The Grim Assessment Of The COVID19 Economic Impact In Sierra Leone Episode 1By Dr. Allieu Badara Kabia Dean, Social Sciences Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology (EBKUST)Over the years, before the inception of the COVID19 plague, Sierra Leone economy had been categorized as an import driven with export drivers dormant and one of the vulnerable emerging market in Sub-Sahara Africa with a low income and Highly Indebted Poor Country(HIPC) status that has gone through political transitions and rigorous negative economic evolutions as a result of the triple shocks. These shocks were; the 11 years rebel war that ended in 2002, the Ebola epidemic scourge that enters it fabrics late 2013 and the recent past mud slide and flooding in the city of Freetown and other parts of the country. The COVID19 outbreak in Sierra Leone in particular and the globe at large have rendered the situation worsen and exposed the country to more risk (health and non-health hazards). So, the economic impact of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone cannot be underestimated and this has created a platform of harmful ramification with breaks on the engines and drivers of economic growth with a considerable systemic and country risk effect. This insinuated a battered economy to the already sluggish economy before the scourge with huge leakages and less injections incubating an indication of economic recession. This resulted to a geometric decline in; Gross domestic product, consolidated revenue fund, trade, investment and productivity whilst Government expenditure, inflation and unemployment are on a sharp acute increase which impedes human livelihood, poor standard and high cost of living, a rapid accelerated decline in economic empowerment and a multiplier increase in the public budget deficit .The magnitude of the COVID19 economic impact varies from one country to another. Currently, the emergent of the virus in Sierra Leone just like other African countries in Sub-Sahara as created a proliferation stage for the economy to be engulfed with a mixture of several indicators such as; the lockdowns, social distancing, closing of borders, closure of private businesses and enterprises, hunger and fear of the disease and stigmatization have impeded households and business entities economic activities. In Sierra Leone, few businesses in the private sector that were able to open have taken advantage of the scarcity of commodities by raising prices that has made the situation very unfavorable with an expensive and very high cost of living. The inability of individuals and business entities to carry out their normal business activities led to a decrease in household incomes and business operating incomes respectively. The tremendous impact of the COVID19 on food security has also negatively affected people’s food consumption lifestyle. Many people have no alternative but to change their consumption habits and had to eat less comparatively than before the COVID19. For instance from the normal staple food rice to 'gari' and cassava etc. The COVID19 has had a significant impact on the education sector too which resulted to the closure of ; schools, colleges, Universities and other educational institutions in the country fraught with difficulties and challenges of limited resources for the educational sector to adopt the E-learning model. In view of the aforesaid grim assessment of the impact of COVID19 in Sierra Leone, the COVID-19 policy responses, should demand for adequate consideration for the current unbearable and alarming situation. This will enable the Government of Sierra Leone to consolidate efforts with clear goals to adopt stimulants to reactivate and reinvigorate the already freeze up economic drivers and engines to mitigate the huge national, regional , continental and global economic impacts in the country there by fueling and giving life back to the economy. As an import driven economy with export drivers dormant , Sierra Leone needs to be flexible in its border limitations to create an enabling environment of opening up to allow the inflow of goods from other countries to cushion the effect.Addendum to that, proactive measures are also needed with sound , timely and adequate policies for urban and rural economic recovery through measures to boost finances and capacities of local authorities. The local governments as first responders in communities, must be supported because they are better able to respond to local needs including in coordination with community-based structures, subsidies and short term bailouts and exemptions for small and medium enterprises to enhance productivity and reduce the high employment rate, social protection and automated stabilizers while looking forward to the opportunities and potential of labour intensive public work programs to absorbed the already high unemployment rate in the medium term. look forward for Episode 2 Free to share

Being the second largest economy in the world and the giant of the emerging market, highest trading partner, manufacturing and industrial hub and exporter of huge capital globally, the PR China hasn't just limit itself in maintaining a sustainable economic growth, reducing unemployment rate, cutting down inflation at lower level, achieving a favourable Balance of Payment and addressing environmental externalities like climate change but has also prioritize poverty Alleviation scheme in its governance plan as one of its macroeconomics policy objectives in meeting the demands of the social needs of its citizens. In the past, before the late 70s, development agenda in China were directed to the formal sector with special reference to urban areas with little or no attention directed to the informal sector and rural communities which incubated the high level of poverty by then. Between 1978 and 2005, China has historically made most remarkable progress in poverty alleviation, the rural extremely poor population contracted from 250 million to 125 million with an average annual reduction of 17.86 million. Relatively, poverty incidence went down from 30.7% to 14.8%, averaging 9.4% annually during this period.The proportion of people living in extreme poverty held from 61% in 1990 to 4.2% in 2014. According to the World Bank statistics, more than 500 million people were lifted out of poverty as China's poverty rate fell from 88% in 1981 to 6.5% in 2012, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms.In 2015, China's raised the poverty line income to 2,855 Yuan approximately US$2 per day and in 2016 it was further increased to US$2.2 per day for a person based on China's estimation core standards and the purchasing power parity referred to as China's concept of poverty line. So anyone below the poverty line is termed to as low income family in the Chinese system. As of 2016, China's demographic statistics recorded a little over 1.3 billion of which about 55.8 million people still live below the poverty line which is the equivalent of the entire population of a medium size country. Since the founding of new China, especially from the era of launching of reforms and opening up in the late 70s, China has made tremendous progress in poverty alleviation as a result of a sustained economic growth, a series of social policies for equitable development and special programs for poverty alleviation taken by the Government. The fundamental experience is that the Chinese Government adopted and formulated a series of strategies and policies with new insight suited for the country's facts in poverty reduction in shaping a unique poverty reduction mode with Chinese characteristics in five segmented development periods: 1978 to 1985; 1986 to 1992; 1993 to 2000; 2001 to 2015 and now 2016 to 2020. During the period 1978 to 1985, the rural population living below the poverty line was halved with a decline in the poverty incidence from 30.7% to 14.8% indicating about 50% reduction which can be attributed largely to the success of the rural household responsibility system and the decollectivization of agriculture with the significant of an accelerated expansion in agricultural productivity. The second segment of poverty alleviation started in 1986, but stagnated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Albeit the government plan during this period to intentionally initiate the large-scale regional development programme to further cut down on the rural poor populace, both the cooling down of economic growth and the concentration of the rural poor hindered the pace of the poverty reduction scheme, which also suffered some setbacks in 1989 and 1991, respectively. The third segment started in 1993 during the announcement of the, 8-7% Poverty Reduction Plan which called for a national strategic action aimed at further reducing the number of the rural poor by 80 million within the period 1994 to 2000. In implementing that programme, the government budgeted special poverty alleviation funds (PAF) consisting of fiscal alleviation funds, food for work funds, and interest-subsidized loans to support economic growth in designated poor areas especially in rural China which succeeded in reducing the population of the rural poor to 32 million with a poverty incidence of 3.4%. Since the commencement of the new millennium, poverty alleviation in rural China entered the fourth segment(2001-2015) with emphasis of poverty alleviation policies directed to village-based and/or rural household based development programmes rather than the previous county-based schemes aimed at reaching the new remaining rural poor communities directly lifting them out of poverty through both financial utilization and improved targeting.In the verge of effectively fighting poverty, China assigned special poverty relief funds amounting to the sum of 189.84 billion yuan(US$ 28.8 billion) from 2011 to 2015. To make poverty a history by 2020, China pledge to lift 10 million people out of poverty every year starting from 2016 which marks the start of the fifth segment. Despite the progress and in roads been made in the fight against poverty, China still faces a lot of pressure due to its huge population. As mentioned by the white paper, in China's poverty reduction and human right as of 2016, that currently the number of people who have been lifted out of poverty in the past 30 years has recorded the highest in the history of humanity but yet there are also persistent problems and challenges in China as in remote rural areas in particular that getting programs to the people in terms of inequality in income, inequality in education and economic opportunities in bringing business to those rural remote areas has been a daunting task.As at the end of 2015, there were 14 contiguous poor areas with special difficulties; 832 impoverish counties and 128,000 registered squared villages. According to the white paper that entails the framework of poverty alleviation in 5 years period started 2016, it clearly outline some of the main challenges that are fraught with the drive towards achieving the desired goals. One of the challenges is setting up the rightful framework to map out the causes to their predicament for a precise Chinese campaign referred to in Chinese language "Chengdu" as the way forward in addressing the most vulnerable and marginalize group of people that exist below the poverty line waiting to be lifted out of poverty by 2020. These includes people who haven't touched by the poverty alleviation program in the past 30 years and are faced with diversify problems ranges from inequality that constitute about 85% of people living in rural areas, access to finances and funding, capacity building, transportation facilities, decent employment opportunities and job creation, infrastructural development and investment and other economic empowerment and better welfare for a more sustainable standard of living. Also added to the white paper there's a provision for the ethnic minority groups who constitute macro of this vulnerable groups moves to other areas for more economically productive activities in meeting their full potentials to attain better economic benefits and welfare empowerment such as infrastructural development, access to good and lucrative jobs, growth in their respective family and domestic economies and better and sustainable standard of living.Currently the poverty reduction program in China is targeting the rural area to tackle the problem of inequality and uneven distribution of wealth. Photo above is the Research Assistant to this study by the name of Dina Habuken, a third year student majoring in Environmental Science at the College of Environmental Studies, Liaoning University, who has been relentless in undertaken personal interviews with the poverty alleviation beneficiaries particularly small enterprises in Shenyang, Liaoning Province(特别感谢辽宁大学环境学院环境科学专业三年级学生迪娜·哈不肯，她一直坚持本研究的研究辅助工作，对脱贫受益人，特别是辽宁沈阳的小企业进行个人访谈。). While achieving considerable results in rural poverty reduction, China also sees some new changes in poverty phenomena as liberal mobility and migrant problem has been very crucial in achieving the poverty alleviation campaign. In the cities, there is a huge gap between the floating population and urban residents in terms of education, health, social security and other basic public services. In rural areas, China faces such new problems as left-behind elderly, women and children as well as landless farmers. These problems have posted new challenges to the design of poverty reduction strategies and policies. In response, the Chinese government, while proceeding from equal employment right, labor remuneration right, occupational safety right, social security right, education and training right, children’s education right and residency right, has carried out cross-departmental co-operation by following the basic idea of coordinated urban and rural