THE CHALLENGES TO

MACRO-ECONOMIC
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
IN SIERRA LEONE
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON SOME OF THE
VARIOUS POLICIES IMPLEMENTED IN
SIERRA LEONE

BY: HYMANSON JOHNSON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hymanson Johnson was born on the 21st December, 1996 in the capital of
Sierra Leone, Freetown. He had his pre and primary education at the Dele
Preparatory School and the Sierra Leone International Mission Primary
School respectively and later had his junior and senior school education at
the Albert Academy Secondary School in Freetown,Sierra Leone. Presently
he is a Final Honours 2 Student of the University of Sierra Leone, Fourah
Bay College and he is reading political Science.
He has a quest and zest for an improved world
through his experience in recent times and has
vowed to work towards the improvement of
teenagers in the World. He is currently a good will
Ambassador to the Limkowing University in Sierra
Leone and also the Inventor and CEO of Elite
Teens Foundation (a teenagers foundation geared
towards improving the lives and mindset of
teenagers in the world).
 DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my Kid sister Special Favour

Johnson who has been my smile keeper and a prerequisite
to my academic adventures.
Table of Content

1.1 Introduction

1.2 What is public policy?

1.3 Principal Actors in Public Policy Formulation

1.4 Challenges to Macro Economic policy making process in Sierra Leone

1.5 Conclusion

1.6 Bibliography
1.1 Introduction
Since the Colonization of the Sierra Leone by the British in 1808, Sierra Leone has experienced
many policy making events which have faced tremendous oppositions and challenges. It was
recorded that in 1898, there was a battle between the British Government in Sierra Leone and the
Temnes of the Northern part of the country which was perpetrated and led by the all Famous
Temne warrior Obai (King), Bai Bureh, because of a Hut Tax policy which was imposed in the
hinterland of the country.

At Independence, Sierra Leone like many other African Countries have experienced intermittent
waves of leadership from different political parties most notably, The Sierra Leone People Party
(SLPP) and the All People Congress (APC) respectively and these governments have implemented
various policies which fell off the limelight and hence became an unsuccessful policies.

But however, the President Koroma's led government have been on the spot light since his
subsequent take of leadership in 2007 - 2012 and 2012 to present, there have been several macro-
economic policies which have been implemented and been proposed to be implemented which have
faced many challenges on the way mainly by the activities of bureaucrats, the laxity of the
government in supervising these policies and also the attitudes of the citizenry and this have aptly
led to these policies been dubbed as a “toothless bull dog policies”.

Hence, below will contain an in depth and precise analysis on some of the Macro-economic policies
that have been implemented and the challenges which have caused there downfall.

1.2 What is Public Policy?

Public Policy can be defined as the means by which a government maintains order or addresses the
needs of its citizens through actions defined by its constitution. Policy is the output of a political
system and a course of action with its widest ramification.1 It can also be said to be a concentrated
effort by government to solve the problems of society. These problems can be socio-economic,
political and environmental problems. Thus economic problems can be the controlling of prices in
the markets, improvement and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of its country and also to
improve the per capital of its citizens. Political could be how to tackle the activities of unscrupulous
political appointees, environmental problems could be how to clean up the environment and how
these industries within the environment will be monitored so as to ensure the reduction of carbon

1Rod Hague and Martin Harrop; Comparative Government and Politics-An Introduction(6th Edition);(New
York, Palgrave Macmillian;2004)p309
monoxide from their exhaust systems. Whilst Social problems might be the provision of basic social
amenities for the populance. These amenities may be, construction of roads, provision of electricity,
pipe borne water etc.

1.3 Principal Actors in Public Policy Formulation

The policy making process is administered by eight important actors in the public policy making
process. These actors are very much proactive in making public policy a success or a failure. The
octagon below identified these actors.

These eights actors includes;

 Citizenry
 Legislature/Parliament
 Executive/President
 Judiciary/Court System
 Political Parties
 Interest Groups
 The Fourth Estate (Media)
 Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy Citizenry

Legislature

Media

Interest Groups

Executive

Political Parties

Judiciary/Court System

From this above octagon illustration is however crystal clear that for a policy to be implemented it
has to go through various principal actors that contributed immensely to the formulation of policies
especially macroeconomic policies and if one of these actors are being bye passed the policy made is
subject to be doom because any one of these actors have the questioning power to disdained a
policy.

1.4 Challenges to Macro Economic policy making process in

Sierra Leone
Macro Economics is the branch of economics that deals with the overall functioning of the
economy. Macroeconomic policies are critical in shaping the landscape within which factor market
(such as labor and capital) and product markets (such as shoes, cars, or bread) operate. They have a
critical influence on decisions by companies to produce, hire, or fire workers or export and import
goods, for example. They also determine household decisions to consume, save and borrow, and
government decisions to invest in infrastructure, education and many other aspects of development.2

Macroeconomic policies include taxes, government spending and borrowing, exchange rate
determinants, and monetary and credit rules. The primary goal of effective macroeconomic policies
is to reduce uncertainty and risk in economic decision-making. A stable macroeconomic
environment enhances prospects for growth and improved living standards. But stability is not the
only concern: these policies also have an important impact on how income is distributed across
economic classes and across generations. The World Bank Group’s primary goals are to reduce
poverty and ensure shared prosperity, and its macroeconomists are no exception. They work to help
policymakers better understand and manage macroeconomic policy so that it works to reduce the
number of people living in poverty and to increase the number of people who can share in the
benefits of rising incomes.3

In Sierra Leone for instance, there are multiple macroeconomic policies been implemented for the
general good of the citizenry. These policies cuts across wide range policy implementations and thus
includes policies of unemployment, Housing, Education, Transportation etc. Even though these
policies have necessary and valid, it also had it challenges which act tantamountly towards the service
delivery of these policies. Some of these macroeconomic policies challenges being identified in Sierra
Leone include;

 Financing
 Methodology
 Supervision

2 www.worldbank.org/en/topic/macroeconomic/brief/macroeconomic-policy
3 Ibid
  Attitude
 Accountability

 Financing
One of the major macroeconomic policy challenges in Sierra Leone has to do with the financing of
these policies. Most a times, the government tries to implement and uphold large scale policies but
due to several constrains to finance it, it often fell off the government radar .One of these policies
may be the "Free Education for Girls" policy which was implemented by the government through
the Ministry of Education Science and Technology. This policy at first yielded a better result as
many stranded girls were given the golden opportunity to darken the environment of learning. In
2013, the government recorded an approximate number of over two thousand, one hundred and
sixty girls who were in school benefiting from this policy. But however, this scale dropped drastically
in 2016 when the survey was reconducted, it only recorded of nine hundred and forty girls who were
now benefiting from the policy. Following thorough qualitative analyses, it was found out that the
government lack financing capability of financing such huge policy.

Another policy which should be taken into consideration here is the "Farmers Subsidies Policy"
which was instituted by the government through the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food
Security as part of president koroma's "Agenda for Prosperity" in 2012. This policy was to ensure
that all farmers within the regions of Sierra Leone should be granted loans based on macro - credit
in which they will use the money to establish bigger farmlands in order to ensure the growing of
home grown crops and wheat such as Cassava, Sweet potato, yam, rice etc. which would decrease
our import reliability and to encourage the growing of cash crops like Cocoa, piassava etc. which will
increase our export capability and would boast the country's Gross Domestic Product(GDP). This
was a brilliant policy but it however fell off the hook because of finances. Prior to the outbreak of
the Ebola virus in 2014, government lost most of it finances in combating the virus and
subsequently most farmers who had collect these loans lost their lives to the virus and the
government was unable to recover its money and thus there were lack of financing to continue with
the policy.

Also, in 2010, there was this policy that was been aired through the media by the Ministry of Water
Resources through the Guma Valley Water Company that by 2012 every compound in the western
Area Urban would be provided with a tap in order to scrub the alarming increase tension of water
supply in the capital. This policy was only a drafted one or better still an "Utopian" policy because it
was proposed and never been implemented due to the huge amount of money needed to undergo
such policy.

From these above explanation, the bottom line drawn from the analysis is that financing difficulties
have been an epitome of challenge towards the implementation of macroeconomic public policy in
Sierra Leone.
  Methodology
Another challenge to macro economic policy making has to do with the methodology.
Methodology is describe as the set of methods, principle, and approach used to perform a work or a
task. In this light, many a times the methods of approach used by these policy makers are sometimes
bias, egoistic and self-centered which of course is a prevailing challenge to large scale policy making
and implementation. For instance a policy was passed in parliament for the increment of the Sierra
Leonean passport from Five hundred thousand Leones to Eight hundred thousand Leones. This
increment caused a lot of mistrust between the citizens and these policy implementers. According to
public opinions from the citizenry, many argued that they were not informed when the increase was
made. Thus, according to the policy making octagon in the previous page it is seen that the citizens
should be the first priority to public policy making and when they are neglected, it poses a threat on
the effectiveness of the policy been implemented.

