid two thousand and two was brought to a standstill by the joint effort of such African countries as Kenya and Nigeria. The African Union made a unanimous decision to intervene after the war proved to be endless and detrimental to the interests of the economy as a whole. Today, Sierra Leone is one of the countries gaining economic stability having indicated a 7% per annum growth rate. Sierra Leone has placed reliance on international donors and well-wishers for the reconstruction of the entire economy. Democratization and stabilization of the political climate are among the major concerns of the civilized members of the society. According to UN agencies, Sierra Leone is fast moving towards macroeconomic stability. This is to say that the third world country has invested a lot of time and resources in dealing with such macroeconomic variables such as unemployment, inflation, and population growth rate (Manson & Knight, 2009). Among the poorest people in Sierra Leone are the people rendered landless by the internal armed conflicts. Small-scale farmers and single mothers heading families constitute a great percentage of the poor rural population. People that were internally displaced by the civil war are destitute and own or access no resources. As such, they resort to such desperate measures as begging or working for little pay so as to support their survival. It is estimated that 75% of the people of Sierra Leone live below the poverty line, with 27% living in extreme abject poverty. This was according to a 2005 research, which established that fifty percent of the entire populace lives on slightly less than one US dollar per day. According to the records of the year 2005, 80% of the people living in the rural ar eas lived in extreme poverty. Similarly, the people of the eastern districts were hard hit by the civil strife and lived in extreme poverty (Manson & Knight, 2009). Internal displacement was a common phenomenon that was brought about by fear and lack of foresight.