Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

(This article was originally published in SIPA News)

By Jennifer Wilmore

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone

Perched atop a lush hillside overlooking colorful rooftops, bustling traffic, and warm Atlantic waters sits a billboard with a simple statement: “Na wi country.” This is our country.

Signs like this cover the ground all throughout Sierra Leone. What remains unclear, however, is how widespread this sense of national pride actually is in this West African nation.

The country has come to be defined by the 11-year civil war it endured in the 1990s and the devastation left in its wake. Although the conflict ended nearly a decade ago and peace has since taken hold, for many, the idea that Sierra Leone is a dangerous place still remains.

As a result, when it comes to its national identity, Sierra Leone seems to have developed a bit of an inferiority complex. With nearly every news article written about their country highlighting the war, and considering Hollywood’s depiction of the conflict in the 2006 film Blood Diamond, citizens have become very mindful of how they appear to the rest of the world.

This is especially true of President Ernest Bai Koroma, who is keen to change the perception that the country is dangerous. He now claims that it is so safe, he walks the streets and personally drives himself around. But he also realizes that the media’s constant description of Sierra Leone as a war-devastated country is not a misnomer.

The war destroyed critical infrastructure and chased away both investors and tourists, and the economy has still not fully recovered. In response, Koroma’s administration has prioritized attracting foreign direct investment as the key to economic growth. And the president understands that to do so, Sierra Leone needs to undergo some serious rebranding.

The government has begun promoting Sierra Leone as a “land of opportunity,” as one of the most attractive destinations for investment in Africa, with untapped resources, a growing economy, fiscal incentives, a natural harbor, and hospitable people. The government has also embarked on ambitious infrastructure projects—building and repairing roads and investing in electricity production—and has focused on removing further barriers to investment by creating the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA), which offers free advice to prospective investors and exporters and a joint chamber of commerce with the United States.

What’s more, the government has cooperated with the establishment of a special economic opportunity zone by a private nonprofit organization, which might represent the most promising model for attracting investors yet. Aptly named “First Step,” this industrial park, located just outside the capital city, Freetown, aims to facilitate foreign investment in Sierra Leone by reducing the risks and costs for international businesses to set up export processing industries. The government has committed to providing incentives for these businesses, including exemptions on import and export duties, expedited customs services, and corporate tax holidays.

However, not everyone is happy with the government’s policies of attracting foreign investment. Civil society groups accuse the government of essentially selling Sierra Leone to investors and sacrificing the interests and needs of ordinary Sierra Leoneans in favor of pleasing foreign companies, particularly those interested in the country’s vast mineral resources.

“There is no point in throwing away your natural resources just because you’re in a hurry to develop,” says Abu Brima, director of the Network Movement for Justice and Development, a civil society watchdog organization. Brima, like many civil society actors, thinks Sierra Leone is needlessly missing out on huge amounts of potential government revenue by granting financial concessions to companies.

“Sierra Leone has decided to give a lot of incentives because we think we have to encourage corporations to come. We don’t need that,” he says. “Because whether we give incentives or not, they will come. They need the resources.”

And in countries with weak government ability to provide oversight and regulation, investments by foreign companies almost inevitably carry with them concerns of corporate human rights abuses. One foreign diamond mining company, Koidu Holdings, has been heavily criticized by human rights groups for improper resettlement of local communities, environmental destruction, and even the shooting deaths of two local men by security forces hired by the company.

Amid concerns of food insecurity in a society where most people are subsistence farmers, accusations of “land grabbing” have also begun to spread, touching nearly any investment venture in the country. For example, land leases to a Swiss-owned company for a sugarcane plantation and bioethanol production plant have come under fire this year by the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food and by others. They accuse local government officials of diverting poor farmers’ land to corporate activities without adequate local community consultation and claim that the company has destroyed local water sources.

In light of these concerns, it is worth asking whether the government’s attempts at selling Sierra Leone to foreign investors are working.

Over the past few years, the amount of foreign investment in the country has indeed been higher than ever. Inflows of foreign direct investment exceeded $86 million last year, compared with just $10 million in 2002, when the war ended. The fact that ground was recently broken on construction of a Hilton Hotel in Freetown may also be a sign not only of an improving tourism industry, but also of the number of wealthy investors coming to the country. Any visitor to one of the white sand beaches near the capital city will tell you that the place is once again crawling with increasing numbers of foreign contractors.

But despite these trends, the most recent Investment Climate Statement from the U.S. Embassy in Freetown indicates that Sierra Leone has not yet escaped the stigma of war. According to the report, “the devastation of the decade-plus civil war and the daunting challenge of extreme poverty continue to impact fundamentally almost all aspects of Sierra Leone society,” including governance, institutions, and critical infrastructure like energy and communications.

To overcome these challenges, huge leaps are still required not only in nominally rebranding the country among the international community, but also in improving infrastructure, education, job training, and fiscal management. Tackling corruption and putting in place protections for local populations and environments affected by investments are also necessary to ensure that by selling itself to investors, Sierra Leone doesn’t end up selling itself out for good.

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Jennifer Wilmore is a master's candidate at Columbia University. She spent the summer of 2011 in Sierra Leone, working with  the Network Movement for Justice and Development, a Freetown-based NGO.

(Photo courtesy of Jennifer Wilmore)