development. The country is actively and steadily pushing forward the equalization of basic urban and rural public services, unification of the urban and rural social security systems and improvement of the laws, regulations and policy systems that safeguard the employment right of migrant workers. By improving the capacity and systems, China tries its uttermost to prevent the worsening of urban poverty. Though there is a slow down in the current growth of the Chinese economy from 8% to below since the first quarter of 2016, Government has reaffirmed and reassured its people of its commitment despite the slow down in growth will not affect the speed of achieving and making poverty a history as stipulated in the five years structural plan scheduled to end 2020 which demands huge financing and massive amount of investment in meeting the goals of the Chinese conceptual framework of the poverty alleviation campaign. In achieving this crucial objective, government has put in place an effective nascent social protection platform system that covers over 97% of the population that constitutes specific measures to address the poverty related issues such as; old age pension system that covers over 95% of the population, a minimum living guarantee system in both rural and urban areas providing social protection problems that also addresses other challenges in the case of unemployment and disability with a certainty of having something to count on. In furthering an effective machinery in the result orientation of the poverty alleviation campaign, China has re-enforced the fight against corruption in bringing all culprits to justice to ensure they minimize the level of inequality and resource allocation to it citizens especially in meeting the demands of the vulnerable people below the poverty line. Also, robust and an effective monitoring and supervision system has been put in place by authorities to monitor and examine the incident of related poverty issues in the various communities to thoroughly mitigate the risk of default of the abuse in the relief agenda.So,this system in the poverty alleviation scheme has been crucial in China's drive to truly eradicate poverty come 2020. Added to the scheme, Authorities have also simultaneously putting a system for the various communities of the poverty relief beneficiary counties to be sustainable after the full implementation of eradicating poverty as scheduled. Addendum to China's domestic drive of combating poverty, China has also supported other developing countries in the course. In the past six decades, Its has provided about 400 billion yuan to 166 Countries and international organizations; It sent more than 600,000 Aids representative to Overseas given medical assistance to 69 countries especially during the Ebola epidemic response in the West African Sub-region(Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia) and aided more than 120 developing Countries in realizing the millennium development and sustainable development goals. Conclusively, China has made very great geometric leaps in reducing poverty and reaching the benchmarks laid out in both the Millennium Development and Sustainable Development Goals, lifting more than 800 million of its citizens out of extreme poverty over the last three decades to date. Conversely, there are still challenges that needs improvement. Not everyone has been able to benefit equally from the development and economic growth, with rural and ethnic minority areas lagging behind. For China though rapidly progressing and succeeding in combating poverty, it is crucial to adopt a growth pattern that enables poor people to have better livelihoods and to achieve equitable and sustainable development for all. This article is not only gear towards giving an insight about the evolution and features of China's poverty alleviation scheme but also to ring a bell to developing countries especially the Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA) countries' respective governance to look into the Chinese poverty alleviation model which i strongly believe would serve as a very good proxy to adopt in the fight against poverty in Africa which has been the biggest war and disease that has lead to high fatality and mortality rate since the days of our great ancestors.Author’s Details:Allieu Badara KabiaPhD. Research Fellow, School of Economics, Liaoning University PR China andDirector,Liaoning University's Society of International Academic Research(LUSIAR)Nationality: Sierra Leone, West Africa

China and Africa have been a community of shared interests, shared destiny and have been one of the most important partnership in the 21st Century. As Chinese investment to the Continent is geometrically expanding, it is but imperative that Chinese enterprises needs to adopt a more strategic model engulfing responsible investment and inclusive growth remedying dissimilar environmental diversity in ensuring and contributing to the social & ecological needs that warrant the full implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility, economic prosperity and sustainable growth in meeting the needs of the African market.Photo taken during the Salon Conference organised by The Center for International Business Ethics(CIBE) in collaboration with The University of International Business and Economics(UIBE) at Beijing PR. China In recent times, Responsible investments constitute companies adopting investment models that will gear towards value addition to the economy tending to mimic the political and social climate of the time in seeking out social justice, environmental sustainability and alternative energy/clean technology efforts to name but a few which can be made by individual companies or through a socially conscious mutual fund or exchange-traded fund(ETF) deviating from the mediocrity of investment models that have a retrogressing effect on the economy as in the case of Companies engaging in the production or selling of addictive substances (like alcohol, gambling and tobacco), coal mining industries. Awareness has grown in recent years over global warming and climate change, socially responsible investing has trended toward companies that positively impacting the environment by reducing emissions or investing in sustainable or clean energy sources .Mutual funds and ETFs provide an added advantage in that investors can gain exposure to multiple companies across many sectors with a single investment. Investors should read carefully through fund prospectuses to determine the exact philosophies being employed by fund managers. Rapid and sustained poverty reduction requires inclusive growth which is a concept that advances equitable opportunities that allows people to contribute to and benefit from economic growth indicating a direct link between the macroeconomic and microeconomics determinants of the economy and economic growth. The micro dimension captures the importance of structural transformation for economic diversification and competition, including creative destruction of jobs and firms that impede human livelihood. The concept of inclusive growth encompasses equity, equality of opportunity, and protection in market and employment transitions as a fundamental essential ingredient of any successful growth strategy. Though inclusive growth relatively have different meaning based on the concept adopted by various countries in the world, for the African Continent especially the Sub-Sahara region are in dying needs of inclusive growth constituting; An expansion in employment and labour intensity, increased public sector employment or employment schemes, better social outcomes (health, education, etc.) due to improved public services to the poor, increased social protection and social welfare, and the increased integration of the second economy. It is worthy to note that the absence of a link between economic growth and inclusiveness is evidence that normal growth alone cannot reduce poverty and inequality and increase employment. In addition to the absence of trickle-down effects to reduce poverty, it probably means that current economic growth is not accompanied by the generation of adequate employment. If economic policy could develop untapped economic and employment potential in the informal sector, together with efforts to stimulate the demand for unskilled and semi-skilled labour in the formal sector, such inclusivity could produce an economic growth trajectory that would increase the scope and value of economic activity and incomes also in the informal economy. Income-generating activities in the informal sector would become an integral part of growing economic activity. Poor and marginalized people would contribute to growth rather than just receiving benefits from formal sector growth in the form of social spending or grants. Pursuing and attaining such inclusive growth would clearly require much more than ‘priming the pump’ and/or increasing social spending. It would require an explicit inclusive policy strategy to increase productive activity, employment, self-employment and earnings in both informal and formal segments of the economy, to develop durable backward and forward linkages between these segments and facilitate sustainable transitions into employment. Corporate Social Responsibility is the idea that companies have duty to act in the best interests of their environments and of society as a whole with a deliberate inclusion of public interest in to corporate decision making and the honoring of a triple bottom line ‘PPP’ model embracing its social responsibilities and not to be solely focused on maximizing profits. Social responsibility constitutes developing businesses with a positive relationship to the society in which they operate. In general, social responsibility is more effective when a company takes it on voluntarily, as opposed to it being required by the government or some higher source. Social responsibility tends to boost company morale, but this is especially true when a company and its employees are actively engaged in the social cause they're taking on.That said, not everybody believes that business should have a social conscience. Noted economist Milton Friedman noted that the "social responsibilities of business are notable for their analytical looseness and lack of rigor." Friedman believed that only people could have social responsibilities. Businesses, by their very nature, cannot. In fact, many experts believe that social responsibility is in direct opposition to the basic point of a business and the economics that govern it. Recommendations: Ø A pragmatic CSR forum needs to be establish that intermediate between foreign investors and the community people/citizen with a grip of an open model for a more flexible and effective dialogue purposely to promote outreaching and sustainability of the CSR model and practices, expanding on the effect of CSR related policies and legislation with a clarified and integrated CSR strategy in Africa that’s different from generosity. Ø Increase investment portfolio to Africa, information availability and enable demand identification and devoid from concentrating in just the East and South of Africa but opening up to other African blocs like the West (ECOWAS). Ø Support risk mitigation and financing Ø Companies should invest in Industrialization and good business models as they’re the most needed now in the African continent to create job, grow the economy, alleviate poverty and improve infrastructure etc. Ø Chinese Companies most actively practice CSR strategies and make it a core model in their operation Ø African governments should create more collaboration between public and private sectors on the topic of CSR for the effective implementation of the Chinese PPP model. Ø The Companies should embark on self sustainable external projects that do not rely on third-party funding like HIV/AIDS, skills development, agriculture and environment (especially water) Ø Companies should avoid going for the ‘easy way’ to make direct third-party investments, but always aim to improve the surrounding economies and communities for more trust and expansion of the local market Ø Companies most keep the different pillars on economic welfare and wellbeing like in the case of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment(BBBEE) scorecard in south Africa adhering to the mandatory King-III codes compliance policy on corporate governance Ø To enforce and enhance sustainability, companies should spend the obligatory CSR-investments in SED-projects, the workforce and working conditions or improve the formal business processes such as transparent reporting, CSR down the supply chain or prevention of corruption. Ø Provide deal facilitation and business support- good business models that create job, grow the economy and improve the standard of living and better human livelihood Ø Expand on infrastructural Investment and intellectual and knowledge base model in Africa Ø Skills training for various sectors to meaningful contribute in nation building to be inclusive in the growth model Ø African Government most creates the enabling investment environment with clear rules of the game. Ø Companies most comply to both the primary and secondary criteria to mitigate the risk of default Ø Companies should pay special attention to the welfare of the employees and getting involved in collaborative sustainable initiatives Ø Companies should set a good example by sharing CSR knowledge, expertise and best practices with African players Ø Companies should help minimize the gap of inequality in communities with an effort of creating a sustainable economy Ø Lastly, China should prioritize the development challenges of Africa within the established FOCAC framework, including addressing issues such as food insecurity, climate change and adaptation technology and infrastructure.

