Today, after years of economic mismanagement and repressive rule, Guinea (often referred to as Guinea-Conakry after its capital) is one of the poorest countries in Africa standing at 181st place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country. A predominantly Islamic country, with Muslims representing 85% of the population, 43.7% of Guineans lived below the national poverty line, equivalent to 5.8 million people living in poverty. In 2019, child mortality rate (under fives) for Guinea was 98.8 deaths per 1,000 live births and, despite the country making some progress towards achieving their target for stunting, 30.3% of children under 5 years of age are still affected, which is higher than the average for the same African region (29.1%).

Adult illiteracy is high, school enrolment poor and maternal mortality is amongst the highest in the world. In rural areas 35% of households do not have access to safe water supplies and life expectancy is around 58.89 years (2021). Volunteer work in Guinea includes supporting families, working with orphaned and homeless children, school projects and developing health care programs.