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Conflict-affected youth are at risk for poor psychological and social outcomes, yet few receive mental health services. Strategies to expand access and sustain evidence-based interventions (EBIs) across novel delivery platforms must be tested. The present study was a hybrid type II implementation-effectiveness trial using a cluster randomized design. The primary goal was to evaluate feasibility and impact of using the collaborative team approach to deliver the Youth Readiness Intervention (YRI), an EBI, integrated into a youth entrepreneurship program (ENTR) with quality control in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Youth were screened and randomly assigned to control, ENTR, or combined YRI and ENTR (YRI+ENTR). Implementation outcomes were dissemination and implementation indicators, competence, and fidelity. Effectiveness outcomes were emotion regulation, psychological distress, and interpersonal functioning. Secondary outcomes were third-party reporter assessments of youth functioning and behavior. Data were collected and analyzed from 1,151 youth participants and 528 third-party reporters. Scores on implementation constructs, competence, and fidelity demonstrated acceptable intervention response and quality. YRI+ENTR participants showed overall improvements in depression (β = −.081, 95% CI −0.124 to −0.038, d = −0.154) and anxiety (β = −.043, 95% CI −0.091 to −0.005, d = 0.082) symptoms compared with control participants. Community leaders indicated that YRI+ENTR participants demonstrated improvements in overall work or training performance compared with control participants (β = −.114, 95% CI 0.004 to 0.232, d = 0.374). Integration of EBIs such as the YRI into youth employment programs has the potential to address limited reach of EBIs in conflict and post-conflict settings. A collaborative team implementation approach can facilitate integration and fidelity. In a Hybrid Type-II Implementation-Effectiveness trial conducted in Sierra Leone, researchers tested a Collaborative Team Approach (CTA) for delivering an evidence-based mental health intervention, the Youth Readiness Intervention (YRI), within a youth entrepreneurship program. A total of 1,151 youth participated in the study, with outcomes measured on youth mental health indicators of emotional regulation, psychological distress, and interpersonal functioning, as well as implementation indicators, competence, and fidelity. Results demonstrated that the integrated YRI and entrepreneurship program led to significant improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms compared to the control group. Community leaders also noted enhanced overall performance in YRI participants, suggesting that integrating evidence-based interventions into youth employment programs can effectively address mental health challenges in low-resource regions. We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science. We actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our author group. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group. The author list of this paper includes contributors from the location and/or community where the research was conducted who participated in the data collection, design, analysis, and/or interpretation of the work. One or more of the authors of this paper received support from a program designed to increase minority representation in science. Youth FORWARD Phase 2 YRI and EPP Study; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ ; NCT03542500. Youth Functioning and Organizational Success for West African Regional Development (Youth FORWARD): Study Protocol; https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.202000009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the global north, climate-smart fisheries (CSF) policies prioritise steps to combat CO 2 emissions from SSF, in a response to the fact that globally, CO 2 emissions from small-scale fisheries (SSFs) increased by over 5.8 times between 1950 and 2016. However, in the global south, CSF policies on SSF prioritise food and income security over CO 2 emission reduction. In this paper, we examine this apparently contrasting interpretation of CSF as a conceptual framework to interpret the case study of Sierra Leone, one of Africa's poorest countries where we found that small-scale coastal fishers are preoccupied with mitigating the impact of climate change on their food and income security rather than with lowering their CO 2 emissions. The self-image of SSF in Sierra Leone is that of being victims of climate change rather than perpetrators of it, and they justify this stance by claiming their livelihoods are being threatened by climate change. However, it could be argued that the best way to keep Sierra Leonean SSF CO 2 emissions low is to prioritise their food and income security: in other words, that food security and CO 2 reductions are complementary not contradictory. This, at any rate, is the argument of the current paper. The fieldwork for this study entailed co-created research in Sierra Leone and it involved 103 stakeholders who met face-to-face and online between January and March 2022 and through village meetings. The results of this fieldwork showed that food and income security and not CO 2 emissions are the priorities in the stakeholders' interpretation of CSF. However, if food and income security are not prioritised, communities are likely to adopt maladaptive strategies which undermine marine protected areas (MPAs) and exacerbate overfishing, thereby increasing CO 2 emissions. Moreover, investment in aquaculture as a supplementary or alternative livelihood can directly increase food security and incomes and at the same time indirectly serve as a CO 2 mitigation measure. In addition, weather information communication is an important CSF measure which both protects fishers from the impact of climate change and reduces their CO 2 emissions. Accordingly, we argue that the contrast between reducing CO 2 emissions and protecting food security from climate change may be more apparent than real in Sierra Leone coastal fisheries, since both policies may work in tandem together. This study therefore contributes a new interpretation of CSF in the global south: instead of seeing it as posing a conflict between CO 2 emissions reductions and food security, we have shown the two objectives can be complementary. The wider implication of this paper is that CSF strategies for SSFs do not have to be polarised between the global north's focus on the reduction of CO 2 emissions from fishing vessels and the global south's focus on the mitigation of the impact of global warming on SSFs. There are circumstances when the two objectives may be in harmony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper explores recent ASM reforms in Sierra Leone and their potential to contribute to the SDGs. • Entrenched informality in the ASM