It has been an age long ago when researchers, scholars and other extension workers brings to the table the fact about the use of the terms “human services” and “social work” which appear to mean almost the same thing facilitating and supporting the transition and transformation of human livelihood and empowerment. Both fields involve working to help others and performing services that help solve social problems and for better preparedness to face challenges. However, the particulars of work in human services and social work introduce distinctions that help explain their differences as well. We matched up the human services versus social work fields to illustrate these differences. Human services is a broadly defined field that encompasses the aim of meeting human needs. It is an interdisciplinary field of study that strives to prevent and address problems as well as improve the overall quality of life for clients. Someone who works in the human services industry will work to assist individuals and communities in their everyday lives. Employment for human service professionals is experiencing rapid growth, and many opportunities are available in the job market for those with a human services degree. The latter, that’s Social work is concerned with the effort to empower and enable people. Social justice is a main priority of the social work field, and those who study it are often working with those directly affected by disenfranchisement and other complex social problems. As in human services, employment opportunities for social work are diverse and in demand. The word Development explains the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception to death and the scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life.This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development. The word development is a relative term depending on the context and circumstances, it is used, but It’s vital to know that certain questions ring a bell like: What does development involve? And What are its effects? In the process of addressing the issues and problems associated with human livelihood and economic empowerment for development in their respective communities, region, nation and globally, that necessitated the reason why world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September 2000 to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration . The Declaration committed nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, and set out a series of eight time-bound targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). And also At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. Basic Concept of Social Work and Human Services It is worth to note that though the two fields share many similarities, human services and social work ultimately implemented in different ways to address the needs of those they serve. A human services, professional focus on broader work within a community, meaning that they work in community-based settings and usually coordinate services whilst a Social workers, on the other hand, work directly with clients to implement social programs. They can also serve as counselors and make necessary services available to their clients. Many positions in human services are in a managerial capacity. You might find yourself working as an administrator in an advocacy organization; these human service organizations often work to support under served communities. As a professional or paraprofessional in the human services field, you will help individuals and communities gain access to basic needs, such as food and shelter, and will do so by working in an administrative role. In social work, you focus more on individuals than on an entire community. This means that you will often work directly with your clients to help them gain access to services within a community that address their specific problems, such as abuse or addiction.The scope of both Social work and human services cover a variety of specific areas, such as: Advocacy, Community organizing, Families, Children, crises counselling and intervention, Mental health and Public policy etc. A career in both human services and social work will provide you with a great way to get involved in social good and allow you to fulfill your goals of helping others. But while there are some similarities between the two social service careers, there are also many differences. The Careers for Social Good series, we will explore these differences in order to help direct individuals who are trying to find the best career path. Students who pursue a human services degree are usually interested in working in the social services field in an administrative or managerial capacity. Often, these individuals have years of experience in any kind of social services profession and are looking to begin working in a higher-level position. Nonprofit organizations, for-profit service providers with a social mission and government agencies are just a few of the different places human services professionals could find themselves working. Human services professionals are prepared to work as human services managers, program developers, researchers, planners, supervisors, fundraisers and grant writers, to name a few of the possible career paths. Both human services and social work are extremely important to the social services world, but they serve the needs of people in different ways. A human services professional focuses on the bigger picture. For example, they will help plan programs to serve the needs of a particular population, they will work in administrative roles making sure things run smoothly in their particular social services agency, and they will provide supervision and direction to the individuals who work with them. Social workers often work in administrative roles, too, but they can also work directly with clients to carry out social programs, connecting them with necessary services, assessing their needs and providing counseling, which human services professionals do not. If you are interested in an administrative role that involves planning, supervision and research, a career in human services might be a good fit for you. If you want the flexibility to either work directly with the populations you would like to help on a day-to-day basis or work in administrative capacities, then social work might fit your goals. All social services professions are important in promoting social good and helping people in need. Each career provides a different and unique way to serve vulnerable populations. To decide which career path in social services is best for you, you must first imagine how you would like to spend your working hours and figure out which tasks would be the most interesting and rewarding to you personally. The Challenges of Development Some of the major challenges in our world today ranges from issues like gender inequality and environmental destruction, to ending poverty, stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, bad governance, building institutional capacity, and recovering from disaster . For ease of presentation, the challenges are categorized into seven(7) as shown below: 1) Women Empowerment - Q: What can we do to help reduce gender discrimination and inequality?2) Better and quality human livelihood and standard of living for a Sustainable Development – Q:How can we best help people help themselves for human sustenance? 3) Environmental Protection, Climate Change and Access to Energy- Q:How can we protect our environment and reduce poverty simultaneously? 4) Mitigating and eradicating/reversing HIV/Aids and other epidemic diseases- Q: What can we do to stop HIV and other epidemic diseases that threaten human existence that create alarming health hazard risk? 5) Poverty Alleviation- mitigating and eradicating poverty- Q: As Countries develop, how can they ensure the most vulnerable people are not forgotten? 6) Building Democratic Societies to ensure human needs,dignity and respect are met - Q: How can we build democratic Institutions that response to the needs of all parts of the society?7) Disaster Management/Crises Prevention and Enabling Recovery- Q: How can we make developing Countries resilient to threats posed by conflict and disaster? 4.Measures in addressing such challenges(New direction in Social Services). For a well coordinated presentation, the direction in social services is being addressed in accordance with the seven(7) aforementioned challenges as shown below: Q: What can we do to help reduce gender discrimination and inequality? The UNDP focuses on gender equality and women’s empowerment not only as human rights, but also because they are a pathway to achieving both the Millennium Development and Sustainable Development goals and undertake certain activities such as; · Coordinating global and national efforts to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention and recovery, and environment and sustainable development. · The global network ensures that women have a real voice in all governance institutions, from the judiciary to the civil service, as well as in the private sector and civil society, so they can participate equally with men in public dialogue and decision-making and influence the decisions that will determine the future of their families and countries. Q:How can we best help people help themselves for human sustenance? · UNDP assists partners to achieve sustainable, people-centered development through an integrated approach that links policy with planning and programming, for promoting results based management, instating quality safeguards, monitoring and evaluating the impact and equally learning from failures and successes. · UNDP introduces systems, from the project level up, to entrench evaluation, learning and knowledge management strongly in the organization by being more open, innovative, knowledge and evidence driven. This eventually supports effective development cooperation, South-South and Triangular Cooperation and higher quality programming and action.-(agriculture, microfinance, partisan traders and fishermen, small holder farmers etc.) Q:How can we protect our environment and reduce poverty simultaneously? · UNDP strengthens national capacity to manage the environment in a sustainable manner to advance poverty reduction efforts. Through our country teams in 135 developing countries, we help our partners build their capacity to integrate environmental considerations into development plans and strategies, establish effective partnerships, secure resources, and implement programmes to support sustainable, low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathways. · The poor are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and lack of access to clean, affordable energy services. UNDP helps countries strengthen their capacity to address these challenges at the global, national and community levels, seeking out and sharing best practices, providing innovative policy advice and linking partners through pilot projects. Q: What can we do to stop HIV and other epidemic diseases that threatens human existence that create alarming health hazard risk? · UNDP supports countries to integrate attention to HIV in national planning, gender equality and MDG efforts; promote enabling human rights and legislative environments to reduce vulnerability to HIV and strengthen governance and coordination of national responses; and strengthen implementation of complex, multilateral and multi-sectoral funds and programmes including those financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. · Globally there are 34 million people living with HIV. While new HIV infections have declined by 20 percent between 2001 and 2011, the HIV epidemic continues to outpace the response. UNDP works with countries to understand and respond to the development dimensions of HIV and health, recognizing that action outside the health sector can contribute significantly to better health outcomes. Q: As Countries develop, how can they ensure the most vulnerable people are not forgotten? Economic growth will not reduce poverty, improve equality and produce jobs unless it is inclusive. Inclusive growth is also essential for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The globalization process, when properly managed, becomes an important ingredient for inclusive growth. In this context, · UNDP works to make real improvements in people’s lives, opening up their choices and opportunities. · UNDP promotes inclusive and sustainable human development and works to reduce poverty in all its dimensions. We focus our efforts on making growth and trade benefit everyone in developing countries. Q: How can Countries build Democratic Institutions that response to the needs of all parts of the society? More countries than ever before are working to build democratic governance. Their challenge is to; · Develop institutions and processes that are more responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens, including the poor, and that promote development. UNDP helps countries strengthen electoral and legislative systems, improve access to justice and public administration and develop a greater capacity to deliver basic services to those most in need. · Through its programs, UNDP brings people together within nations and around the world, fostering partnerships and sharing ways to promote participation, accountability and effectiveness at all levels. We aim to build effective and capable states that are accountable and transparent, inclusive and responsive -from elections to participation of women and the poor. Learn more about our work with the Youth. Q: How can we make developing Countries resilient to threats posed by conflict and disaster? Building resilience to conflicts and disasters is at the very heart of UNDP's work. UNDP helps Countries to; · Prevent armed conflict, alleviate the risk and effects of disasters from natural hazards and build back better and stronger when crises happen. When a crisis strikes, UNDP ensures that while the humanitarian response focuses on the immediate lifesaving needs of a population, those responsible also work towards longer-term development objectives. This Approach is called Early Recovery · UN helps more than 80 countries to strengthen development gains in post-crisis countries by helping governments respond to disasters and mitigate the risk they pose; addressing the underlying causes of violence; reinforcing governance and the rule of law; supporting livelihoods; and by using short-term employment schemes that allow local people to rebuild critical infrastructure following disaster. GAINS MADE FROM SOCIAL WORK AND HUMAN SERVICES · The number of people now living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half, falling from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015. · The number of people in the working middle class—living on more than $4 a day—nearly tripled between 1991 and 2015. · The proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions has dropped by almost half since 1990. · The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide fell by almost half, to an estimated 57 million in 2015, down from 100 million in 2000. · Gender parity in primary school has been achieved in the majority of countries. · The mortality rate of children under-five was cut by more than half since 1990. · Since 1990, maternal mortality fell by 45 percent worldwide. · Over 6.2 million malaria deaths have been averted between 2000 and 2015. · New HIV infections fell by approximately 40 percent between 2000 and 2013. · By June 2014, 13.6 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally, an immense increase from just 800,000 in 2003. · Between 2000 and 2013, tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment interventions saved an estimated 37 million lives. · Worldwide 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation. · Globally, 147 countries have met the MDG drinking water target, 95 countries have met the MDG sanitation target and 77 countries have met both. · Official development assistance from developed countries increased 66 percent in real terms from 2000 and 2014, reaching $135.2 billion. Conclusively, the concerted efforts of national governments, the international community, civil society and the private sector through Social Careers have helped expand hope and opportunity for people in communities, region, nations and around the world towards development trajectory though the challenges are still there on the walls.The job is yet to be concluded as millions of people are still out there with the dying need ;to end hunger and poverty, achieving full gender discrimination and equality, improving health services and getting every child into school. This has further created awareness and sense of strategic focus that made global leaders and governments to hang heads and shift the world onto a sustainable path for the betterment of humanity which brings about the formation of the Mellanium development and Sustainable Development Goals.The global Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), or Global Goals, will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years, beginning with a historic pledge on the 25 September, 2015 to end poverty everywhere permanently. So therefore, based on the aforementioned complementary role of both Social Workers and Human Services personnel, then one can conclude without doubt that they facilitate, spur and Aids development by enhancing and supporting human livelihood for better standard of living and Sustainable Development. Author: Allieu Badara Kabia, PhD. Research Fellow , School of Economics and Business, Liaoning University and doubled as Director, Liaoning University's Society of International Academic Research(LUSIAR), Shenyang PR China.

After thorough research and deliberations with other academic, medical and religious scholars about the cost-benefit of enacting the Abortion law in Sub-Sahara Africa Countries,I’ve come out with the strong conviction that Countries in that region are not yet ripe enough to adopt such a law since the cost far more outweigh the benefit and so legalizing Abortion Bill or even encourage any bill that threaten national interest will cause a very great harm than good and will eventually result to an adversity in the health system,culture-religious values,intellectual capacity building, and socio-economic growth and development. Before debunking, first and foremost we need to understand what abortion is?-simply put, Abortion is the act of ending an unwanted pregnancy which is tantamount to murderer. There is a normal saying “If abortion is killing a human being, then male masturbation is genocide”. Is just a food for thought. The debate on the issue of legalizing abortion or not reveals the controversy of Religious and cultural beliefs as against democratic and human rights values of which the later is being used by our traditional developmental partners or Foreign Aid Partners say: UN, IMF, World Bank and other human right organizations that are always with the view of wanting nothing but to donate Foreign Aids to Countries in dying need of funds at the expense of mortgaging their sovereignty and indigenous socio-cultural right and values like a pinch of salt. My reason of taking such stands is with a very strong conviction that legalizing abortion in the jurisdictions of Countries in the Sub-Saharan region of which my country Sierra Leone is not an exception looking at prevailing human livelihood and socio-economic and culture-religious problems and challenges is not only impeding on Country’s growth engines and developmental strategic focus but a misplacement of both governance and legislative priorities as it is but a real fact that Africa for now needs policies that gear towards facilitating and stimulating the transformation of the respective nation’s economies for value addition from lower income under-developed nations to medium income developing nations and then to higher income developed nations.Such policies will build up a very strong health system that will guarantee a rapid decline of maternal mortality,revamping, and enhancing socio-economic activities in areas such as; industralization, job creation, improve on intellectual capital,agricultural modernization, trade facilitation and liberalization,Investment and green energy to address the risk associated with climate change demanding for better human welfare and good standard of living simultaneously stabilizing the already fragile systems in the respective Countries. It’s not news anymore about the predicaments that African countries have undergone as a result of food security and political instability as in the case of Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and also the 11 years rebel war that ended 2002 in Sierra Leone, poverty and the fragile health system as in the case of the ebola epidemic virus that invaded the West African region that further broken the already weak health system that subjected the affected countries to an incredibly serious health hazard risk that slammed breaks on the drivers of socio-economic growth and development reversing growth gains in previous years subjecting the respective countries into financial and market risk, commodity risk, operational, reputational and country risk as well as the difficulties and challenges that impede culture-traditional heritage and religious values that hold the African people together. The laws legalizing Abortion are an expression of the act of murder with high maternal mortality rate which has a negative effect on; Religious and ethnic pride, Culture-traditional heritage values and a negative sectoral impact in the said region especially in the educational and labour sector which play a significant role of building up a capable and able human resource capital as bedrock driving indicator that positively impact in giving life to the various sectors in the country towards transforming economies from a lower to a middle and high income which will obviously solve some of the problem associated with early pregnancy of girl child and drop out from schools as a result of poverty. Religious scholars especially the Muslims and Christians beliefs are against the act of destroying the fetus that God has created in the wombs as unlawful and unacceptable because they refer to it as an act of murder unless otherwise if and only if the life of the mother is at a serious risk then is accepted for her survival.(Quran 2 verse 228 and the Bible) Medically, Abortion issues are always controversial and lead to complications that risk lives to untimely death because most of the medical personnel engaging in it lack the appropriate skills and causing the deaths of innocent souls.The only competent medical practitioners who can handle abortion are trained gynecologists and they are very few in Africa. The inadequacies and inavailability of medical facilities for such intervention causing a health hazard risk of perforation of the womb into the abdominal cavity that leads to; the removal of the guts, bleeding, bladder rectum or intestinal damage that results to fistula.Also the technical know how and competent of the medical personnel who are conversant with the compliance of UN recommended drugs policy, the anatomy and who have the required surgical skills and can also handle complications.Also the high illiteracy level leads to wrong intake of drugs and also lack of appropriate medical guidelines to undertake such medical venture.It’s necessary to note that most of “The safe Abortion Act” in most Sub-Sahara Africa Countries will promote and encourage “unsafe abortion” and therefore could be counterproductive. Legally, In developed and developing world alike, antiabortion advocates and policymakers refuse to acknowledge the facts that abortion's legal status has much less to do with how often it occurs than with whether or not it is safe, and that the surest way to actually reduce the incidence of abortion is to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancy. While they debate, conceal and insist on legal prohibitions, the consequences for women, their families and society as a whole continues to be severe and undeniable. Also, the drafter of most of the abortion bills in Sub-Sahara Africa Countries fail to clearly define some of the terms in the content before enacting the law.Terms such as “abortion”,”feta” and Ministry from the title of the bill itself because if they would have attempted to define it from the outset, they would have shot themselves in the feet from the initial stage for the simple reason that the word “Abortion” means “the taking of life” and the question which rings in mind is “why should law makers attempt to take the life of someone instead of protecting it? as in the case of the recent abortion bill in Sierra Leone which is yet to be approved.Some drafters use the word Ministry in the bill but never contacted there respective Ministry of Health for technical and medical advise for the consequences of the medical health hazard risk. Also,mostly in the drafted bill a distinction is normally made for two(2) periods of pregnancy and it creates a grey area where pregnancies that are not in anyway hazardous should be terminated and that both parties –the male and female should be included in the bill and not leaving out the male folk who's a very essential indicator in such a law to be fruitful when enacted. So if the drafters should have clearly defined the main terms that would have ignited other people at the pre-stage to discourage the continuity of such a bill which also failed to clearly state the manner in which “consent” in law could be made and that if such bill are enact into Law then that will not only be a bad precedent but it will make bad laws for the welfare,economic empowerment and human livelihood for the girl child and women in the respective Countries in questioned. Categories of Abortion could be a case of miscarriage, a case of an immature and non-viable fetus, a case of a surgical measure to terminate unwanted pregnancy most within the first 6 months, removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus to end a pregnancy and the list goes on. Other critics would like to say the merits of the Abortion law far outweigh the de-merits but if that is true, it means they are really truly failing to put there respective Countries in the positive trajectory to alleviate the prevailing socio-economic and culture-religious and educational challenges as well as poverty alleviation which will bring value addition, increase to birth rate with an ultimate positive effect on growth and development engines in the respective Countries.The truth of the matter is, other Countries are fully matured to adopt such laws because of their socio-economic prosperity and success as in the case of developed Countries like USA, UK, Singapore and South Korea etc. and developing Countries as in the case of China, Malaysia, India, Russia and Brazil etc. even though there are still challenges.Let us also don’t forget the fact that most of the aforementioned countries are at the apex of global platform performance in terms of there economic, security, capital export, trade and investment as in the case of USA and China being the first and second largest economy in the world respectively, also China being the largest trading partner, industrial hub and core exporter of capital in the world. So for the African Continent especially the Sub-Sahara region to endorse the enactment of such laws is complete misplacement of governance and legislative priorities in meeting the dying needs of the people for transforming there economies, structures and infrastructural system for opening and expansion for self sufficiency and global competitiveness.So, “African can only grow and develop to attain prosperity when the respective governance and legislatures of Countries start to put priorities straight in meeting the needs of the people by creating the right platform and enabling environment creating new traditions and laws that honor the dignity and humanity of every individual and empowering All the people in the continent whether young or adult, male or female, boys or girls, literate or illiterate, able or disable giving them the opportunity to exhibit there God given talent and potential”. To prioritize the Abortion law in the African scale of preference looking at the peculiar