Key facts

Where UK bilateral aid goes - pie chart showing bilateral aid spending in Sierra Leone (2008/09)

Facts about Sierra Leone

Population: 6 million (WDI 2008).
Average life expectancy: 47.3, WDI 2008. UK: 79 years (UN Statistics Division (UNSD), 2007).
Average per capita income: $287 WDI 2008 UK: US$35,050 (purchasing power parity (PPP)) (World Development Indicators (WDI), 2007).
Gross national income (GNI: US$1.4 billion (WBDD, 2006).
Average annual growth rate: 6.5% (Government of Sierra Leone budget, 2008-11).
Percentage of people not meeting daily food needs: 35.7% (Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire Survey, 2007).
Women dying in childbirth: 857 per 100,000 live births (UNICEF MICS-3). UK: 13 per 100,000 (UNSD, 2007).
Children dying before age 5: 140 per 1,000 (DHS 2008). UK: 6 per 1,000 (UNSD, 2005).
Percentage of children receiving primary school education: 69% (UNICEF MICS-3, 2005).
Percentage of people aged 15-49 living with HIV/AIDS: 1.5% (DHS 2008). UK: 0.2% (UNSD, 2005).
Percentage of households with access to safe water: 38% (CWIQ 2007).
Total UK aid received (2008/09): £48.3m (Source: Statistics for International Development 2009)

Progress towards Millennium Development Goals

While the government of Sierra Leone is committed to meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG), only limited progress has been made.

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
The most recent figures from the household survey (2003/04) show that 70% of the population live below the national poverty line and 26% of the population live in extreme poverty.

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Significant improvements have been reported, with the number of children attending primary schools having increased to 1.28 million. However, Sierra Leone is still far from reaching the 2015 target of all children completing a full course of primary schooling.

Enrollment of girls is improving but girls’ primary school completion rates and entry into secondary school remain major challenges.

MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Slightly fewer girls than boys enter school at age 5 (the ratio is 0.9 to 1.0), but by age 9, 4% more boys than girls attend. Dropout at secondary school level is significant: by age 17, while 37% of boys are still in school, only 23% of girls are and of these, only 5% live in rural areas.

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
The latest data for Sierra Leone’s child mortality rate - 140 per 1,000 live births (DHS, 2008) - is amongst the worst in the world.

MDG 5: Improve maternal health
With an estimated 857 women dying in childbirth per 100,000 live births, Sierra Leone’s maternal mortality rate is the worst in the world. (DHS, 2008). While there appears to have been an overall decline in the maternal mortality rate since 2000, it is still unacceptably high.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The DHS 2008 estimates that the HIV prevalence among adults of reproductive age is 1.5%. This however masks variances amongst most at risk populations (MARPS) with young women aged 22 – 24 years having the highest prevalence rate at 2.3% Other data suggests that the rate may be increasing amongst other MARPS such as sex workers.

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Sierra Leone is now seriously off-track to meet the MDGs for water and sanitation. Less than half the population has access to safe water and less than one third has access to sanitation.

MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Aid has been relatively fragmented, despite the small number of donors. Initiatives to improve this include a multi-donor budget support programme, a joint country strategy paper developed by DFID and the European Commission and development partners increasingly working together on assistance programmes such as public financial management, security and justice, anti corruption, public sector reform and health.

Last updated: 01 Apr 2009

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