Agro-industrial foreign investment and rural transformation: Lessons from the Makeni Project in Sierra Leone

The Makeni Project has provided significant infrastructure, employment, and agricultural training in Sierra Leone, but its transformative potential is limited by poor government oversight and risks to local resource access.

• The Makeni Project has delivered substantial economic and infrastructural benefits, including the creation of thousands of jobs and the construction of approximately 440 km of roads as of June 2014. Once fully operational, the project is expected to contribute 15 MW of power to the national grid, representing roughly 20% of the country's total supply.
• Agricultural productivity and food security have been improved through the Farmer Development Programme (FDP), which introduced mechanised agriculture, modern inputs, and vegetable gardens, thereby diversifying diets and supporting small-scale commercialisation.
• The project has negatively impacted local access to essential livelihood resources due to the leasing of large land tracts, forcing some farmers to relocate crops and making access to firewood and water more difficult for some residents.
• A lack of government oversight and coordination has resulted in missed development opportunities, such as the failure to extend developer-built roads to isolated villages and a gap between the project's labour needs and the skills available in local communities.
• The transition to wage labour has introduced new challenges, including a gender imbalance where women only make up 10% of ABSL employment as of December 2014, and potential food insecurity caused by labour scarcity during peak growing seasons.
• The study concludes that foreign direct investment (FDI) cannot replace the public sector, and for such investments to be truly transformative, Least Developed Countries must prioritise strengthening governance, regulatory structures, and technical know-how.

APA

Davis, M., & Fielding, M. (2015). Agro-industrial foreign investment and rural transformation: Lessons from the Makeni Project in Sierra Leone. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SIANI-PB-2015-Makeni-Project-Sierra-Leone.pdf

Chicago

Davis, Marion, and Matthew Fielding. Agro-industrial foreign investment and rural transformation: Lessons from the Makeni Project in Sierra Leone. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SIANI-PB-2015-Makeni-Project-Sierra-Leone.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Davis |first1=Marion |last2=Fielding |first2=Matthew |title=Agro-industrial foreign investment and rural transformation: Lessons from the Makeni Project in Sierra Leone |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=August 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SIANI-PB-2015-Makeni-Project-Sierra-Leone.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{davis2015agroindustrial, author = {Davis, Marion and Fielding, Matthew}, title = {{Agro-industrial foreign investment and rural transformation: Lessons from the Makeni Project in Sierra Leone}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = aug, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SIANI-PB-2015-Makeni-Project-Sierra-Leone.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }