Freetown - History

In the 1960s and 1970s, a weak post-independence democracy was subverted by despotism and state-sponsored corruption. Economic decline and military rule followed. The rebellion that began in 1991 was characterized by banditry and horrific brutality, wreaked primarily on civilians. Between 1991 and 1999, the war claimed over 75,000 lives, caused half a million Sierra Leoneans to become refugees, and displaced half of the country's 4.5 million people. There is a view that Sierra Leone's war is a crisis of modernity, caused by the failed patrimonial systems of successive post-colonial governments. Sierra Leonean writers have rejected this analysis on several grounds. While there is no doubt about widespread public disenchantment with the failing state, with corruption and with a lack of opportunity, similar problems elsewhere have not led to years of brutality by forces devoid of ideology, political support and ethnic identity. 

The small west African state of Sierra Leone is no stranger to crises. The country has spent much of the past 30 years trapped in a cycle of corruption, repression, violence and instability. In 1991, the situation deteriorated as the country slid into full-blown civil war. During the four years that followed, some 50,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as fighting intensified between government soldiers and rebel forces. In December 1995, ICG produced a comprehensive analysis of the problems facing Sierra Leone. It proposed a range of concrete actions that the international community might take to help address those problems and to shore up the country’s delicate and risky transition towards peace, democracy and stability On the basis of the recommendations contained in ICG’s analysis, members of the board took immediate action, raising money for the elections, encouraging the media to cover developments on the ground and pressing governments to step up levels of humanitarian support to the country.

In February and March 1996, elections went ahead as planned producing Sierra Leone’s first democratically-elected government in over 25 years. Shortly afterwards ICG issued a report welcoming the election outcome, whilst emphasising the vital importance of maintaining international support for Sierra Leone. In particular, the report stressed the need to provide assistance to the new democratic institutions and for key groups and organisations within Sierra Leone’s fragile and war-damaged civil society. Since this time, ICG has sought to ensure that recent progress in Sierra Leone is not undermined, first by striving to maintain international interest in developments in the country and secondly by, devising and carrying out a program of good governance on the ground.

In March 1996, ICG established the Campaign for Good Governance (CGG). The CGG is a new NGO based in Freetown, led and staffed by Sierra Leoneans. Its purpose is to support both public and private efforts to improve the quality and accountability of government and to raise awareness of issues relating to good governance and citizens’ rights through training support and civic education projects. ICG provides core support for the CGG in the form of direct funding and assistance with further fund-raising, office space, computer and communications equipment and administrative support. ICG also supplies strategic and policy advice and provides international experts to facilitate CGG activities as necessary. Much has been achieved in a short period of time by ICG and the CGG in Sierra Leone. Working together, the two organisations have already had a dramatic impact on the level of awareness of issues relating to good governance among Sierra Leone’s new civic and political leaders and journalists. But still more needs to be done. During the first half of 1997, ICG, in collaboration with the CGG, will focus on strengthening citizens’ participation and understanding of the roles and responsibilities of government; encouraging dialogue between the government and citizens on major policy issues; maintaining international attention on the plight of Sierra Leone; and providing further strategic proposals for economic recovery and solutions to the crisis in the labour market.