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Africa's Surprise Success Story
Nazia Parvez / AP Photo
Writing from Africa, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says Sierra Leone, the once war-torn nation now reinventing itself as a tourist destination, can serve as a model for developing nations struggling to weather the economic storm.
Africa may have escaped the initial shock of the global financial crisis, but it is not being spared from its knock-on effects. Foreign investment is drying up, aid budgets are being slashed, remittances are down, and NGOs are struggling to raise funds.
Charity is not a viable path to development at the best of times, but that is even more true today. Nervous investors and cash-strapped donors alike are going to be expecting a lot more for their money.
Speaking to the entrepreneurs on Lumley Beach in Freetown, I was struck by the ambition of their plans and their optimism about the future.
The developing countries that weather the economic storm most successfully will be those that have a positive, coherent, and ambitious vision for the future, and can show they are serious about implementing it.
Sierra Leone, which I am visiting this week and where a team from my Africa Governance Initiative is helping to attract investment and strengthen the capacity of the government, is one such country.
President Ernest Koroma is determined to end his country’s dependence on foreign aid. By developing its private sector, he wants Sierra Leone to grow its own way out of poverty. With 57 percent of Sierra Leoneans living on less than a dollar a day, the scale of the challenge is immense. But so is the scale of the opportunity. From agriculture and fisheries to services and tourism, Sierra Leone has huge untapped potential.
Take tourism. In the 1970s and 1980s, Sierra Leone had a thriving tourism industry. Then the country’s economic collapse and decade-long civil war drove the tourists away—many of them to neighboring Gambia, which now attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year, mostly Europeans in search of winter sun.
But the fundamentals that made Sierra Leone an attractive tourist destination originally remain strong: mile upon mile of unspoiled beaches, beautiful tropical islands, opportunities for world-class recreational fishing and diving, and a rich cultural and historical legacy linked to its role in the slave trade and beyond.
Seven years after the end of the war, Sierra Leone is thriving and the tourists are starting to come back. For the time being, it is more a trickle than a flood. But speaking to the entrepreneurs on Lumley Beach in Freetown, I was struck by the ambition of their plans and their optimism about the future. New hotels and facilities are being built in anticipation of the increase in visitors they expect in years to come.
With industry leaders starting to sit up and take notice of Sierra Leone once again, they will not have to wait for long. Lonely Planet recently named Sierra Leone one of its top 10 countries to visit in 2009. Bradt Travel is bringing out the first guidebook dedicated solely to Sierra Leone. And you can now fly direct to Sierra Leone from Europe in six hours.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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It's difficult to understood why the British
didn't embrace such a brilliant
charismatic leader.
Was it his stance on the war that did him in?
He was too smart to be anyone's "lapdog,"
and he wasn't the only world leader
who went hook, line, and sinker
for so-called "weapons of mass destruction,"
including the still very popular Bill Clinton.
Blair seemed more popular and beloved by Americans,
maybe because he exuded an optimistic spirit,
unlike a gloomy pessimistic streak that seems
to run through the British psyche perhaps stemming
from colonialist guilt . . . or bad teeth.
Or is it that "Spotted Dick?"
And who, exactly, will benefit from this surge in tourism? Surely, not the entire country! There will be no trickling down to the dollar-day-survivors. And the usual poor planning and rapid building will compromise rather than protect the environment. Opportunity when translated into tourism most often means opportunism. For the investors, a clique of government officials and the tourists. Better to start out with medical outreach and agricultural development to care for and feed the ones who suffer the most. Until then, let the tourists have their cocktails in Gambia.
Who says that tourism is bad for the environment or the poor? Look at Bolivia! They're becoming one of the top eco-tourism nations and their methods of employment are helping to create a larger more robust middle class. I visited Bolivia myself last year and spoke at length to a citizen about how much tourism has helped them preserve the natural beauty of Bolivia and also help so many struggling to find work. Sure they have a long way to go to be as prosperous as some, but it's a great start.
As for the other sorts, it's interesting that no one except perhaps the hated diamond industry has paid any attention to Sierra Leone since the war ended. They went back into SL before ANYONE else was interested and they've played a key role in rebuilding SL's infrastructure and providing medical and educational help. Say what you want about the boogieman of 'blood' diamonds, but the diamond industry is the unspoken about reason that SL is in this favorable jumping off position to a better tomorrow.
Let's hope Sierra Leone can make the right steps, build a robust middle class, retain their ecology, and become another shining gem of Africa.
Tony Blair was a better PM for Britain compared to Gordon Brown.
This is what Blair does best: PR. In a world of politics as marketing, he was as good an account manager as a mid-level country deserves.
I cannot recall now, whether Sierra Leone, was war number 1or War number 2 of the five that Blair the Peacemaker managed to prosecute during his spell as prime minister of (Great) Britain.
We continue to live today in the UK that Tony built, for better or for worse. He, of course, is for the most part otherwise engaged.
The plotting Brownies who got rid of Tony Blair must regret it every day
Africa's economics woes are due to bad political leadership.Blair is right that tourism will bring revenue and needed economic development in africa.For tourist to come to africa there has to be a semblence of political stability.Look at zimbabwe it has one of the best scenaries in the world.I was born im Mutare just about 7km from Nyanga park and a bit further you have the majestic Victoria falls,i mean tourist will pay their arms to see them but Robert Mugabe have make our country synonyms with cruel dictationship and the pity for zimbabwe and most of africa is loss on the rest of the world.
Thank you.
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