TU875
TMA03 Question

As an external adviser, how would you advise interveners to work in
addressing the complex challenge of supporting social change that
addresses gender inequalities whilst ensuring the engagement and support
of those who are currently holding power and influence? Make full use of
at least one case study in your analysis

Your answer should be in the form of a report and be no more than 3000
words in length.
By Agwii Osborn, Personal Identifier: C7623335
1.0 Propose of the report
The purpose of this report is to provide advice to interveners working to address the complex challenge
of supporting social change that addresses gender inequalities whilst ensuring the engagement and
support of those who are currently holding power and influence in Sierra Leone.This report is written by
Osborn. Osborn is an independent consultant working in support of peace building initiatives in Uganda.
He has been hired by ACCORD to make a report on gender inequality in Sierra Leone from 2002 after
the civil war to 2011. The report will define social change, gender inequality and power relations, it will
then analyze situation of gender in the chosen period, and then analyze the stakeholders involved in the
social change process, identify possible intervention strategies and provide recommendations. It is
expected that, these recommendations will enable ACCORD and interveners working in Sierra Leone to
deal with inherent gender inequalities and structural issues whilst engaging all the stakeholders.
1.2.0 Definition of key concepts
1.2.1 Social change refers to a change in the social order of a given society, this includes; change in
behaviors, values or social institutions (Author)
1.2.2 Gender inequality can be referred to as sexual category of both men and women with contracted
social unfairness duties that are seen as a normal way of life within a society (Author)
1.2.3 Power relations is where there is unbalance of power between the people involved where one is
often more powerful than the other and where he or she feels strong and in control of the situation or
the other. Thus, the lesser powered person will as a result feel abused (Author)
3.0 Situation analysis
Sierra Leone is a highly patriarchal society, and institutionalised gender inequalities are exacerbated by
discriminatory customs, particularly with relation to marriage, property rights and sexual offences. The
high levels of illiteracy and poverty amongst Sierra Leonean women prevent them from upholding many
of their internationally recognised rights. Similarly, economic insecurity contributes to women’s
vulnerability to gender based violence. Their marginalization from local and national decision-making
processes further limits their ability to redress these gender inequalities. Any attempt to address gender
based inequality in Sierra Leone must take these post-conflict realities into account and prioritise
engagement with both men and women, including national and community leaders who are in a position
to influence attitudes towards gender inequality.
Of what I know the transitions born of conflict may yield positive social, economic, and political
changes for women. During some conflicts in which aspects of a functioning state and economy
continue to exist, women can take on roles as workers and laborers outside of their home, opportunities
which would never be available where the society is not in conflict. For example in (TU875, DVD7),
narrator says, ‘women like Hannah Foullah helped establish radio democracy to support president
Kabbah’s ousted government in 1997 with British backing’. In this way, conflict can open up intended
and unintended spaces for empowering women, effecting structural and social transformations and
producing new social, economic and political realities that redefine gender and caste hierarchies. Despite
these potentially positive aspects in most contexts, it is argued that, the result of conflict for most
women is a negative sum, women during and after conflict operates in black and grey markets they are
the least often employable because of their legally enforced second-class status among the gender. In
most post-conflict transitions, they are first to be fired and the last to be hired. In (TU875, DVD 7)
Zainab Bangura – former Presidential Candidate thus, confirms that in Sierra Leone women do not have
the economic rights and power, because of the traditional role in which they are placed. And so when
women have no economic power, they do not have even security at their work place thus they remain
powerless.
Women historically constitute the majority of the rural labor force, often as informal agricultural
workers or petty traders. They also play key role in food production and in providing basic goods for the
family, despite this, women are also frequently economically insecure. Jude-Elbushra argues that,
conflict affect the division of labor within society with the result that women assumed new economic
roles when men are in for fighting, and women hold domestic responsibilities as family heads. JudeElbushra, (cited in Yanakopulos and Hanlon, 2006). It is, argued that the incidence of female-headed
households and widows do increase in the absence of their husbands who, then (the women) take on the
added economic burden of caring for extended families after losing their male parents in the war.
Making them more vulnerable to the adverse effects of resource scarcity. Similarly Jemba Ngobeh –
Former RUF in (TU875, DVD 5) argues that, women in Sierra Leone take care of many children at
home when the male, the head of their households are fighting in war. This means, women have more
responsibilities to cater for their families thus, have to work for long hours assuming economic power
which was initially for men. However, in those homes where men are the heads, women have limited
decision-making power, and they are economically dependent, unable to control resources that they
themselves contribute to the household.
In most post-conflict countries, affirmative actions have been instituted to promote women’s
participation in governance and decision-making, an effort to grant women the rights to participate in
governance like men. Similarly in Sierra Leone women have the right to vote and to stand for election.
In 2009 African development bank group, states that, two members of the 20-member cabinet were
women, 16 women MPs (out of a total of 124 – 13.2%) and every local council had at least one female
member (ADBG, 2011), but in practice, women face restrictions on their right to stand for office, for
example women representations are not equal to men’s representation in parliament as shown in the
above figure, an evidence of power of man over women in governance. Study reveals that Sierra Leone
is a patriarchy society where women are barred from standing in for chieftaincy elections or in higher
position of leadership such as presidential candidate because of their gender, if they do then, it is
minimal. It is argued that, some women who stand in for elections do face hostility from men and other
women to their participation in politics, thus many have low self confidence in politics, while some of
them do not participate in politics because they are illiterate, thus making them powerless compared to
men. In light of that, Zainab Bangura – former Presidential Candidate in (TU875, DVD 5) points out
that “Women in Sierra Leone don’t have a lot of self-confidence, they tend to be secondary players to
issues, and so they side [with] the position that is taken by the male member”.
According to ADBG report gender inequality in Sierra Leone (2011), rape is prohibited in Sierra Leone
and is punishable by 14 years in prison, although the law does not specifically recognise spousal rape,
the US department of state reports that, rape is considered to be a ‘societal norm’ rather than a criminal
act and still being practiced in Sierra Leone, and that none spousal victims are encouraged to marry their
rapists. As far as I know, very little actions are taken against men raping women by government in
power in Africa, hence rape of women are on increase. Study shows that in Sierra Leone, rape was used
by the warring parties as weapons during civil war and still being practiced alongside other forms of
sexual and physical violence. Women were mainly being affected and society took it as a normal deal.
For example Bernadette Lahai – MP in (TU875, DVD5) makes the claim that ‘in Sierra Leon girls are
raped and used as sexual pleasures’. Proponents against violence of women seem to clearly demonstrate
that rape is a gender concern of power relations entrenched in the masculinity of men that has lowered
the power of women as unequal to men and consider women as property of men that can be used at any
time for anything thus, there is need for social change.
According to ADBG report on gender inequality in Sierra Leone (2011), more than 80 percent of the
country’s youth population in Sierra Leonean lives below the poverty line of $2 per day and over 60
percent of the youth are unemployed with large numbers of ‘working poor youth’ found especially in
urban areas. Most of the jobs are being held by old aged people, leaving the active population to suffer.
The unemployed and marginalized youth are significantly destructive when influenced, or conditioned
to live in distress: some may end up involved in sexual violence; others become thugs, gang rapists in
response to their irresponsiveness as alternatives for being jobless. Under this pressure, some people
may promise them job opportunities through joining the rebel movement or gender based violent acts
like human trafficking, forced labor which is happening in Africa. Similarly In (TU875, DVD5)
Bernadette Lahai MP in Sierra Leone threw up a concern of youths and the women in Sierra Leone
whom, when not brought to the forefront of development while still being unemployed pose a threat to
peace building and development. It is worth noting that, taking a peace building lens with strong
government and external interveners’ commitments is most loved strategies to women and youth that
may help address the root causes of inequality leading to war
4.0 Stakeholders analysis
In the Sierra Leone post war reconstruction, the stake holders include: external interveners, the
government of Sierra Leone, civil society organizations, the local people or the community including
traditional leaders:
External interveners such as DFID, USA, UK government shall support peace through
economic development aid and humanitarian relief at the request of the affected country, they can
intervene at the government level to transform established structures, provide monetary support to postconflict governments, and assist in the restoration of financial and political institutions.
The government of Sierra Leone shall play an integral role in peace building and reconstruction efforts
to oversee and engage the peace building process; involving variety of the community specialists,
including lawyers, economists, educators, and teachers, to contribute their expertise to help carry out
peace building projects
Civil society organizations involving women groups and other non-governmental organizations will
carry out small-scale projects to strengthen countries at the grassroots level and various organizations
that work to further peace-building efforts.
The local people or the community including traditional leaders and chiefs have more roles to play in
administering the community under their jurisdiction and have more mandates in the community
involving women, men, and the youths to hold consensus debate for peace building.
5.0 Possible intervention strategies
In addressing unployment Gibril Foday Musa – former student rebel quoted in (TU875, DVD 8) that
“The prospects for sustainable peace are to go back and address the deprivation and neglect of the
youths and women; those are the issues.” The donors such as DFID working in Sierra Leone need to
initiate consensus building among different stakeholders involving, the community, youths including
government in power, in the fact finding debate so as the government can learn to improve and come up
with policy that provides jobs for the youths to leverage the power with those old people in the
government. Similarly Jud-Elbushra quoted in Yanacopulo and Hanlon (2006) as saying that, ‘involving
youth means giving them a say in how things are run, though they may challenge generation of leaders
through their work.’ In African countries many governments are taking long to come to political
maturity and simply regard youth as a group to be controlled rather than included in critical government
opportunities or programs. Not knowing that, for sustainable peace to be achieved, the active aged group
like the youth is to be engaged in development economic undertakings such as in Construction
Company, working with non-governmental organizations and the government public services.
On Gender based violence Sierra Leone courts are mainly administered by men. This means that the
systems inherent are less likely to protect the rights of women and discriminatory decisions can be
difficult to overturn. Interveners need to engage with men to combat gender based violence like rape,
with chiefs and other community leaders who wield authority of the customary law. Similarly Cynthia
and Dolan Socialists in (TU875, AUDIO3) argue that in this way interveners will encourage men to
ensure that women have recourse to justice which will make them more active participants in efforts to
end the culture of tolerance and impunity surrounding gender violence, particularly with respect to
sexual and domestic violence. Therefore, violence against women is not a significant crime in a society
engulfed in a patriarchy society like Sierra Leone thus, little interest for court male officials to prosecute
the cases under general law where customary law is entrenched and so, interveners need to tackle the
cultural element of such a society through dialogue and negotiations for social change.
‘Peace building is a capacity-expanding exercise; it involves support for individuals and for formal and
informal institutions that play a role in managing or transforming conflict’. (Goodhand quoted in
Yanakopulos and Hanlon, 2006). External interveners need to draw attention to the underlying
governance issues of gender inequality and equip the relevant government institutions that will help to
serve and strengthen the gender power relations. Men do exercise power on women due to traditions
that exist in that community thus; to empower women may need sensitizing both men and women, on
governance issues. It is argued that, this has been a problem in countries like Sierra Leone for example,
Zainab Bangura – former Presidential Candidate in (TU875, DVD 5) points out that “the whole peace
process in Sierra Leone has not addressed the governance issue and that interveners have left it
completely to the government who did not learn from the first mistake in the last war.” this clearly
demonstrates the need for external interveners to monitor and support the government in power walk in
tandem with a ‘trotting’ child so as to establish a strong governance that protects the rights and
responsibility of all gender in the country and avert any future war due to structural inequalities among
gender.
The general lack of capacity, education and low literacy rates among women, especially in the rural
areas, is a problem in terms of implementing projects and in ensuring broad representation of women.
