The Promotion of Peace and Inclusiveness in Sierra Leone: An Engine for Sustainable Development, Access to Justice and Strong Institutions

Abstract

Peace and inclusiveness are contraptions for sustaining the development of a country through the right to justice for citizens and non-citizens of a given state from the luxury of commitment of strong institutions. Sierra Leone, over the years, has suffered tremendous political instabilities that have delayed mainly the country's overall development. A country of 16 ethnic groups has been governed since independence by Prime Ministers and Presidents from the two major political parties, the APC and SLPP. Election statistics over the years have shown that the SLPP and APC have most of their support and membership based on ethno-regional lines in Sierra Leone. Therefore, successive governments have only prioritized the share of national resources and particularly employment opportunities based on political patronage, ethno-regional, and party lines, to the disenchantment of the other ethnic groups and regions with little or no political support. Therefore, this paper seeks to evaluate the causes and effects of promoting peace and inclusiveness on the country's sustainable development socially, economically, and politically. The paper used specifically secondary data and employed descriptive statistics in the presentation of data. One of the significant findings is that, apart from the endemic corruption and bureaucracy at high offices in successive governments, political instability, and the deficiency of inclusiveness in the governance arrangements of Sierra Leone are among the critical factors responsible for the segregation in the dispensation of justice and weak institutions in the country.