Sierra Leone

Citation:

Authors: Helen Basini, Caitlin Ryan

Abstract:

National Action Plans (NAPs) have been hailed as the preferential mode of implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at a national level. In recent years, member states, especially post-conflict member states, have been heeding the calls of the United Nations to develop their own National Action Plans. However, there has been limited assessment of whether or not National Action Plans are beneficial to women in post-conflict states. Using evidence from field research in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this article argues that, despite the intent to increase national ownership of 1325 in post-conflict states, National Action Plans are ineffective at creating meaningful local ownership because they are driven by a bureaucratic approach to peacebuilding. Furthermore, implementation of National Action Plans in post-conflict states is hampered by a variety of factors, such as lack of capacity and lack of political will. Finally, we conclude that National Action Plans also do a disservice to the hard work and dedication of local women’s organisations.

Keywords: gender, Liberia, National Action Plans, peace, post-conflict, security, Sierra Leone, UNSCR 1325, women

Topics: Gender, Women, Conflict, Governance, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone

Year: 2016

Citation:

Graham, Jay P., Mitsuaki Hirai, and Seung-Sup Kim. 2016. “An Analysis of Water Collection Labor among Women and Children in 24 Sub-Saharan African Countries.” PLOS ONE 11 (6): e0155981. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155981.

Authors: Jay P. Graham, Mitsuaki Hirai, Seung-Sup Kim

Abstract:

Background

It is estimated that more than two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) must leave their home to collect water, putting them at risk for a variety of negative health outcomes. There is little research, however, quantifying who is most affected by long water collection times.

Objectives

This study aims to a) describe gender differences in water collection labor among both adults and children (< 15 years of age) in the households (HHs) that report spending more than 30 minutes collecting water, disaggregated by urban and rural residence; and b) estimate the absolute number of adults and children affected by water collection times greater than 30 minutes in 24 SSA countries.

Methods

We analyzed data from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) (2005–2012) to describe water collection labor in 24 SSA countries.

Results

Among households spending more than 30 minutes collecting water, adult females were the primary collectors of water across all 24 countries, ranging from 46% in Liberia (17,412 HHs) to 90% in Cote d’Ivoire (224,808 HHs). Across all countries, female children were more likely to be responsible for water collection than male children (62% vs. 38%, respectively). Six countries had more than 100,000 households (HHs) where children were reported to be responsible for water collection (greater than 30 minutes): Burundi (181,702 HHs), Cameroon (154,453 HHs), Ethiopia (1,321,424 HHs), Mozambique (129,544 HHs), Niger (171,305 HHs), and Nigeria (1,045,647 HHs).

Conclusion

In the 24 SSA countries studied, an estimated 3.36 million children and 13.54 million adult females were responsible for water collection in households with collection times greater than 30 minutes. We suggest that accessibility to water, water collection by children, and gender ratios for water collection, especially when collection times are great, should be considered as key indicators for measuring progress in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.

Topics: Age, Youth, Gender, Women, Men, Girls, Boys, Health, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa Countries: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte D'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe

Year: 2016

Citation:

MacKenzie, Megan. 2009. “Empowerment Boom or Bust? Assessing Women's Post-Conflict Empowerment Initiatives” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 22 (2): 199-215. 

Author: Megan MacKenzie

Abstract:

Over the past decade, the term ‘empowerment’ has been generously employed and woefully ill-defined. In particular, women’s empowerment has been embraced by such a vast number of development actors that it appears to be a unifying mission within development. Despite the boom in women’s empowerment initiatives, there remains little critical analysis of the use of empowerment in general, and the perceived success or failures of specific empowerment initiatives. Using the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process in Sierra Leone as a case study, this paper examines how reintegration was described as a source of empowerment for women. Drawing from interviews and analysis of related policy discourses, it is argued that, rather than representing a radical shift in development approaches towards more inclusive and representative policies, empowerment projects are shaped by neoliberal ideas such as individualism, responsibility and economic order and carry implicit, gendered and disciplining messages about appropriate social behaviour.

Topics: Armed Conflict, DDR, Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Gender Roles Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2009

Citation:

Lowicki, Jane, Allison A Pillsbury, and Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. 2002. Precious Resources: Adolescents in the Reconstruction of Sierra Leone : Participatory Research Study with Adolescents and Youth in Sierra Leone, April-July 2002. New York, N.Y.: Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Authors: Jane Lowicki, Allison A. Pillsbury

Annotation:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction pg. 1

Chapter II. Executive Summary pg. 3

Chapter III. Map pg.  9 

Chapter IV. Adolescence and Youth: A Community in Crisis pg. 10

Chapter V. Education: A Linchpin for Peace and Recovery pg. 14

Chapter VI. Livelihood: Young People Need Skills and Jobs pg. 22

Chapter VII. Health: Myth Versus Reality pg. 26

Chapter VIII. Protection: Few Resources, Many Categories of Vulnerability pg. 36

Chapter IX. Psychosocial: Moving Beyond Manipulation and Abuse pg. 55

Chapter X. Survey Results: Education, Poverty and Health Care Are Top Concerns pg. 64

Chapter XI. Adolescent Researchers Lead the Study: Methodology and Lessons Learned pg. 80

Chapter XII. International, Regional, National and Local Responses to Adolescent and Youth Concerns pg. 90

Chapter XIII. Recommendations pg. 101

Chapter XIV. Appendices pg. 108

Sierra Leone: Glossary of Key Players and Other Basics pg. 108

Methodological Materials pg. 112

Task Force on Protection From Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises pg.117

Youth Organizations pg. 118

Acronyms pg. 120

Chapter XV. Endnotes pg. 122

Topics: Age, Youth, Gender, Girls, Boys, Health, Mental Health, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2002

Citation:

McKay, Susan. 2004. “Reconstructing Fragile Lives: Girls’ Social Reintegration in Northern Uganda and Sierra Leone.” Gender & Development 12 (3): 19–30.