sector is making policy reforms challenging and unsustainable. • The paper explores the links between Chiefs and politicians, which perpetuates informality in the ASM sector. • The persistence of informality must be dismantled if ASM reforms are to succeed snd contribute to the SDGs. In recent years, governments, donors and policy makers across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have increasingly realised the potential of formalizing and supporting artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low tech, labour-intensive mineral processing and extracting. A significant body of evidence suggests that ASM has become the most important rural non-farm activity across SSA, and by making it the centrepiece of new rural development strategies being launched across the continent, it could help governments meet a number of targets linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Focusing on the West African country of Sierra Leone, this paper explores recent reforms to ASM, examining both their potential to support a formalized sector, and to make contributions to the SDGs. In doing so, two broad sets of formalization reforms that have taken place, or are underway, are analysed. First, the paper examines Sierra Leone's legal, policy and regulatory reforms that have shaped the development of a number of laws and policies, including the Mines and Minerals Act of 2009. Second, it analyses institutional reforms resulting from the splitting of policy making and regulatory functions, especially the decentralization of the artisanal mining licencing process. The paper argues that beneath these changes, there exists intractable continuities of informality that make reforms in the sector superficial, unsustainable, and potentially a barrier to attaining the SDGs. Underlining these continuities, the paper suggests, is the role that ASM has traditionally played in a political economy that links powerful local Chieftains with national politicians in mutually beneficial relationships, which invariably render formal state regulators such as the National Minerals Agency and Environment Protection Agency largely uncoordinated, and operationally weak. The paper concludes by arguing that that the persistence of informality in the sector needs to first be dismantled as a rational strategy for those who profit from it, and only then can sustainable mining reforms be linked to broader development initiatives, such as attaining the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) piloted VaxTrac, an electronic immunization registry (EIR), in an urban district to improve management of vaccination records and tracking of children who missed scheduled doses. We aimed to document lessons learned to inform decision-making on VaxTrac and similar EIRs' future use. Ten out of 50 urban health facilities that implemented VaxTrac were purposively selected for inclusion in a rapid mixed-method assessment from November to December 2017. For a one-month period, records of six scheduled vaccine doses among children < 2 years old in VaxTrac were abstracted and compared to three paper-based records (register of under-two children, daily tally sheet, and monthly summary form). We used the under-two register as the reference gold standard for comparison purposes. We interviewed and observed 10 heath workers, one from each selected facility, who were using VaxTrac. Overall, VaxTrac captured < 65% of the vaccine doses reported in the paper-based sources, but in the largest health facility VaxTrac captured the highest number of doses. Two additional notable patterns emerged: 1) the aggregated data sources reported higher doses administered compared to the under-two register and VaxTrac; 2) data sources that need real-time data capture during the vaccination session reported fewer doses administered compared to the monthly HF2 summary form. Health workers expressed that the EIR helped them to shorten the time to manage, summarize, and report vaccination records. Workflows for data entry in VaxTrac were inconsistent among facilities and rarely integrated into existing processes. Data sharing restrictions contributed to duplicate records. Although VaxTrac helped to shorten the time to manage, summarize, and report vaccination records, data sharing restrictions coupled with inconsistent and inefficient workflows were major implementation challenges. Readiness-to-introduce and sustainability should be carefully considered before implementing an EIR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) research has focused mainly on capital cities, has avoided conflict-affected locations and rarely considered the challenges faced by young cultivators. The latter are particularly important because of the vulnerability of unemployed young people to being drawn into violent, criminal or antisocial behaviour in conflict or fragile states. This paper examines the post-crisis livelihood challenges of youth farmers in Kenema, Sierra Leone's third largest city. The research on which this paper is based comprised multiple methods, including GIS mapping, in-depth interviews and group discussions with youth cultivators and key informants in several sites in Kenema city. Research participants gave first-hand accounts of their experiences of the Civil War and the subsequent Ebola epidemic crisis, and the paper explores their transformation from dangerous living to productive agriculturalists within Kenema. The research uses an exploratory approach to critically examine the engagement of youth in urban and peri-urban agriculture, as a strategy for encouraging young people to become responsible citizens who support city and national development. The paper challenges the pessimistic view that contemporary urban youth in developing countries are characterised by disaffection leading to crime. The study reveals how urban youth in post-crisis contexts can play a vital role in national development when a proactive and pro-youth public platform is evident locally. Appropriate resource mobilisation can unlock the latent potentials of youth for both self and community development. • Reveals the importance of secondary cities in the development of our understanding of urban and periurban agriculture. • Provides evidence of urban and periurban agriculture providing benefits to livelihood opportunities for youth. • Shows how agriculture can divert young cultivators from crime while contributing to food security for the city. • Provides 4 policy recommendations to get urban youth engaged in agriculture in post conflict and fragile states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mini-grids are discussed as a cost-effective and sustainable solution to provide electricity to populations lacking access, of which the majority reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Projects struggle to be fiscally solvent, however, in part because electricity demand from rural households is low