Nine women are joining ONE this week on a listening and learning tour through Ghana and Sierra Leone. Yvonne Chaka Chaka reports back:
The delegation that I have the pleasure of being a part of arrived in Sierra Leone last night to continue our Africa tour. This morning, we were joined at breakfast by officials from the United States Embassy and the Sierra Leonian Anti-Corruption Commission for a thorough briefing on the political, social and economic conditions prevailing in Sierra Leone. The first image that comes to one’s mind when you think of this beautiful country is probably out of the movie, Blood Diamonds, which depicted the civil war that was fueled by illicit diamond trading and resulted in the loss of so many lives. But in this now peaceful nation, we were told today that the population, after having suffered so much, no longer wants war and really just wants to move forward. But because jobs don’t exist, peace is fragile and external shocks like a refugee situation from neighboring countries could quickly plunge this country back into crisis.
In order to build on what has been achieved so far, governance structures are being put in place to ensure that gains achieved are entrenched. The Anti-Corruption Commission has been empowered to arrest and prosecute cases of governance abuses and they have already put away a few Ministers and the Head of the Revenue Commission. The President and the government need to be congratulated for successfully bringing to justice many of the leaders responsible for corruption. Sierra Leone is an example to the rest of the world of what can be achieved by good government and strong political will.
But serious challenges remain. For example, the fisheries industry in Sierra Leone is being devastated by illegal trawlers from China, South Korea and Spain! The long-term impact of their illegal trawling could be the destruction of the artisanal fisheries sector which could lead to a food insecurity issues as well as increased unemployment. This is what happened in Somalia where former fishermen turned to piracy in the absence of a means to maintain a livelihood.
Sierra Leone is also used as a transit point for smuggling illegal drugs to Europe and the United States and the drug routes are also being traced to Sahelian countries where the proceeds can go on to support many illicit activities.. Civil society must be strengthened, educated and supported so that they can come out and challenge corrupt practices wherever they exist.
Our group also had a great meeting with Sierra Leone’s resident, Ernest Koroma, who told us about his country’s strategic priorities focused around building basic infrastructure and creating an enabling environment for the private sector to flourish. I am also delighted, as a Global Health Advocate, that the President has approved the removal of maternal and child health-related user fees which will now make their access to healthcare free. This is wonderful and the donors need to support the implementation of this great initiative so that the resources will be there to support.
To better understand the policies that have been put in place to support the private sector, we went on to the Ministry of Extractive Industries to meet with the man at the helm of the country’s most important foreign exchange earning sector. Sierra Leone has so many minerals but just has not had the prevailing conditions for managing their resources efficiently. You have to be certified to operate in the extractive industry in Sierra Leone and the Ministry polices the industry to ensure compliance. There is now a legal framework in place to ensure the equitable distribution of revenue generated from minerals. The government is also mandating special attention to the communities where the minerals are found by building in strong rehabilitation requirements into the new mining contracts.
As an Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) candidate country, Sierra Leone has incorporated the transparency recommendations into the country laws and they now publicly disclose receipts from their revenue proceeds. The new law also requires the mining companies to negotiate socially responsible projects with the communities they operate in before their license is approved. As you can probably imagine, the Ministry is under capacitated but doing their best. Diamond fields spread over a 20,000km area, almost over the entire country. There is 570km of coastline to protect from diamond and gold smuggling and borders with Liberia and Guinea are long and porous. But I am proud to say I noted the government’s commitment to progress in our interactions today and with the support of the international community they can do so much more.
In April of 2009, a group of jewelers were caught trying to smuggle 28 uncertified Sierra Leonian diamonds, with an average weight of about 40 carats each, into New York. They were seized at JFK airport but have yet to be returned to Sierra Leone. The United States government is doing their part to ensure that illegal diamonds do not enter their country and I applaud their action and encourage all other concerned countries to abide by these principles. Thanks to the Kimberley process, Sierra Leone’s wealth can be protected and will not continue to be taken away from its people. Sierra Leone has made huge progress in providing better healthcare and improved governance which is making life better for its people. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend and my group of girls will do all we can to support Sierra Leone’s best efforts to lift their country out of poverty and secure economic opportunities for all.
The Los Angeles Times has a fascinating report– part one of a two part series– from on the ground in Sierra Leone. Scott Kraft looks at the country’s flailing public health system and the potential impact it could have on the region. It’s a really interesting, in-depth look at a complex and deteriorating situation.
I also recommend this corresponding photo gallery, which chronicles Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown.
Excerpts from Kraft’s piece below, full article here
West Africa is of particular concern to world health officials. With shortages of medicine, trained doctors, reliable electricity, clean water and such basics as sterilized gloves, countries often lack the means to identify and deal with new disease threats.
“As we turn over more and more rocks in more and more places, we find more passages for disease,” said Dr. Scott Dowell, director of global disease detection at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Most aren’t going to be the next HIV or SARS, but it’s pretty hard to tell which ones will and which ones won’t.”
[...] The country has only two pediatricians, and Thorlie is one of four obstetricians. All work at Princess Christian.
Doctors Without Borders set up clinics in Bo, the second-largest city, during the civil war. Now it’s time to begin pulling out and move to other countries in crisis, but Jan van’t Land, the local director, says he’s worried.
“We’re in a difficult situation,” he said. “If we leave, who would take over? It might create another crisis.”
When Koroma took office in 2007, his wife, Sia, launched a global effort to draw attention to the public health crisis. An oil industry chemist before the war, she started a career in nursing during the couple’s years in London. Her evangelical work has brought some help, but she acknowledges that progress has been slow.
“We are faced with so many problems — illiteracy, poverty, youth unemployment and the need for gender empowerment,” she said. “I’m trying to be an advocate for women and children, because they are the most vulnerable.”
The plight of mothers in Sierra Leone graced the cover of yesterday’s Washington Post. Sierra Leone is home to the world’s highest maternal mortality rate: mothers face a 1 in 8 chance of dying in childbirth. This is compared to 1 in 4,800 in the United States and 1 in 20 in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
The story of Saio Marah highlights some of the factors behind these high mortality rates. Marah arrived at the hospital by motorbike, the predominant mode of transport in the rural Sierra Leone. She is examined by Dr. Konteh (an ophthalmologist by training), who informs that her that she had waited too long to come to the hospital: the baby’s heart rate is too fast and she needs an emergency caesarian section. But all of the surgical nurses had gone home and the operation will have to wait until the team can track its way back to the hospital.
The article continues:
It was a Monday evening, and her husband, Mohamed Barrie, said she had gone into labor on Saturday. Both of them were worried about the expense of going to the hospital, he said, and were sure she could deliver easily enough without assistance from hospital doctors. So they had gone to a neighborhood clinic where a nurse examined her and sent her home. Now she was three centimeters dilated, her water had broken and she had finally come to the only hospital in Koinadugu, a sprawling and rural expanse in the far northeastern corner of this West African nation.
(more…)
On Saturday, Britain’s International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander called on the World Bank to focus more on fighting poverty in Africa.
From Reuters:
“We want a stronger focus on poverty reduction, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and the gender issues of poverty. I have seen myself today the female face of poverty,” Alexander said after visiting a packed clinic near Makeni in Sierra Leone.
He administered polio vaccine to a baby and medicine to its mother — a gesture of help in an area where health workers said there are just two doctors for 321,000 people.
“The clinic is so tight (crowded) we have to use the ground for deliveries. It is not hygienic,” said Nabinta Koroma, a maternal child health worker, pointing to the filthy tiled floor covered in urine from a crowd of children waiting for checkups.
Britain sent troops to shore up Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown against a rebel threat in 2000, and then helped rebuild its security forces after a decade-long war fuelled by gems dug from the mud of its rich eastern diamond fields. British aid is now turning more to development projects than security in a bid to help the country’s poor, Alexander said.
Read the full piece here.
