Neoliberal health reforms and the failure of healthcare in Sierra Leone: The case of the Ebola crisis

ABSTRACT

The ongoing Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone illustrates the ways in which the security/development discourse that has emerged over the past two decades remains embedded in theoretical assumptions that have been shaped by a blend of realist and neoliberal theories. As we will show, the logical outcome of this orthodox security/development discourse is that it leads to a militarisation of what is in reality a complex social problem. The neoliberal policies adopted by governments in Sierra Leone has served to heighten these social problems and in so doing have created the conditions for the generation of the Ebola virus to emerge.

KEYWORDS:

• Ebola
• Sierra Leone
• militarisation
• security/development
• healthcare
• poverty

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Alfred Zack-Williams for his critical comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes on Contributors

Peter Wilkin has been a reader in Social Science at Brunel University since 2005. His research interests include issues of security and development, the role of unions in the modern world-system, the rise of illiberal democracies and the politics of sustainable futures.

Abdulai Abubakarr Conteh is an independent researcher specialising in the post-war reconstruction and development of Sierra Leone.

ORCID

Peter Wilkin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1509-0091

Notes

1 ‘Sierra Leone News: I want to bring government to the people – Attorney General JFK’. Awoko 19 January 2016 <http://awoko.org/2016/01/19/sierra-leone-news-i-want-to-bring-government-to-the-people-attorney-general-jfk/> (accessed 2 February 2016).

2 ‘UN Report: Child mortality rates falling too slowly’. Counsel & Heal News 16 September 2014 <http://www.counselheal.com/articles/11349/20140916/un-report-child-mortality-rates-falling-too-slowly.htm> (accessed 27 August 2015).

3 Ibid.

4 ‘Cholera sweeps across Sierra Leone and Guinea following severe rainfall’. The Guardian 5 September 2012 < http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/sep/05/cholera-sierra-leone-guinea-severe-rainfall> (accessed 31 August 2015).

5 ‘The free health care initiative is making a difference in Sierra Leone’. The Huffington Post 3 May 2012 <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ernest-bai-koroma/sierra-leone-fhci-the-free-health-care-init_b_1473835.html> (accessed 28 August 2015).

6 ‘W Africa needs $200m to fight Ebola’. ChinaDaily USA 16 October 2014 <http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2014-10/16/content_18752664.htm> (accessed 27 August 2015).