Strategies for Increasing Productive Employment in Developing Countries with Special Reference to Sierra Leone

About the Book

This book as pointed out by Professor Singer in his preface discussed divergent development problems facing developing countries. Participants of the seminar from various African countries brought in case studies from their own countries as comparison with the Kenya case study, where the seminar was held. As a result of this comparative study, field trips were organized by the seminar authorities. In view of these facts and experiences gained from this seminar, I was sufficiently stimulated for my task to write this book based on similar lines, but with special reference to Sierra Leone. My past experiences as a Labor Officer in the Ministry of Labor in Sierra Leone have, in no small way, also contributed to the success of the completion of this book for industrial relations readers to have interest in it. On joining the Personnel and Administration Department of the Standard Bank, I was moved to incorporate in my book a chapter on the role of banking particularly the role of Standard Bank formerly known as the British Bank of West Africa in Sierra Leone. Readers will also find it in one of the chapter’s current economic development taking place in Africa, particularly regional groupings, for example, the Mano River Union between Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia and The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the now defunct East African Economic Community. For this reason, this book will be of tremendous use to planners and economists, bankers, industrialists, teachers, and various people from all works of life concerned with the development of their countries, but it is more particularly useful to Sierra Leoneans because of the many references related to Sierra Leone.

About the Author

Ibrahim B. S. Sesay was born in Kambia District, the northern province of Sierra Leone. His father, Alhaji Suliman Sesay, migrated in the late 1890s from Kaolack, Senegal, and settled in Kambia District, together with his father, Sheik Mohamed Lamin Sesay, and his uncle, Sheik Ibrahin N’jai, respectively. I. B. S. Sesay attended Government Boy’s Secondary School, Magburaka, from 1958–1965. He became senior prefect (equivalent to president of the student body) from 1963–1965. He passed the General Certificate of Education (GCE) at both the ordinary and advanced levels in 1963 and 1965, respectively. In 1969, he obtained BA Economics degree from Fourah Bay College, which was affiliated with the University of Durham, England. In 1969, he was appointed Labor Officer, Ministry of Labor, Sierra Leone. In 1976, he was appointed Assistant Staff Manager and Accounted in Standard Chartered Bank, Sierra Leone. He attended a study seminar in 1973, sponsored by the University of Nairobi and Sussex, England, on International Labor Organization (ILO) at Kenya Employment Mission in Nairobi University. Subsequently, he took a study seminar on employment problems in Sussex, England, in 1978.