relative to installed mini-grid generation and distribution capacity, making it difficult to recoup investment costs. This paper explores how productive uses of electricity may increase electricity demand and evaluates impacts of increased electrical load to the technical and economic metrics of mini-grid projects. A full cashflow analysis is completed to evaluate business model efficacy for mini-grid developers and investors for a case study of a township in Sierra Leone. Productive uses of electricity are shown to have minimal improvement to the financial viability of residential mini-grid projects, and subsidies are required to reach financial metrics suitable to attract private investment. Of the productive uses investigated, year-round loads had the most positive impact to payback periods. Seasonal loads offer only small improvements to payback period and internal rate of return because they require extra generation assets to meet peak demand in the high season that are left idle or heavily under-loaded during the low season. Overall, the study finds the most effective way to improve financial outcomes through productive uses is to increase the mini-grid load factor with productive uses of electricity that operate year-round. • PUE interventions that increase mini-grid load factor improve project financials. • Higher load factors better utilized hybrid systems with generator, solar, storage. • PUE type and load profile significantly affects mini-grid design and financials. • Constant-load PUE types improved financials over seasonal loads. • Seasonal PUEs increase capital costs that go largely unused during the off-season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the impacts of fluctuating fuel prices on a diversity of local livelihoods by exploring the local factors influencing increasing fuel, transport, and agricultural produce prices and how different individuals – along gender, age, marital status, employment, and rural-urban lines – experience and respond to the fluctuating price of fuel and food products in different ways in Sierra Leone. The findings are based on ethnographic data from Makeni city in Bombali District, north Sierra Leone, collected between August 2020 and February 2021. Within this time the price of fuel at filling stations in the country rose from the equivalent of $0.50 (Old Le7000) to $0.61 (Old Le8500). The study finds while some individuals, such as Jebou (illegal fuel) sellers and pushcart drivers benefit from rising fuel prices; others, such as okada (commercial motorbike) riders, farmers, market traders and women responsible for feeding their families are negatively affected by the fluctuating price of fuel both economically and socially. Beyond this, the findings show how individuals respond to and shape the effects of increased fuel, transport, and agricultural produce prices. In so doing, the findings contribute to academic debates by (i) exploring the relationship between fuel and food prices at the local level, rather than at the global level; and (ii) highlighting the nuanced ways Sierra Leoneans experience and respond to unstable fuel costs. In contrast to the dominant narrative that presents Africans as a homogenous group of victims of fluctuating global oil prices, the findings demonstrate the heterogeneity of individual responses. • Soaring fuel and food prices in Sierra Leone • Local factors that shape domestic fuel and food costs • Nuanced experiences and responses to increasing fuel and living costs • Need to find alternative transport means to protect local livelihoods [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects critically on the transformational impacts the recent Ebola epidemic has had in diamond-rich areas of rural Sierra Leone. It focuses specifically on the country's ‘diggers’, a sizable group of labourers who occupy the bottom of the country's artisanal diamond mine production pyramid. Based upon research conducted in the diamond-producing localities of Kenema and Kono, the paper argues how, in sharp contrast to the gloomy picture painted in the literature about their existences and struggles, diggers exhibited considerable resilience during the Ebola crisis. Their diversified livelihood portfolios proved to be effective survival strategies and buffers against the shocks and stresses brought about by lengthy periods of quarantine, and during times when mobility was restricted by the government in a bid to prevent the spreading of the disease. Drawing inspiration from the resilience literature, the paper captures the essence of these survival strategies, which should be viewed as latest reshuffling and expansion of diggers' rural livelihood portfolios. Policymakers and donors have yet to embrace fully these changes in a country where the Ebola recovery period promises to be lengthy and at a time when fresh, locally-informed rural development solutions are in short supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic presented a challenging setting in which to carry out clinical trials. This paper reports findings from social science research carried out in Kambia, Northern Sierra Leone during first year of an Ebola vaccine trial (August 2015–July 2016). The social science team collected data through ethnographic observation, 42 in depth interviews; 4 life narratives; 200 exit interviews; 31 key informant interviews; and 8 focus group discussions with trial participants and community members not enrolled in the trial. Whilst research often focuses on why people refuse vaccination, we instead explore participant motivations for volunteering for the study, in spite of prevailing anxieties, rumours and mistrust during and after the Ebola outbreak. In so doing the paper contributes to on-going debates about research ethics and community engagement in resource poor contexts, offering reflections from an emergency and post-epidemic setting. We analyse participants' perceptions of the risks and benefits of participations, highlighting the importance of a contextual approach. We focus on four types of motivation: altruism; curiosity and hope; health-seeking; and notions of exchange, and argue for the role of social science in developing grounded research ethics and community engagement strategies that can take into account context and local realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In 2015, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agreed to consolidate data recorded by MoHS and international partners during the Ebola epidemic and create the Sierra Leone Ebola Database (SLED). The primary objectives were helping families to identify the location of graves of their loved ones who died from any cause at the time of the Ebola epidemic and creating a data source for epidemiological research. The Family Reunification Program fulfills the first SLED objective. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Family Reunification Program (Program) development, functioning, and results.Methods: The MoHS, CDC, SLED Team, and Concern Worldwide developed, tested, and implemented methodology and tools to conduct the Program. Family liaisons were trained in protection of the personally identifiable information.Results: The SLED Family Reunification Program allows families in Sierra Leone, who did not know the final resting place of their loved ones, to be reunited with their graves and to bring them relief and closure.Conclusion: Continuing family requests in search of the burial place of loved ones 5 years after the end of the epidemic shows that the emotional burden of losing a family member and not knowing the place of burial does not diminish with time. As of February 2021, the Program continues and is described to allow its replication for other emergency events including COVID-19 and new Ebola outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: During the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and responding partners under the coordination of the National Ebola Response Center (NERC) and the MoHS's Emergency Operation Center (EOC) systematically recorded information from the 117 Call Center system and district alert phone lines, case investigations, laboratory sample testing, clinical management, and safe and dignified burial records. Since 2017, CDC assisted MoHS in building and managing the Sierra Leone Ebola Database (SLED) to consolidate these major data sources. The primary objectives of the project were helping families to identify the location of graves of their loved ones who died at the time of the Ebola epidemic through the SLED Family Reunification Program and creating a data source for epidemiological research. The objective of this paper is to describe the process of consolidating epidemic records into a useful and accessible data collection and to summarize data characteristics, strength, and limitations of this unique information source for public health research.Methods: Because of the unprecedented conditions during the epidemic, most of the records collected from responding organizations required extensive processing before they could be used as a data source for research or the humanitarian purpose of locating burial sites. This process required understanding how the data were collected and used during the outbreak. To manage the complexity of processing the data obtained from various sources, the Sierra Leone Ebola Database (SLED) Team used an organizational strategy that allowed tracking of the data provenance and lifecycle.Results: The SLED project brought raw data into one consolidated data collection. It provides researchers with secure and ethical access to the SLED data and serves as a basis for the research capacity building in Sierra Leone. The SLED Family Reunification Program allowed Sierra Leonean families to identify location of the graves of loved ones who died during the Ebola epidemic.Conclusions: The SLED project consolidated and utilized epidemic data recorded during the Sierra Leone Ebola Virus Disease outbreak that were collected and contributed to SLED by national and international organizations. This project has provided a foundation for developing a method of ethical and secure SLED data access while preserving the host nation's data ownership. SLED serves as a data source for the SLED Family Reunification Program and for epidemiological research. It presents an opportunity for building research capacity in Sierra Leone and provides a foundation for developing a relational database. Large outbreak data systems such as SLED provide a unique opportunity for researchers to improve responses to epidemics and indicate the need to include data management preparedness in the plans for emergency response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) adopted by the International Council on Metals and Minerals (ICMM) represents a major step in the mineral industry's quest to respect cultural heritage and promote community development in host communities for sustainable and conflict-free mining. Using Sierra Leone, West Africa, as a case study, textual analysis of relevant state policies and laws and other pertinent documents, this paper reveals the inherent conflicts between centuries-old customary conceptions of land use and management practices—specifically, the landlord–stranger cultural institution—and modern, largely western, conceptions of land use by multinational mining companies and the national government. The inability of government to formulate, and implement a cultural heritage friendly land and mining policy has led to recurrent conflict and militates against sustainable community development. The mining multinational corporation, the embodiment of the powerful stranger, usurps customary land rights through state-level legal statutes and mining policy, and this has created the stranger hegemony phenomenon. The paper also argues the colonial and postcolonial state has been complicit in reconfiguring landlord–stranger relationships in mining areas. The study reveals that the stranger presence in mining areas has become an entrenched problem exacerbated by power imbalances embedded in statutory laws. The findings enable an understanding of the complexities of meeting social sustainability goals on cultural heritage and community development as articulated by the ICMM. Rectifying these imbalances call for more culturally sensitive policy and legal reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, neoliberal reforms, soaring commodity prices and heightened global resource demands have led to significant growth in extractive industry investment across sub-Saharan Africa. A surge of investment has triggered a variety of responses in mineral-rich communities – from outright rejection, to protest over labour conditions, to acceptance in anticipation of gainful employment. Drawing on recent research carried out in Kono District in Sierra Leone, this article critically explores these contrasting responses to mining activities, by focussing on how youth perceive and respond to extractive industry expansion. In doing so, the paper broadens understanding of why youth perceptions of mining investment differ, and illuminates the various factors underlying a diverse range of responses to the expansion of extractive industries. The focus on youth and its heterogeneity as a social category has important policy implications and the paper makes a contribution to understanding the dynamics and diversity of youth livelihood strategies in resource rich developing countries. In making a distinction between autonomous spaces of community-led development 'from below' and corporate controlled spaces of development 'from above', the article reflects on how youth perceptions of extractive industry expansion may also be influencing the ways in which mining companies understand and fashion their business and social responsibility strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts that increased transnational extractive industry investments are having on local populations in natural resource-rich regions of sub-Saharan Africa are diverse, far-reaching and complex. A surge of recent investment has been variously met by resistance and rejection, by acquiescence combined with demands for better labour conditions, and outright acceptance in anticipation of gainful employment. Drawing on recent field-based research carried out in diamondiferous Kono District in Sierra Leone, this paper critically explores these contrasting responses to mining activities, by focusing on how youth perceive and respond to extractive industry expansion. The analysis is particularly salient in the case of Sierra Leone, as Kono's prime alluvial diamond areas are becoming ‘mined out’, and artisanal and small-scale operations are being replaced by more capital intensive modes of mechanized extraction. In an environment where the demand for unskilled labour is diminishing, and young people are facing pressing livelihood needs in an employment-constrained economy, youth are playing important roles in rights-based mobilizations around mining. The paper aims to broaden understanding of youth perceptions of mining investment, and illuminate the various factors underlying a diverse range of responses to the expansion of extractive industries. It concludes by reflecting on how youth perceptions of extractive industry expansion may also be influencing the ways in which mining companies understand and fashion their business and social responsibility strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral processing and extraction – has evolved in sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades. The analysis focuses specifically on the types of entrepreneurs who pursue work at, and innovation that occurs in, the region's ASM sites, using ideas debated heavily in the management literature, as well as complementary theories and concepts from other disciplines, including development studies, anthropology and human geography. Drawing on findings from ongoing research in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the locations of two of the largest and most complex ASM economies in sub-Saharan Africa, it is argued that legal and policy frameworks implemented for the sector are not aligned with the needs and capabilities of operators, and have therefore impeded efforts to formalize activities. In both countries, these frameworks have created and subsequently galvanized the boundary between two very different 'worlds': on the one hand, that of a burgeoning semi-formal artisanal group with limited capacity to mechanize, and on the other hand, that of a small number of individuals who have managed to overcome crippling financial barriers to secure titles to mine using more advanced technology. • Explores how artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has evolved in sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades. • Profiles the types of entrepreneurs who pursue work at, and innovation strategies deployed in, the region's ASM sites. • Argues that legal and policy frameworks implemented for the sector are not aligned with the needs of operators. • Draws on findings from research conducted in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the locations of two dynamic ASM sectors. • In both countries, these frameworks have created and subsequently galvanized the boundary between formal and informal ASM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The pandemic affected adolescent girls in unique ways with wide social implication in terms of gender equality, educational attainment and social inequality. • Poverty and wealth intersect with other forms of inequality delimiting the options available to girls. • Girls are key to households' coping strategies through economizing behaviors, work, and care. • Post-pandemic responses should be age and gender sensitive. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to widen inequalities and hamper the SDG commitments of gender equality and poverty reduction. In Africa, it is feared that the social consequences of the pandemic will undo the progress in gender equality achieved over the last two decades. Through in-depth qualitative telephone interviews with 37 adolescent girls in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone this paper sheds light on the economic consequences of the pandemic on girls. Adolescent girls' experience of the pandemic is strongly mediated by their household configuration, resources and geographical context. Our data identifies three groups: i) sheltered from the economic impact of the pandemic, ii) coping or adjusting, and iii) severely affected. We also identify a fourth group of girls, found only in Burkina Faso, whose lives have been affected by conflict and who perceive the impact of the pandemic to be minor compared to enduring violence and trauma. Our analysis shows the unequal impact of COVID-19 and the measures implemented to contain it is likely to increase economic inequality, particularly in areas with longer-lasting restrictions, as coping mechanisms erode over time. Furthermore, the pandemic is likely to accelerate marriages and the end of schooling thus increasing gender inequality. Such effects are also mediated by resources girls have access to. We argue that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) ideals requires innovative, appropriate and sustainable solutions with the combined effort of governments and the development community that respond to the lived experiences of adolescent girls. Finally, necessary attention to the consequences of the pandemic should not detract from addressing ongoing issues affecting adolescent girls, including poverty and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sierra Leone has recently emerged from a long period of political instability and is ranked among the world''s poorest countries. During the decade-long civil war of the 1990s, widespread forced out-migration left much of the countryside abandoned, as rural residents fled to the safety of the capital city, Freetown. Consequently, food production became severely dislocated and, in the post-conflict era, the state of the agricultural sector has become a major concern to governmental and non-governmental development agencies. Focussing on the question of urban food security in Freetown, this paper examines the incidence, dynamics and significance of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) among households, at a crucial point in Sierra Leone''s post-conflict reconstruction phase. Drawing on recent field-based data, the paper contributes to the growing debate concerning how urban planning and development might be reconciled with the promotion of an ‘enabling environment’ in which UPA is encouraged and supported. It is argued that in the case of Freetown, a detailed evaluation of UPA is urgently needed to determine how agricultural activities can fit in with urban structure, urban problems and the livelihoods of a wide range of actors in and around the city. The paper concludes that not only is UPA a vital element in ensuring household food security, but it could potentially play a fundamental role in safeguarding the urban food continuum and promoting sustainable urbanization in the post-conflict period and beyond. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As skyrocketing global food and energy prices have recently triggered a stream of riots in urban centres across sub-Saharan Africa, underscoring the desperation of urban residents as food becomes unobtainable, cities in the West African country of Sierra Leone face a series of new challenges as the country emerges from a decade of civil war during the 1990s. Focusing on the question of urban food security in and around Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, this paper explores the proliferation of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as a response to the rising demand for food and employment. In this context, the paper examines a recent upsurge in cooperative activity associated with UPA in Freetown, drawing upon the knowledge and perceptions of those involved in urban farming associations. In seeking to better understand the associational and livelihood strategies of urban residents in the post-war era, the paper highlights how UPA activities are currently driving a resurgence in community-based cooperation, a development which could play an important role in safeguarding livelihoods and urban food security during a particularly critical point in the country’s post-conflict recovery trajectory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Hybrid power systems have the capability to incorporate significant renewable energy penetration for a small autonomous system while still maintaining reliable grid stability. While there are many papers covering the optimization of component size and dispatch strategy, far fewer papers contain experimental performance data from hybrid systems. Mercy Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone is converting their power system into a photovoltaic (PV)–diesel hybrid system, thus providing an opportunity to examine the change in system performance before, during, and after the conversion. Due to the seasonal availability of electric power in Sierra Leone, two datasets representing two distinct load profiles are analyzed: Wet Season and Dry Season. The difference in generation efficiency, cost per kWh, generator runtime, and fuel consumption are calculated between a diesel-only generation baseline and the recorded hybrid system performance. The results indicated that the hybrid system significantly reduces operation costs; approximately 37% less during Dry Season and 64% reduction in the Wet Season than a diesel-only generator serving the same load. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Marine fisheries play an important role in the economy of Sierra Leone, supporting livelihoods and contributing significantly to food security. This paper looks in detail at how the performance of fisheries was impacted by the ten year civil war, an event which contributed to the country''s reputation for being a “failed state”. The paper focuses mainly on the artisanal fisheries sector, which employs the majority of the country''s coastal population, and demonstrates how the conflict caused major social dislocation to fishing communities as well as reducing the productive capacity of the fleet. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy challenges now facing Sierra Leone, particularly the prevention of resource looting through illegal fishing of the offshore stocks and the development of strategies to enable the potential wealth of these fisheries to be captured. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world with a literacy level of 51%. The government has oficially abolished school fees; however, families still have to cover various education-related costs for their children. This paper analyses the nature of the schooling costs in Sierra Leone. It shows that despite the abolition of school fees, schooling costs remain prohibitively high. Based on field research – which involved the observation of schools and interviews with teachers, pupils, and parents – the paper posits that institutional factors may prevent the reduction of these costs. • The lack of harmonisation between the new policy and existing practices constrains the implementation of the free education. • Contradictions in existing educational practices lead to the maintenance of school fees in Sierra Leone. • Some schooling costs in Sierra Leone arise due to the structural shortages within the educational system itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sierra Leone energy sector suffers from multiple problems of inadequate capacity and finance. Most of the population does not have access to electricity, and supply is often unreliable. At the same time the country has been trying to implement significant structural and economic reforms, aimed both at government policy objectives and more market-driven operation. The focus of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of current decision-making processes and issues in terms of their impact on inception, planning, implementation and operation of projects. This should assist consideration of organisation and governance for the sector. The method has been to apply the Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) matrix with surveys of key actors in the sector including ministries, utilities and regulatory bodies, development partners and independent power producers. These were predominantly middle or senior managers most closely associated with the electrification. An initial online survey with 11 key informants allowed us to identify important linkages in decision-making processes. A further 16 face-to-face interviews with 30 interviewees added depth and helped identify weaknesses and challenges. Key findings relate to the conflicting frameworks of market driven pressures and government or policy driven objectives, and the lack of a clear pathway for change. Resulting problems include misaligned goals, unclear or inconsistent communication channels and ambiguous responsibilities. At the same time the sector is hindered by a lack of capacity, insufficient finance and threats from 'briefcase organisations'. The paper also discusses some key remedies for these issues which include streamlined decision-making processes, clearly defined stakeholder roles and improved communication channels. • Use of RACI matrix to map the decision-making powers of identified stakeholders. • Actors with knowledge and influence in Sierra Leone's energy sector are identified. • Interviews with 30 identified core stakeholders in 16 face-to-face