Poverty profile and poverty alleviation during économic recovery and adjustment in sierra leone Dakar: Institut Africain de Développement Economique et de Planification / African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP)

The Government of Sierra Leone (GOSL) initiated the IMF/World
Bank i nsp i red Structural Adj ustment Programme (SAP) in .1 986 to
redress the macroeconomic imbalances and structural bottlenecks
that characteri sed the Si erra Leonean economy from the 1970s
through the 1980s. Notwithstanding, the macroeconomic imbalances
and the structural
hardshi p for the
bottlenecks continue and there is increased
vast majori ty of the population. The common
contention is that the number of the poor and the sev1;Jrity of
poverty increased during the recovery and adjustment period.
This study therefore tested the hypothesis that poverty became
widespread during the policy reform period (1986 to date).
Accordingly, the specific objectives considered include:
determining the number of the poor, who they are and where they
live, why they are poor and how they cope. This was followed by a
proposal on a new agenda for poverty alleviation. Bath empirical
and analytical approaches wer~ adopted to achieve the objectives.
The study utilised survey reports, data generated by Wo~ld Bank,
UNICEF, Government departments and other agencies.
It was found that the number of the poor and the severity of
poverty increased during the reform period. It was also shown that
poverty is more widespread in rural areas than the urban areas and
the North and the South are worse off than the West and the East.
The causes of widespread poverty include: prevailing macrdeconomic
imbalances, the disjointed and selective SAP initiated in 1986,
population increase, environmental degradation, unemployment,
underemployment and low labour productivity.