Interveners need to involve themselves in a range of programmatic components such as microfinance,
education or human rights work. External donors or interveners need to focus more on and sustain
funding to women group along with improved monitoring and coordination. Goodhand makes the claim
to address gender relations in (Hanlon and Yanacopulos, 2006) that, long-term funding and capacitybuilding support would enable women organizations to be able to network and strategise collectively to
accurately reflect their diversity and interests. When the government of Sierra Leone and the
international community in Sierra Leone work in synergy with interveners they can help address the
economic problem of women. Community based organization can be a pretty deal to work with in
partnership.
6.0 Recommendation
The following are the recommendations that will enable interveners working in Sierra Leone to deal
with inherent gender inequalities whilst engaging the entire stakeholder:
There should be Strong Partnerships with civil society actors so as to enhance and build on the already
existing capacities of local interveners. Noting that local community based organizations are untapped
resources in terms of developing mechanisms for prevention and response to gender inequality.
Therefore, donors should identify and link up with community based organizations and ensure that their
initiatives complement the work that is already being done on the ground to improve gender relations.
Gender does not mean women: Engaging with men, chiefs and other community leaders, men can also
be victims and must be part of the solution. Interveners in Sierra Leone should engage Chiefs and
community leaders who are most often men. Engaging with these key decision-makers is critical if
efforts to combat stigma, impunity, and discriminatory attitudes are to be successful. While doing that
Interveners are to include space for the participation of men, and strategic partnerships should be
developed with key individuals within the community to ensure that they take on the commitment to
address structural power that promotes men domination in the community.
The linkages between gender inequality and economic insecurity should be recognized knowing those
women’s economic insecurity and poverty more generally, are inter-linked with gender relations, and
can trap women and girls in potentially dangerous situations where they are vulnerable to sexual
violence and discrimination. Interveners should empower women to be financially independent and
providing viable options for income-generation to increase their overall personal security.
Legal reforms in Sierra Leone should be strengthened, coupled with widespread sensitization. The
reform of discriminatory laws, particularly those dealing with sexual offences and property rights;
Interveners such as, UK government, USAID donors can advocate for reforms at the highest
policymaking levels at the same time supporting local actors to lobby their own government for reform.
However, legal reforms should be coupled with extensive sensitisation and awareness-raising
programmes to disseminate information on the new laws and how women and men can use them to
protect themselves. Radio programmes, drama and other creative strategies should be developed with
community based organizations to ensure that information about legal reform processes reaches rural
areas particularly illiterate women and girls.
National interveners should be supported to implement and sustain their commitments to addressing
gender relations in a number of international standards that require governments to address gender based
violence in their national contexts. Interveners should support the governments in their efforts to
coordinate and implement reform laws and practices that discriminate against women and to ensure that
gender is effectively mainstreamed throughout all their policies at the sometime strengthening civil
society, particularly women’s organizations, to enable them participate in implementation processes as
well as hold their governments to account.
TOPIC;
INFLUENCE DIAGRAM SHOWING THE COMPLEX CHALLENGE OF SUPPORTING
SOCIAL CHANGE THAT ADDRESSES GENDER INEQUALITIES IN SIERRA LEON FROM
2002-20014
Donors
Community Leaders
Government
Community
Gender Awareness
Women/youth
Reduces discriminations
Addressing
gender
Inequality
Legal Reform
Awareness raising
Reduce stigma
Drama GPS
civil society Orgs
Form women group
Workshops
Radio program
Community Based Organizations
References
African Development Bank Group (2011) Sierra Leone Country Gender Profile 2011, Freetown: ADBG
Sierra Leone.
The Open University (2006) TU875 Development Management: War Intervention and Development,
‘DVD 5: DVD case studies’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
The Open University (2006) TU875 Development Management: War Intervention and Development,
‘DVD 7: DVD case studies’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
The Open University (2006) TU875 Development Management: War Intervention and Development,
‘DVD 8: DVD case studies’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
The Open University (2006) TU875 Development Management: War Intervention and Development,
‘AUDIO 3: AUDIO case studies’, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Yanacopulos, H. and Hanlon, J. (eds) (2006) Civil War, Civil Peace. Open University Press, Milton
Keynes.