Multilateral Intervention in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Sierra Leone is a country covering approximately 28 000 square miles (73 00 kilometres), with a population at the end of the 1980s of about 4.1 million people, two-thirds of which was rural (ILO/JASPA, 1990, p. 34). Until the 1970s, mining provided the dynamism for the economy, but declining yield of diamonds and the contraction of the international iron ore market sent this sector into severe recession. In consequence, the country entered the 1980s suffering from severe balance-of-payments pressure and a substantial fiscal deficit (mining had provided a considerable proportion of government revenue). It was in this context that policy changes became an imperative, to counter decline and, if possible, establish a new basis for sustainable growth.