interviews. • Decision-making in the electricity sector is influenced by varying actors' interests. • Study finds a need to define key roles and improve communication and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freetown challenges, even more than other cities, entrenched categories of formal and informal. In this paper, the discussion on informality encompasses both the distinction drawn between informal and formal settlements, and between informal and formal economic activities. It is difficult to speak without using these terms given that they are so deeply part of policy discourses in the country by government and development agencies. However, when deployed as an analytical lens, they are demonstrably problematic. Drawing from the findings of a research project, this paper provides insights on what the activities and spaces referred to in policy as "informal" are and what this classification does. It reveals the political use of the term informality, arguing that it is wrong to frame informality as belonging to the poor and challenging the idea that formality and informality are clearly distinct spaces or economic activities in the city. It also demonstrates the fundamental contribution of what policy makers call "informal" to the wellbeing and development of cities, by providing what the state and the "formal" sector are unable to provide: employment and social protection, particularly important for the post-conflict Sierra Leone context. The paper calls for a deep understanding of the contributions of the livelihoods of the residents of informal settlements and a change of criminalisation policies that undermine them. • challenges entrenched policy discourses on urban in/formality and reveals the political use of the in/formality categorisation • provides insights on what the activities and spaces referred to in policy as "informal" are and what this classification does • reveals the political use of the in/formality categorisation • challenges the idea that informality belongs to the poor, and that formality and informality are clearly distinct • demonstrates the fundamental contribution of what policy makers call "informal" to the wellbeing and development of cities • shows how the "informal" provides what the state and the "formal" sector are unable to: employment and social protection, particularly important for the post-conflict Sierra Leone context [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban development and planning challenges facing Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone are typical of the significant issues which face most cities in Africa, including rapid growth, resource constraints, burgeoning informal settlements and inadequate planning regimes. In parallel with many African cities, colonial neglect and racial bias in planning the urban form created a city which is ill-prepared to cope with post-independence growth. This paper examines how these trends have played themselves out in the case of Freetown, and also draws attention to particular issues which have exacerbated urban development, and the environmental and planning challenges facing the city. Notably, the effects of the devastating civil war and Ebola outbreak in 2014/15 are discussed. While the city council and local NGOs are attempting to address local development challenges, significantly more needs to be done to improve the well-being of Freetown's population and this paper provides an indication of how urban planning might contribute to this. Unlabelled Image • We explore the colonial, early independence and postcolonial planning and management approaches, discussing their challenges and shortcomings. • We analyse the evidence of planning and urban management in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 1787 to the present day. • We Illustrate the manifestation of the colonial and postcolonial legacies in the structure of the city. • We show how the imprint of history has left the city vulnerable during a series of humanitarian crises. • There is an urgent need to build planning and urban management capacity, to devolve power to the city and to update policies and legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether the inclusion of social scientists in the UK policy network that responded to the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone (2013–16) was a transformational moment in the use of interdisciplinary research. In contrast to the existing literature, that relies heavily on qualitative accounts of the epidemic and ethnography, this study tests the dynamics of the connections between critical actors with quantitative network analysis. This novel approach explores how individuals are embedded in social relationships and how this may affect the production and use of evidence. The meso-level analysis, conducted between March and June 2019, is based on the traces of individuals' engagement found in secondary sources. Source material includes policy and strategy documents, committee papers, meeting minutes and personal correspondence. Social network analysis software, UCINet, was used to analyse the data and Netdraw for the visualisation of the network. Far from being one cohesive community of experts and government officials, the network of 134 people was weakly held together by a handful of super-connectors. Social scientists' poor connections to the government embedded biomedical community may explain why they were most successful when they framed their expertise in terms of widely accepted concepts. The whole network was geographically and racially almost entirely isolated from those affected by or directly responding to the crisis in West Africa. Nonetheless, the case was made for interdisciplinarity and the value of social science in emergency preparedness and response. The challenge now is moving from the rhetoric to action on complex infectious disease outbreaks in ways that value all perspectives equally. • Unique focus on empirical social network data that explore how relationships affect evidence use. • Disputes claims that the Ebola research-policy network was interdisciplinary and transformative. • Social science sub-community weakly connected into core policy network reducing their influence. • Anthropologists were most successful when they framed their expertise in terms of widely accepted concepts. • Africans almost entirely absent from network which was dominated by UK biomedical scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sierra Leone girls are 23.4% less likely to attend secondary education than boys. This difference between sexes increases the gender gap in educational attainment since women's education is positively associated with children's educational wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between children's school attendance, their mothers’ level of education, as well as the overall level of women's education at the community level in Sierra Leone