The State and the Provision of Social Services in Sierra Leone

Dakar, CODESRIA, 1993, 140 p., ISBN: 2-86978-022-2 (paperback) ISBN: 2-86978-023-0 (cased)

Transport and communication, basic health services, water supply and even cultural services are essential to any country’s sense of well-being and its survival. Although Sierra Leone has had political independence since 1961, the country is still struggling to provide its citizens with basic social services. Water supplies remain inadequate, frequent power cuts have hit industry, road networks are deteriorating. Education has been marked by teachers’ strikes and the public health service is almost non-existent. In the current push for laisser-faire economics, financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank are virtually insisting that the market should allocate resources for social provision. Whose role is it to provide social services to the population ? And how has the state responded to that responsibility in Sierra Leone ? This book explores the relationship of the stale to the provision of social services. Chapters include political history, transport and communication, health, education and the role of local government. All the authors in this book arc Sierra Leoneans. Their participatory experience forms an important part of this book’s contribution to the study of Sierra Leone and African society.