Another macro-economic policy that lacks proper methodological approach is the policy that the
government signs during the agreement of the road construction from Wellington to Maisaka.
According to the bill the citizenry should pay for the road and that will be done by the payment for
pass by vehicles who will be using that root. This has caused a lot of public opinion amongst citizens
and media outlets and the one million dollar question here is;

”will this policy be firmed and long lasting?”

And thus this poses a challenge to this large scale policy.

Similarly, most of these macroeconomic policies been implemented are not thoroughly scrutinized
in order to view it advantages and disadvantages and as a result, it goes through lots of backlashes.

 Supervision
This is another prevailing challenge of macroeconomic policy in Sierra Leone. In a nation like the
United State for example, when a policy of huge interest is been implemented, several institutions
like the homeland security etc. are being formulated to enforce and supervise the policy. For
instance, the health care policy in the United States which allows every United States citizens to have
access to free health care insurance in the United States. After a series of debate, evaluations and
analysis, the federal government arrived at the end that this would be in the benefit of the citizens
they started drafting bills, insurance mandate and other pieces of legislations to establish a system
on how Americans are going to receive the health care treatment. Through this legal and political
process, they have created a new macro economic policy which contains several different parts in
order for it to serve it purpose. And as a way of upholding the policy, a department known as the
Health Insurance Enforcement Body was established as a means of supervising the policy for it not
to be eroded over a short period of time.

Unlike this format, many policies in Sierra Leone are been implemented and launch without proper
supervision which leads to ineffective and insufficient service delivery. A typical case study is the
“Free Health Care Policy” which was launched by the president for pregnant women and under five
children’s’. This policy at first was in its acme of efficietiveness but over the years, it has fallen
drastically. One will say it is because of the lack of financing towards the policy. Yes! they may be
right but it can also be aptly looked upon as a result of lack of supervision.

For example, few years ago the Anti-Corruption Commission issued a report saying that over Five
thousand cartoons of medicines which were to be used by medical personals for the free health care
purposes were missing from medical store. Also, there is this ill and spoilt system with in the policy
as it was launched on a free basis but nurses and doctors are asking pregnant women to pay for
health services in government hospitals. If this policy was been supervised would it be as it is today?.
As against this backdrop, this is a clear Illustration that large scale policies in Sierra Leone lacks
supervision.

Another case study would be the policy of “Operation Clean Salone” or the “Freetown Waste
Management Policy” which was implemented by the Freetown City Council via the Freetown Waste
Management Company. This operational policy started with zest and enthusiasm and as the clock
ticks, it fell off the stake. This is mainly because the supervision towards the policy was ineffective
which caused it downfall.

 Attitude
This also possesses a challenge to the formulation and upholding of Marco economic policies in the
country. Many a times the citizens who benefits from these policies often treats them with levity and
subsequently those put in front to implement them sometimes put up some bad attitude which is
characterized by favoritism, nepotism, tribalism and all the negative "ism" that follows.

For example when the government implement the timber banned policy because of it dangers to the
environment protection of the country, most citizens ignored this policy which is geared to protect
them from climate compulsion, and they were still engaging in timber trade in closed doors.

 Accountability
Accountability in the side of the government has always been a challenge towards the effective
macro-economic policy making in Sierra Leone. Most times the government implement large scale
policies for the entire country especially taxation and as time goes on they became unable to account
rationally for the taxes been paid by the citizens. A typical example is the Local tax which was
revamped by the Freetown City Council under the former mayor-His lordship Hebert George
Williams, in 2008.This local tax policy was treated with utmost seriousness by the entire citizens of
the country but due to their mistrust in the Freetown City Council Administration by then, the
citizens stop paying their tax. There was even a sage stationed around this issue as the mayor was
fined a sum of One Hundred Million Leones by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

1.5 Conclusion
In conclusion, it is of essence to note that macro economic policies are always geared towards the
socio- economic and political development of the country because it encompasses several issues of
finances, housing, employment, infrastructure etc. And hence, there are adversary challenges such as
the finance, supervision, methodology to name but few that hinders it progress.
1.6 BIBLOGRAPHY

 Hague Rod and Harrop Martin; Comparative Government and Politics-

An Introduction (6th Edition);(New York, Palgrave Macmillian;2004).

 www.worldbank.org/en/topic/macroeconomic/brief/macroeconomic-
policy