priorities in Africa in order to fix the unfix and joining the disjoint of the prevailing human welfare and empowerment issues, then Abortion can only be found down the preference table meaning there are more important issues to be dealt with before thinking of enacting such a law. The fact is already on the walls, if history can permit me to outlined countries that have enacted this law but failed to be fruitful as expected as in the case of Angola, Benin, Central African Rep.Chad, Congo, Côte D'Ivoire, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Gabon, Guinea- Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda etc. Also, China was the first large developing country in 1957 to enact a liberal abortion law, but yet its hinges negatively on economic growth. The Soviet Union and the central and western Asian republics enacted similar laws in the 1950s. Over the next 50 years, abortion becomes legal on broad grounds in a wide range of less developed countries, including Cuba (1965), Singapore (1970), India (1971), Zambia (1972), Tunisia (1973), Vietnam (1975), Turkey (1983), Taiwan (1985), Mongolia (1989), South Africa (1996) and Cambodia (1997). Indeed, the worldwide trend in abortion law has continued to be toward liberalization. And since 1997, another 21 countries or populous jurisdictions have liberalized their laws, including Colombia, Ethiopia, Iran, Mexico City, Nepal Portugal and Thailand. During this same period, only 3 countries El Salvador, Nicaragua and Poland have increased restrictions. Today, 60% of the world's 1.55 billion women of reproductive age (15–44 yrs) live in countries where abortion is broadly legal. The remaining 40% live where abortion is highly restricted, virtually all in the developing world. In Africa, 92% of women of reproductive age live under severely restrictive laws; in Latin America, 97% do. Ironically, the abortion laws governing most of the countries in these regions are holdovers from the colonial era, imposed by European countries that have long ago abandoned such restrictive laws for themselves. In a country such as Uganda, about 300,000 abortions take place each year, notwithstanding the fact that abortion is legal only to save a woman's life. Unsafe abortion, there is a leading cause of pregnancy-related death. Moreover, at current rates, half of all Ugandan women will require treatment for complications related to abortion at some point in their lives that increases fatality rate. The fact is that almost all unsafe abortions occur in the developing world. According to the World Health Organization, unsafe abortion is the cause of 70,000 maternal deaths each year one in eight pregnancy-related deaths among women. That translates to seven women per hour. Approximately 8 million more women per year suffer post-abortion complications that can lead to short- or long-term consequences, including anemia, prolonged weakness, chronic inflammation of the reproductive tract and secondary infertility. Out of the women who experience serious complications each year, nearly 3 million never receive treatment. Restrictive laws have much less impact on stopping women from ending an unwanted pregnancy than on forcing those who are determined to do so to seek out clandestine means. In countries with such restrictive laws, women who can pay can sometimes find a qualified provider willing to perform an abortion. However, the vast majority of women in poor countries are too poor to avail themselves of this underground network. In Guatemala, for example, where 37% of the population live on less than $2 a day, the estimated cost of an illegal abortion carried out by a private medical doctor or in a private medical clinic ranges between $128 and $1,026. In Uganda, where 97% live on less than $2 a day, the price of an abortion from a professional source is $6–58. And in Pakistan, 66% live on less than $2 a day, and the average fee for a doctor-assisted abortion is $50–$104 Logically, the same legal consequences women get when they try to kill a child who is already born. Roe v. Wade(1973) in his Article revealed the need not to make abortion legal, because it merely protects a woman's right to privacy, which makes enforcing actions against abortion impossible. Therefore, abortion is not a right in itself, but privacy is a right. Interestingly, the risk of an unwanted pregnancy represents one of the major costs of sexual activity. When abortion was legalized in a number of states during the late 1960s and early 1970s revealed by Roe V. Wade in the 1973 Supreme Court case, this cost was reduced as women gained the option of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. This was a cost empirical approach that was use to investigate the Act of abortion proving it to be a and not a benefit to humanity. In the Article it was predicted that abortion legalization led to an increase in sexual activity, accompanied by an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Using CDC data on the incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis by state, and the hypothesis was tested that judicial and legislative decisions to legalize abortion lead to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases an account for as much as one third of the average disease incidence. It was proven that that gonorrhea and syphilis incidences are significantly and positively correlated with abortion legalization which impede human livelihood with a negative functional relationship to growth drivers in the Country. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) constitutes scourge of “huge socio-economic and health hazard risk in most places in the world like in the case of the most democratic and human right Countries say the United States. This fact can be certified in the Article written by the Institute of Medicine 1997, p.43.” It has been an Age long controversy for the medical practitioners has they have been exhibiting great interest in trying to understand the physiological and behavioral determinants of STD incidence. Medical researchers are normally with a strategic focus on general changes in social attitudes, changing demographics, and changing public health practices when investigating the determinants of STD incidence, effectively disregarding the importance of incentives for individual behavior. This focus might stem from the general practice, found in most of the non-economic literature on sexuality, of attributing sexual decision-making to primarily biological and environmental influences as in the case of an Article written about the model adolescent pregnancy by Hardy and Zabin (1991) as being determined by biological make up and development, as well as family structure and community characteristics. RECOMMENDATION: v Creating quality structures and infrastructures in the health system of the respective African Countries to be on top of situations to combat health hazard risk that has a tendency to cause a country and systemic risk in the entire country as in the case of the Ebola epidemic virus in West Africa and the Zika virus in India v Improve on the human resource capacity of Medical personnel to be able to execute their job in an efficient and effective manner and also encourage college students by giving them scholarships to pursue their academic hopes in professional areas aiming to be medical doctors and economist etc. v Scholarships and literacy level be enhanced through the establishment of effective structures geared towards women’s empowerment and intellectual capital v Providing a wide range of contraceptive methods, accompanied by simple written information to mitigate the risk of early pregnancy v Ensuring that post-abortion family planning is the standard of care for doctors, nurses and midwives v Encouraging health professionals, especially members of FIGO, ICM and ICN, to assume an advocacy role to improve health outcomes for women by providing quality post-abortion family planning services v Government most enforce the law to prevent rape and incest act v To give banned to the proliferation of romantic films by film centers, which incubate the temptation of teenage pregnancies v The religious and traditional leaders should not relent, but be in a good position to educate people to understand their respective roles and responsibilities to mitigate and eradicate the risk associated with Abortion that hold the values of culture-religious values v The legal system should be strengthened to curb sexual crimes In conclusion, notwithstanding the fact that between 1995 and 2003, the global abortion rate dropped by 17%. Africa and Asia saw a 12% decline during the same period, and Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a drop of 16%. In Eastern Europe, though, the abortion rate plummeted by 51%. Notably, the largest decline occurred in the former Soviet bloc countries, where abortion has been legal the longest and is widely available but yet the act is a more of Abortion is more of a cost than benefit. It’s worth to note that approximately 42 million abortions that do occur worldwide, almost half are performed by unskilled individuals, in environments that do not meet minimum medical standards or both.Virtually all of these unsafe abortions take place in the developing world and LDC’s Country, where the un met need for contraception remains high and causing a risk to human existence. Of the almost 42 million abortions that take place around the world each year, about 20 million are unsafe and virtually all of those occur in developing countries.Also worth nothing that each year, an estimated 5 million women are hospitalized for the treatment of abortion complications, at a cost of at least $460 million. However, even in countries with highly restrictive laws, these high financial burdens can be avoided or at least reduced through prevention. According to a case study in Nigeria, the cost of providing contraceptive services to enable women to avoid the unintended pregnancies that end in unsafe abortion would be only one-quarter of what Nigerian health facilities spend to provide post-abortion care. So, it was based on the above findings that made me to have the strong conviction that Africa Continent especially Sub-Sahara Africa Countries are not yet ripe to enact such a law that will not only misplace governance and legislative priorities but ultimately having an adverse effects to the engines of both growth and development for a sustainable human livelihood and better standard of living.Until otherwise when major problems like human empowerment and poverty alleviation has been put to rest, then Africa start to think of adopting such a law.

Sierra Leone has an area of 73,326 square kilometers with a current population of about six(6) million of which 51% are women and over 75% of the people residing in the rural areas highly dependent on subsistence agriculture and micro-enterprises/household enterprises. This indicates that majority of the rural people are micro entrepreneurs, or small holder farmers or both. The financial system is small comprising the Bank of Sierra Leone (Central Bank), twelve (12) Commercial Banks, sixteen(16) Community Banks, two (2) Discount Houses, fifty-two(52) Foreign Exchange Bureaux, a National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT), seven(7) Insurance Companies, 6(six) Insurance Brokers and a few other Non-banking Financial institutions(NBFIs)- with macro of microfinance institutions(MFIs) and Small & Medium Enterprises(SMEs).The Sierra Leone socio-economic space is characterised by a large agrarian sector, which accounts for about 80-85% of the rural employment and at least 75% of the total population. Most of the people in this sector are self-employed and unpaid family workers which constitute macro of the female population compared to male. Mining and other non-farm activities are also important rural activities. Cash crop production (mainly cocoa and coffee) is primarily carried out by men, while women dominate food crop production. (Bank of Sierra Leone Newsletter July-August, 2012). There is also a large informal sector whose transactions hardly go through the banking system and getting data on their activities is difficult. (Sierra Leone Government National Micro-finance Policy,2003). The second largest sector is the urban informal sector, which emerged largely as a result of accelerated rural-urban migration, and the labour surplus generated in the cities. This sector represents over 70% of the urban labour force and at least one-fifth of the total labour force (Sierra Leone Government National Micro-finance Policy,2003). Women accounts for about 65% of the Informal Sector’s workforce. The key features of the informal sector are dominance of self-employed individuals of which majority are women(such as petty traders, street vendors, carpenters, tailors and taxi drivers). The sector largely relies on labour services provided by owners and families, but occasionally also on paid labour without formal employment contracts. Labour productivity is low, underemployment is high especially for women, job security is pervasive, wages are highly flexible and workers do not receive much from employers. Legal minimum wage laws do not apply and unions play very limited role in wage fixing. Perhaps more important is the limited access to credit opportunities for enterprise start-up and expansion. (Sierra Leone Government National Micro-finance Policy,2003).The graph below show case the proportion of women business activities in Sierra Leone,s Labour Market. AN OVERVIEW OF THE LABOUR MARKET IN SIERRA LEONE The total population of Sierra Leone’s labour force is about 2.3 million persons. The young population is 63% below the age of 25 years. It is estimated that 70% are below the poverty line. Men are slightly more engaged actively in the labour market than women, except during youth, women are more active, which is mostly due to more men continue in school after primary education. Relative to Sub-Saharan Africa, Sierra Leone had a slightly smaller middle class. In 2010, 12% of Sierra Leoneans lived for US$2-4 a day and 7% for US$4-20 a day, compared to Sub-Saharan Africa where 14% lived for US$2-4 a day and 10% for US$4-20 a day. The latest data for working poverty in Sierra Leone is from 2011. Slightly more working women lived for under US$1.25 or US$2 a day, but on average Sierra Leone’s working poor were at a comparable level to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011. Sierra Leone has been displaying and embressed the principles of democracy with a successful peaceful power transition to two(2) democratically elected president and has been in the direction of economic transformation and development since the end of the civil war in 2002 that subjected the Country to difficulties and challenges such as; poor infrastructure, economic melt down, transparency in managing the country’s vast endowed natural resources, strengthening the democratic Institutions, widespread rural impoverishment, lapses in public financial management and economic openness and the list goes on. Before the invasion of the ebola plague in 2014 which reverse growth and other gains and devastates the health and socio-economic system, the government has been prioritizing reforms to reduce corruption, providing free health care and improving transport, power and public health infrastructures. As a result, the country was ranked as one of the world’s top reformers by the 2012 World Bank’s Doing Business index. The country also experienced an exploding economic growth before the ebola outbreak, particularly as a result of the commencement of iron ore production and an expansion in agriculture production. Before the plague and the fall in the primary commodity prices, there has been a significant increase in the Country’s Fiscal space as royalties from mineral exports increased geometrically that lead to the increase of the real GDP. Inequality remains a very big challenge severe and doing business is bleak, with some improvements, though government and other Organisations are doing their best to mitigate that risk. Moreover, the country has been hard affected by the Ebola epidemic during 2014 which has created an urgent health crisis as well as a negative impact on the economy, especially in the agricultural sector. The labour market is also hit, e.g. the health sector has been colossally devastated with low morale among health workers as well as drivers can no longer commute passengers from place to place where places are quarantined. Many of the obsolete labour laws, dating back to the 1960s, have been undergoing reforms and updates. The process was proposed to have concluded at the end of 2014 but yet to be reached as a result of the plague. So far, a new draft of the Employment Law exists. The National Employment Policy has not yet been implemented, which has compounded the labour sector. On the other hand, the minimum wage was increased almost three times from 2012 to 2014, reaching US$111 per month. There is a dissension existing between the skills in demand in the labour market and those produced by existing educational and training institutions, including vocational education. The Employment information and communication system are not effective due to inadequacy and scarcity of employment centers. The estimated unemployment is measured at 3.4%. It is relatively low and due to a large majority of workers are absorbed by the informal economy, which represents about 92% of the labour force. Also youth unemployment is relatively low at 5%. The working youth and the more structural unemployment are much higher, though. The youth unemployment has turned into an incubator of high political priority, since it is estimated to increase sharply the upcoming years. Also child laborers are exacerbating and very widespread and are twice as much frequent as in the Sub-Saharan Africa on average. The trade union movement is opening and under a fast expansion with an increased of unions’ paid up members by 24% from 2009 to 2014, mainly due to the entry of new members from affiliated unions in the informal economy. Also within the same period, affiliated unions membership have demonstrated an expansion of about 600% extremely high growth, reaching 455,000 members.Trade union members to waged workers have been estimated at 39%; and seven Collective Bargaining Agreements are registered that cover 45,000 workers. A rapid urbanization is present, with many young people migrating into the cities leaving the rural areas for the hunt for human empowerment and better human livelihoods. With little urban job creation, most find work as self-employed in the informal sector. Also, Foreign Workers Law is planned to strengthening workers protection against trafficking and forced labour practices by recruitment and employment agencies mitigating the associated risk. Notwithstanding the devastating ebola plague in 2014,a free and universal health care service was implemented in 2010 purposely provided to pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under the age of five. A National Social Protection Policy was also adopted in 2011, which will have a much broader coverage, including the informal economy. Trade unions have actively been involved in the reforms. The government currently plans to implement two pilot districts for informal economy workers, but it has not yet set dates for the start. Sierra Leone constitute both the informal and formal sector of which the later is only absorbing 9% of the labour force. It was estimated in 2004 that the informal sector employs 2 million people (92%) of the economically active population, about half of whom are women. As in other least developed countries, Sierra Leone’s informal economy cuts across both the rural and urban informal 'sectors'. Among the country’s many informal 'sector' occupations, agriculture is the single largest sector employing about 70% of the rural population and is closely followed by wholesale, retail, petty trading and artisans activities. Other important informal sector occupations include mining, transport service, construction and services delivery workers, among others. A survey of businesses in the informal economy show that they operate informally due to licensing and tax issues, and lack of information. The majority of completely informal businesses are not well informed about the necessary steps to become fully formal. As demonstrated in the section Trade Unions, the SLLC has seen a massive increase in organizing self employed informal workers in the last couple of years, though not within the agricultural sector. The organization has moreover provided training for the leadership of informal economy unions to develop a business and development plan as well as implementing conferences, seminars and workshops for informal economy workers and local authorities to enhance there respective skills, techniques and performance to be more effective and efficient. GENDER PROFILE OF SIERRA LEONE Sierra Leone has being making frantic effort with significant progress in addressing wide-range issues to mitigate the discrimination and vulnerabilities of women and girls. However, shortfalls persist such as; the willingness of girl child and women to enhance there intellectual capital in either formal education or vocational training programs,domestic violence and parents and guardians commitment to advise and direct the girl child in the positive path, lack of funding, logistics and inadequate personnel to undertake programs as well as the existence of legal frameworks that stumble the implementation of the gender-related structural changes. Women are under-represented in paid employment in the non-agricultural sector, as well as in politics and public life. The Country has micro of its women indigenes who have catapult in the academic and professional cadre such as the likes of Dr. Zainab Hawa Bangura who's currently Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the level of Under-Secretary-General, retired Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, Madam Umu Hawa Tejan Jalloh and Dr. Kady Sesay who has serve the country in the capacity of lecturer, Minister and a running mate for a political party and the list goes on. Notwithstanding that, Macro of the women are engage in tagriculture and rading activities with a concentration of them in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone(Makeni, Portloko, Lunsar, Kabala and Magburika etc) as well as does doing business in “Abacha” Street Free town and also in some other Cities like Bo, Kenema, Moyamba and Kono etc. Moreover, women are at the end of a segregated labour market, even more so than many other West African countries, and in general not aware of their rights and lack education and resources. Trade unions have worked on gender equality on constitutions with a view to accommodating more women in union structures. It includes establishment of women's committees in the regions will enable women members to raise their concerns with the union leadership. Among others, it has been registered that the focus on HIV/AIDS under health and safety made it possible to address some issues of particular importance to women. Occupational Health and Safety training included dissemination of information on HIV/AIDS and distribution of condoms. The National Women's Committee remains vibrant. For female in management and ownership, en Enterprise Survey reported that 8% of firms had female participation in ownership, considerably lower than the Sub-Saharan Africa's average at 29%, and that 17% of full time employees were women, which was also lower than the Sub-Saharan Africa's average at 24%. TRADE AND TRADE POLICY IN SIERRA LEONE Albeit to the global financial crises of 2008 and the ebola plague in 2014 which causes a set back reversal on growth engines, Sierra Leone has been improving in its import and export trade there by demonstrating the effectiveness of its trade policies and reforms.Trade is one of the Country’s economic engine has become a significant indicator in the country's economy, with an accelerating expansion in exports of about 34% of GDP. There is also a geometric expansion on Imports estimated as 36% of GDP. In the past years, the vast majority of export went to the European Union (EU), but has recently dominated by China due to China’s trade expansion in Africa fostering the Sino-Africa Trade cooperation. Cacao beans followed by aluminium ore and glass bottles are the majority of Sierra Leone’s export products.The Country is endowed with many natural resources such as; diamonds, iron ore, rutile, boxite, gold, etc. Cash crops, mainly cocoa production, are more labour intensive productions. They are projected to increase. More foreign companies, in particular from Europe and the USA, are investing in the extracting of natural resources, which can generate as many as 25,000 new jobs. Diamonds miners are in the artisanal sector operate largely informally, are not regulated and have no written agreements with their employers. A review estimated that there were between 120,000 and 200,000 artisanal diamond miners. The value of official exports would be much higher were it not for smuggling. The national control mechanisms have been extremely weak, and diamond smuggling has been substantial, perhaps even bigger than legitimate exports. Trade agreements Sierra Leone is part of the Economic Community of the West African States. The treaty from 1993, which was revised in 2005, contains labour provisions with cooperation regarding harmonization of labour law and social security, promotion of women’s, youth and professional organizations, and consultation of the social partners. Sierra Leone is in the 2000 Cotonou Agreement on development cooperation between EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, which reaffirms commitment to International Labour Organisation's(ILO’s) Fundamental Conventions and includes provisions on cooperation on various labour and social issues. Since 2002, Sierra Leone has benefited from the United States’ African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is a generalised System of Preferences (GPS). It allows duty and quota free access for some products. Sierra Leone can be removed from AGOA, if the United States deems that Sierra Leone among other human rights issues do not seek to uphold the ILO Core Labour Standards and have acceptable minimum wages, hours of work and occupational safety and health. The Export Processing Zones (EPZ) in Sierra Leone has starting to open up for companies. In 2011 the first fruit processing plant went into production and has been expected to employ 80 workers, earning between 80 euro a month for loaders and fruit sifters and 300 euro a month for more skilled workers. This area is relatively virgin though there's an opening up to to encourage new companies to participate. Below are some of the measures regulators and authorities in Sierra Leone put in place to increase Trade:-Business environment improvement implementing reforms in four(4) key areas such as; starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering properties and trading across borders - Institutional and legal innovations and creativity with a focus on development of the Companies and bankruptcy Act and Investment promotion Act which gave rise to the setting up of the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency(SLIEPA) as the key gateway and source of information.

CONDOLENCE!!! CONDOLENCE!!! CONDOLENCE!!!Sweet mother(Mummy Fatu Sokoro Jalloh) a year has gone by when you left us for eternity on the 23rd January, 2015 as a result of the inevitable death. We are truly saddened loosing you but God knows best. Mum you proved to be a most loving and caring mother. May your love and memory act as a pillar of strength for us and to see your dreams coming to reality. You are always in our thoughts and prayers. YOU ARE OUR HEROINE WE’LL ALWAYS REMAIN TO CELEBRATE YOU. MAY GOD CONTINUE TO GRANT YOU MERCY AND FORGIVENESS AND YOUR PERPETUAL SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE. LOVE FROM THE KABIA FAMILY HOME AND ABROAD. CONDOLENCE!!! CONDOLENCE!!! CONDOLENCE!!!Mummy Fatu Sokoro Jalloh

CONFERENCE!!! CONFERNCE!!! CONFERENCE!!! CONFERENCE!!! China has been a key player in the Emerging Market and its role in Developing Counties is enormousThe Liaoning University's Society of International Academic Research(LUSIAR) membership hereby inform the general public that its 3rd Conference is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 15th December, 2015 at 1:30 pm Administrative building: Liaoning University College of International Education Conference Hall (room218). Your presence is needed has PhD Research Fellows will be revealing the answers on the theme:"The Effects of Chinese Education in the Scientific Transformation of Developing Countries" Cross Section of LUSIAR Executive MembersFirst Presenter – Olukemi Bamodu (PhD Candidate in Engineering - Shenyang University) - Scientific Transformation Supported by Scientific Education Second Presenter - Abdul Amid Aziz Jalloh (PhD Candidate in International Trade – Liaoning University) - The Empowerment of the 21st Century Labour Force Towards Addressing Challenges in Developing Countries Third Presenter – Dr. Allieu Kamara (PhD Candidate in Pediatric Orthopedic – China Medical University) - Challenges of Medical Education and Health Care Service Delivery in Developing Countries 辽宁大学国际学术研究协会（LUSIAR）的成员十分荣幸地通知大家，现诚邀你们参加LUSIAR的第三次学术会议 地点：国际教育学院 – 辽宁大学老校区218教室 时间：星期二（2015年12月 15日）下午 1:30 主题：中国教育对发展中国家科技转变的作用 第一主讲人: Olukemi Bamodu（沈阳大学的博士生）  科学教育是科技转变的支撑 第二主讲人：Abdul Amid Aziz Jalloh 阿吉斯（辽宁大学的博士生） 第二十一世纪劳动力在发展中国家的赋权 第三主讲人：Dr. Allieu Kamara，（中医大学的博士生）  发展中国家的医疗教育和医疗保健服务的挑战 YOU ARE WARMLY WELCOME

PRESIDENT XI'S RENEW COMMITMENT TO FOSTER THE SINO-AFRICAN TIES The visit of the commander in Chief of the world's second largest and fastest growing developing economy, highest trading partner and energy conservation & renewable energy, Industrial hub and core exporter of capital and investment amongst others symbolizes a renew commitment on the part of China injecting a new life in fostering and promoting the tight friendship and solidarity that has been in existence for a period of over 5 decades to reaffirm its commitment and support. The traditional friendship between China and Africa started an age long ago in the early 50s that cut across social infrastructural ties, economy, bilateral trade, Foreign Direct Investment, culture, Security and Diplomatic Cooperation and the list goes on. This friendly bond was indicated by the 2014 International EVD response as China being the first committed International player in the fight to combat the Ebola virus disease(EVD) outbreak in West Africa that causes a devastating negative ramification on the Health sector, socio-economic and culture-traditional fabrics in the region especially the three (3) most affected Mano River Union (MRU) Countries- Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa presented the continent and China a better opportunity on exploring and deepening further the friendship. The corresponding immediate response from China was just too enough to serve a point to the mutual respect and brotherly ties that exist between the two. Not only have China poured in millions of dollars into the Ebola virus affected Countries, running into $120 million, but also sent in a team of medical personnel who braved it into our local communities, air lifting of two chartered planes, carrying a China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) laboratory team and a China-Aided Mobile Laboratory that support towards the country’s fight against the Ebola all in a bid to help save humanity and sustain human livelihood. China in her further thirst to its commitment to this married also donated the New African Union (AU) Conference and Office Complex Facility as a gift to Africa as the Headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which also symbolizes this long standing partnership between Africa and China. The Chinese people and the people of Africa have all along given sympathy and support to each other as in the case of their thirst and fight for national independence, and their relentless efforts towards nation-building and in attaining an efficient, effective and sustainable socio-economic development. Both regions claim to share a number of common historical values, which have also served to lay reasons for the evolving married between the two giants. China’s strategic position in Africa’s development, especially in the last two decades has been extremely beneficial, especially in strengthening the Sino-Africa relationship and in giving it a new life. Africa’s quest to achieve stable and sustainable development and more investment in the fields of trade, infrastructure and a host of others has taken centre stage in the continents strategic thinking framework and in this vain, China has been a leading player in engaging Africa for trade and investments. The China-Africa Trade and investment has rapidly expanded over the past three decades which has however displayed a remarkable amount of diversity across the African Continent over time with an increase of a total merchandise trade from $9 billion in 2000 to $166 billion in 2012, and over US$200 billion in 2014 with a forecast to reach the sum of US$400 billion by 2020 making China Africa’s largest trade partner ; Chinese FDI flows to Africa increased from just $200 million in 2000 to $2.9 billion in 2011 and amounted to the sum of US$30 billion in 2014 with plans to scale up to US$100 billion by 2020, turning China into the largest developing country investor in Africa; Chinese Aid initiatives in Africa in the form of economic or technical cooperation have also increased remarkably in the last decade. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the turnover on economic cooperation projects in Africa reached $29 billion in 2011 compared to $1.2 billion in 2000. China has been Africa’s biggest trade partner since 2009. Bilateral trade has grown from $11 billion in 2000 to nearly $210 billion in 2015” and such investments come in as essential input to the continent’s growth. The majority of Africa's exports to China are in the form of oil, it also exports iron ore, metals, and other commodities, as well as a small amount of food and agricultural products. At the same time, China exports a range of machinery and transportation equipment, communications equipment, and electronics to African countries. In 2009, China surpassed the United States as Africa's largest trade partner. Africa’s growth performance has improved significantly compared to the two decades of negative growth rates in 1980s and 1990s.The significant improvement in Africa’s growth status ultimately causes the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita to grow by an annual average of 2.4 % from 2000 to 2009, whilst the growth rate in 2010-2012 amounted to 1.8% (World Bank, 2014). There are a number of development cooperation frame that China has been utilizing in her relation with Africa since 1956 namely; The Forum Of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was established and launched in 2000 purposely as a way of coping with the challenges brought by economic globalization and to promote common development initiatives which as today serves as a tri-annual joint exchange of ideas and a platform for co-operation between China and Africa used to promote and enhance bilateral trade and development; The China Africa Development Fund-(CADFund) which was established in 2006 as one of the eight measures announced by the Government of China, in line with the objectives of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. The Sino-Sierra Leone entered diplomatic relations since 1971 and historically, mutual benefit cooperation started from 1984 and it has been making serious progress since then. Practically, the diplomatic relations between the two countries are based on mutual respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each country, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and peaceful co-existence such as stations for popularizing rice-cultivation techniques, bridges, roads, National Stadium, sugar complex, office buildings, hydropower station and power transmission amongst others. At the country level, Sierra Leone has been making steady progress in moving along with some of these lessons as could be seen in her infrastructural development and in her desire to meet rising opportunities with corresponding challenges. China, no doubt has continued to support Sierra Leone in terms of completing a number of projects such as; its quality response in the just concluded ebola plague that destabilize the health system, socio-economic, culture-traditional ethics in the three MRU affected Countries of which Sierra Leone is not an exception. As an addendum to the aforementioned , China also supported education, stations for popularizing rice-cultivation techniques, roads, bridges, the National Stadium, Hospitals, sugar complex, office buildings, hydropower station, power transmission and sub-station projects, civil housing and iron-ore mining . At present Chinese supported projects in Sierra Leone, include, but not limited to; the completed Regent-Grafton road; the million dollar new airport project on the mainland; Rice and robber project; Charlotte hydro dam project. On January of 2012, Sierra Leone signed a $1.2 billion land investment project with China Hainan Rubber Group for the development of a 35,000 hectare rubber plantation and the cultivation of rice on a 100,000 hectare farm and a loan for the purchase of 100 buses which as ease the transportation problems in sierra Leone though there are still challenges. Shandong Steel a Chinese Company have taken over the ownership of the country’s iron ore mines which was previously operated by African Minerals.) Other Chinese investments in Sierra Leone include the China Friendship Teaching and Referral Hospital and the new Foreign Affairs Ministry building which were all commissioned in 2012.In knot shell China's bilateral relation with Sierra Leone cuts across trade, economic and technical cooperation, as well as exchanges and cooperation in the fields of culture, education and health. From the political front, diplomatic relations between the two countries have led to high profile visits by Chinese leaders to Sierra Leone and vice- versa. In Early August,2015, China’s top Diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi made visited the three most Ebola hit West African nations to confirm its commitment. This is also the same with Sierra Leone, former leaders and the current President of Sierra Leone HE Ernest Bai Koroma visited China in 2009 and 2010, twice in a period of three years, since becoming the President of Sierra Leone. China is a major economic world power with industrial capacity to provide economic help to Africa and as such the need for greater economic cooperation between the two. A free zone along the Makona River (meeting point for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia) can be of outstanding relevance if we are to push for sub regional integration. In an effort to discuss China’s presence in Africa today, one should always take into account the historical role played by Africa especially Sierra Leone in China’s strong position and stance in the UN Security Council. China stands as the world’s second largest economy with Africa being the home of most of the developing countries. It should be stated, that the rapid economic trade and investment between Africa and China has to do with the availability of huge resources in Africa which are of great importance to the economic and infrastructural growth of China. However, it is also worth to state, that besides obtaining resources from Africa, China today continues to build bridges, seaports, power plans roads and other kind of infrastructure for Africa countries. There are more than 6,000 branches of Chinese related companies across Africa with some 2,000 investments in the continent. Africa is ready for sustainable business and therefore calling on All Investors and trade partners to take advantage of the virgin market for a win-win cooperation. Conclusively, despite the gains made by both giants in this relation in which Africa has been a key market of China, with regards raw materials, trade and investment. The current visit of President Xi in Africa following the visit of the Foreign Minister Wang Yi, reassure and spur the Continent for a continual need for both parties to work towards redoubling efforts to draw up a robust blueprint for promoting cooperation and laying a solid foundation for making new and greater progress in growing this bond. Albeit the fact China being the world’s largest developing nation with Africa being the home to richly endowed natural resources as in the case of Sierra Leone, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Sudan etc. cannot overemphasize the need to scale up efforts in ensuring a surge in infrastructural growth, human resource development and other socio-economic development. Albeit the gains made, Africa is still fraught with difficulties and challenges including inadequate infrastructure, lack of quality human capital, broken health system, lack of food sufficiency and liquidity shortages amongst others. For Africa to sustainably develop needs the full support of China to be able to transform their economies into industrialization, capital injection ,modern agricultural mechanize activities, public health systems and policies, improving surveillance, and prevention systems and revamping other dormant sectors in the economy to meet the desired output that will gear towards job creation, improve infrastructures, increase household/firm income, national income and access to funds that will ultimately grow the respective economies and create the platform for sustainable human livelihood and better standard of living for the African people.WISHING PRESIDENT XI A SAFE AND SOUND JOURNEY TO THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. LONG LIVE AFRICA !!!LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA!!!