Author: Susan McKay

Abstract:

In many contemporary African wars, girls and women participate in fighting forces. Their involvement is sometimes voluntary, but often they are coerced or abducted. In these forces, their roles range from porters, domestics, and 'wives' of male fighters, to spies and commanders. Few girls go through official UN processes of disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR). Their human rights severely violated, girls face enormous challenges to physical and psycho-social recovery. Typically, they return directly to their communities, or migrate to where friends or relatives live, or resettle in urban areas, where they are at increased risk of forced prostitution, sexual assault, and/or sexually transmitted diseases, including H IV/AIDS. This paper examines the experiences of girls who have returned from fighting forces in the recent conflict in Sierra Leone and the continuing conflict in northern Uganda. These experiences are compared with those of women who recalled their experiences when they were girl participants during the Mozambican war which ended in 1992.

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, DDR, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone, Uganda

Year: 2004

Citation:

Stovel, Laura, "Who are you for? Women, Children and Hierarchies of Power" In Long Road Home: Building Reconciliation and Trust in Post-War Sierra Leone, (Portland: Intersentia, 2010).

Author: Laura Stovel

Topics: Gender, Women, Transitional Justice, TRCs, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2010

Citation:

Millar, Gearoid. 2016. “Knowledge and Control in the Contemporary Land Rush: Making Local Land Legible and Corporate Power Applicable in Rural Sierra Leone.” Journal of Agrarian Change 16 (2): 206–24. doi:10.1111/joac.12102.

Author: Gearoid Millar

Abstract:

Substantial media and academic attention has recently focused on changing patterns of land control in the ‘Global South’, wherein foreign governments and corporations seek to control land for food, fuel and feed production. Recent scholarship describes such projects as symptomatic of a broader liberalization of global governance. However, few studies investigate how such liberal governance is applied on the ground in host countries. This paper fills this need by examining one such case in Sierra Leone, and describing the various technologies of control deployed to make local land legible to the corporate eye and therefore manageable within the liberal model. As I show, such imported technologies are disrupting and displacing traditional modes of authority and allowing the company concerned to apply power and manage both the land and the local people. At the same time, however, these technologies generate frictions on the ground, creating dangerous tensions between the various actors in the local setting.

Keywords: land-grab, bioenergy, liberalism, international development, Sierra Leone

Topics: Infrastructure, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2016

Citation:

Utas, Mats. 2009. “Sexual Abuse Survivors and the Complex of Traditional Healing : (G)local Prospects in the Aftermath of an African War.” NAI Policy Dialogue. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Author: Mats Utas

Keywords: civil war, sexual abuse, women, victims, humanitarian assistance, traditional medicine, healing, post-conflict reconstruction, reconciliation, Sierra Leone

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Gender, Women, Humanitarian Assistance, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2009

Citation:

Mibenge, Chiseche. 2010. “Investigating Outcomes of a Limited Gender Analysis of Enslavement in Post-Conflict Justice Processes.” Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 5 (3): 34–46. doi:10.1080/15423166.2010.213451362255.

Author: Chiseche Mibenge

Abstract:

The image of women sex slaves or sexually violated women in armed conflict has begun to dominate and shape international interventions, including justice, peacebuilding and development processes in post-conflict societies. Such interventions respond to women as 'rape victims' when in fact women have more complex narratives of their wartime experiences – experiences that may indeed include rape but also embrace community leadership, anti-war protest, military training and economic profit from wartime livelihoods. Furthermore, an exclusive focus on 'sex crimes' precludes an analysis of femininity(ies) and masculinity(ies) and the ways these gender identities shape modes of violence and victimisation. This article provides a comparative overview of interdisciplinary research representing both narrow and broad gender analyses of enslavement as well as emerging legal definitions of enslavement provided by the case law, indictments and statutes of contemporary international tribunals in The Hague, Tokyo and Freetown respectively.

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Justice, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, West Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Japan, Netherlands, Sierra Leone

Year: 2010

Citation:

Betancourt, Theresa S., Jessica Agnew-Blais, Stephen E. Gilman, David R. Williams, and B. Heidi Ellis. 2010. “Past Horrors, Present Struggles: The Role of Stigma in the Association between War Experiences and Psychosocial Adjustment among Former Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone.” Social Science & Medicine 70 (1): 17–26. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.038.

Authors: Theresa S. Betancourt, Jessica Agnew-Blais, Stephen E. Gilman, David R. Williams, B. Heidi Ellis

Abstract:

Keywords: war, mental health, children, adolescents, child soldiers, trauma, Stigma, Sierra Leone

Topics: Age, Youth, Armed Conflict, Combatants, Child Soldiers, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2010