It was on Saturday the 8th of August, 2015 when another mile stone was attained as the China-Sierra Leone Cooperation continually expanding in deepening the relationship on the basis of mutual understanding and respect for principles, culture and traditions of each other’s major concerns and core interests which have been manifested in the recent visit of the Foreign Minister of PR China- wang Yi who paid a courtesy call on His Excellency, President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma at State House in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. In addition to that, PR China’s great support, relentless effort and commitment being the first International response player in fighting to mitigate and eradicate the ongoing ebola plague that enters the fabrics of Sierra Leone and the two (2) other sister Countries-Liberia and Guinea over a year ago causing a socio-economic break down and systemic risk in the overall system of the Country.Photo showing the welcoming of the foreign Minister of China-Wang Yi by the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma and the Foreign Minister, Dr. Samura Kamara The visit of the Foreign Minister was purposely a tri-national tour of the three (3) Ebola affected Countries-Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to thoroughly evaluate and examine the ebola situation and hold discussions in ensuring a complete and final eradication of the ebola plague to be able to identify PR China’s position and role to be played in the post-ebola recovery Plan of revamping the socio-economic activities and broken Health systems in the aforesaid countries. The President of Sierra Leone and the foreign Minister held lively, friendly and healthy discussions about post-ebola recovery plans and the also the alarming issue of Africa’s common position on the United Nation’s Security Council with further discussion on the issues dealing with security threat in the African Continent such as the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria and the conflict in Mali etc, that has made the Africa Continent to face with major difficulties and challenges towards sustainable peace, security and socio-economic growth and development in the west Africa Region in particular. The Minister in his final address expressed by assuring the President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma of China’s continuous effort to support Sierra leone and commended him for his resilient and effective leadership in fighting the ebola plague with strategic national ebola response plan and the outlined post-ebola plans in regaining socio-economic livelihood with focus on five(5) main indicators. Namely; Ø Establishing a West Africa Center for disease control and Prevention which will be base in Sierra Leone Ø Increase on the capacity of Chinese Medical service personnel to Sierra Leone in order to scale up for better, efficient and quality health service operation within the country. Ø Industralisation and Mining cooperation to be strengthen and preference on the processing of mineral products for value addition to create more job, grow the economy and prepared market for global competitiveness Ø Agriculture and Fishing strengthen to encourage Chinese fishing Companies to invest in Sierra Leone Ø Strengthening Infrastructural development which is a significant hub for socio-economic growth and development, for instance the “Mamamah” Airport and promoting human resource capacity building by kick starting the construction of the youth Village A fraction of Sierra Leone Government MinistersThrowing light on how it all began with the fact that the establishment of this Formal diplomatic married between the two (2) countries started over four(4) decades ago on the 29th July, 1971, when a communiqué was signed “as they agree to develop diplomatic relations, friendship and cooperation between the two countries on the basis of the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equity and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.” Since the signing of this communiqué, both countries have continued to strengthen and enjoy excellent bilateral relations. The One-China policy has always continued to be the cornerstone of Sierra Leone’s foreign policy towards China. This was clearly demonstrated when Sierra Leone in 1971, together with other African countries, stood firmly behind China in her bid to win back her permanent membership seat in the UN Security Council from its secessionist province of Taiwan; at a time when there were no signs that China will today rise to her current status in global affairs.Sierra Leone Government Officials There are many faces to China’s presence in Sierra Leone and its present role there. Chinese investments, ‘gifts’ and trading activities have gone some way to reshaping the stereotype of Beijing as solely an exploiter of Africa’s minerals resources. On the contrary, in impoverished Sierra Leone the Red Dragon not only has re-emerged as a serious bilateral trade partner, but also continues to invest in several urgently needed areas of development. By exploring the Sino–Sierra Leonean relationship in the current acute developmental phase of a conflict-shattered country, this policy brief comes to the main conclusion that China’s activities are unquestionably of extreme importance and may promote overall economic growth in Sierra Leone. China’s substantial support and assistance to Sierra Leone has been in the form of tangible goods and infrastructural development project such as bridges, roads, stadium public buildings and currently China aided infrastructure projects such as Charlotte, Bankasoka and Makali hydro power station and the completed Regent to Kossoh road project as well as the Bo stadium and Siaka Steven Stadium and also capacity enhancement allocating a yearly CSC scholarship quota for sierra Leonean scholars and civil servants to pursue further studies in various discipline ranging from undergraduate to Doctorate level are all pointers of China’s presence in Sierra Leone.It's worthy to also note that the volume of trade between the two (2) Countries reached $3.6 billion at the end of 2014, making the Asian country the single biggest trading partner with the Sierra Leone and the economic and trade co-operation has achieved gratifying results, trade volume has surged from less than $100 million in 2000 to $3.6 billion in 2014. Sierra Leone’s exports to China have also increased significantly, rising to over 80 %, against the backdrop of decrease in total international trade. The country’s exports to China hit $1.1 billion, a historical high. This year marks Sino-Sierra Leone 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the trade between the two have steadily increase especially the last five years when Sierra Leone started producing Iron Ore .All the indicators of China-Sierra Leone cooperation are ranking high in China- Africa cooperation. The achievements of both country’s co-operation have not grown overnight; it is jointly cultivated and nurtured through mutual political trust. Sierra Leone is facing serious economic crisis in its history due to the ebola virus, registering a high challenge in its budget and rising public debt. The precarious economic situation, amplified by erratic power supply, forced the government to turn to the international community for financial assistance. Despite the country’s wobbling economy, Chinese enterprises say they still have confidence in the economy, while China has also urged its companies to invest more in the country. In recent years, Sierra Leone’s economy encountered some difficulties, while most of the foreign investors are pessimistic about the economy and decrease investment due to the ebola, Chinese enterprises still have confidence in Sierra Leone’s market,” the Chinese embassy said. According to Xinhua news on Thursday July 09, 2015 says . “The Chinese government encourages Chinese companies to invest in fields such as energy, aviation, manufacturing and agriculture.”China’s non-financial direct investment in Sierra Leone is over $80 million in 2014, despite the ebola. China is willing to keep close policy dialogue, improve co-operation mechanisms, exchange governance experiences and properly solve the existing problems through consultation and co-operation with Sierra Leone.”CONCLUSIVELY,DESPITE THE EBOLA PLAGUE THAT HAS DEVASTATED THE ECONOMY, SIERRA LEONE AS A PEOPLE IS RESILIENT AND READY FOR POST-EBOLA RECOVERY OPERATION AS PLANS ARE ALREADY IN PLACE AND ALSO AS A NATION WITH THE THIRST FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC EXPANSION & GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS ARE THEREFORE CALLING ON ALL AND SUNDRY TO COME AND BUILD AND DEVELOP BOTH THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR IN FOSTERING BUSINESS TIES, BILATERAL TRADE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FOR A WIN-WIN SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC COOPERATION. ALBEIT THE MENACE, THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR FRIENDLY BUSINESS ACTIVITIES, CONDUCIVE ENVIRONMENTAL PLATFORM FOR A RELIABLE, SOUND, SAFE, QUALITY, EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT AND SUSTAINABLE COOPERATION AND HOME FOR INVESTORS AND TRADE PARTNERS WITH HIGH CERTAINTY OF PROBABILITY OF POSITIVE RETURNS ON INVESTMENT & TRADE. LONG LIVE THE CHINA-SIERRA LEONE RELATIONSHIP!!! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF SIERRA LEONE!!! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF PR CHINA!!!