using multilevel statistical modelling techniques and the country's 2008 Demographic and Health Survey data. The findings suggest that, regardless of a child's own mother's education, an increase in the proportion of mothers with secondary or higher education in a community by 10% improves the probability of attending junior secondary school significantly by 8%; a 50% increase improves the likelihood of attending school by 45%. There was no significant relationship between the proportion of better educated mothers in a community and primary school attendance. However, relative to children whose mothers had no formal education, children whose mothers had attained primary, secondary or higher education were 7%, 14% and 22% more likely to attend primary school respectively. Future policies should seek to promote girls’ education at post-primary education and develop community based programmes to enable the diffusion and transmission of educational messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for evidence-based practice calls for research focussing not only on the effectiveness of interventions and their translation into policies, but also on implementation processes and the factors influencing them, in particular for complex health system policies. In this paper, we use the lens of one of the health system's ‘building blocks’, human resources for health (HRH), to examine the implementation of official policies on HRH incentives and the emergence of informal practices in three districts of Sierra Leone. Our mixed-methods research draws mostly from 18 key informant interviews at district level. Data are organised using a political economy framework which focuses on the dynamic interactions between structure (context, historical legacies, institutions) and agency (actors, agendas, power relations) to show how these elements affect the HRH incentive practices in each district. It appears that the official policies are re-shaped both by implementation challenges and by informal practices emerging at local level as the result of the district-level dynamics and negotiations between District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). Emerging informal practices take the form of selective supervision, salary supplementations and per diems paid to health workers, and aim to ensure a better fit between the actors' agendas and the incentive package. Importantly, the negotiations which shape such practices are characterised by a substantial asymmetry of power between DHMTs and NGOs. In conclusion, our findings reveal the influence of NGOs on the HRH incentive package and highlight the need to empower DHMTs to limit the discrepancy between policies defined at central level and practices in the districts, and to reduce inequalities in health worker remuneration across districts. For Sierra Leone, these findings are now more relevant than ever as new players enter the stage at district level, as part of the Ebola response and post-Ebola reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to the workings of a hospital are the technical and bureaucratic systems that ensure the effective coordination of information and biological materials of patients across time and space. In this paper, which is based on ethnographic research in a public referral hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, conducted between October 2018 and September 2019, we adopt a patient pathway approach to examine moments of breakdown and repair in the coordination of patient care. Through the in-depth analysis of a single patient pathway through the hospital, we show how coordination work depends on frequent small acts of intervention and improvisation by multiple people across the pathway, including doctors, managers, nurses, patients and their relatives. We argue that such interventions depend on the individualisation of responsibility for 'making the system work' and are best conceptualised as acts of temporary repair and care for the health system itself. Examining how responsibility for the repair of the system is distributed and valued, both within the hospital and in terms of broader structures of health funding and policy, we argue, is essential to developing more sustainable systems for repair. • Employed ethnographic methods to track patient pathways through hospitals. • Patient pathways are negatively impacted by breakdowns in the coordination of care. • Improvisatory work to ensure continuity of care is a form of health system repair. • Responsibility for repair often falls on the most vulnerable in a health system. • Relationships of repair are essential but undervalued components of health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an expanding literature on Ebola-response, few studies detail or reflect on the responses of diverse systems of care. Little is known about how, why or in what ways, strategies of ill-health management were enacted locally, how health-systems power, authority and hierarchy were perceived and contested, or how other social systems, institutions and relationships shaped the response. This paper presents an interdisciplinary analysis of local responses in two early affected districts in Sierra Leone. Drawing on anthropological theories of social ordering and assemblage, we present an analysis of contrasting infection chains in three extended case studies from Bo and Moyamba districts. In contrast to previous scholarship which has understood local actions as being reactive (supporting or obstructing) to a national Ebola response, we show that local arrangements lead and shape responses. Our cases show how multiple, entangled, dynamic and co-existing systems of care influence these responses. Some individuals and communities collaborated with health authorities on measures like reporting and quarantine, others actively opposed them, or played an intermediary role. Collectively, formal health systems actors, local authorities and ordinary citizens negotiated and enacted new arrangements. These arrangements involved compromise and sometimes power was reconfigured. They were also shaped by wider political and historical contexts and by availability or absence of formal healthcare resources. Our research shows the critical importance of understanding how institutions and people involved in healthcare enact diverse "systems of care" and thereby shape Ebola response. Most importantly, our work underlines the need for alignment between formal health-systems and wider social, cultural, political and economic forms of organisation at family and community levels to improve crisis-response and promote sustainable care. In particular, health systems responders need to identify and engage with key brokers – or arrangers – in frontline care systems, with whom mutually acceptable, and effective, reconfigurations of care can be achieved. • Multiple, dynamic, co-existing systems of care shaped Sierra Leone's Ebola response. • Political/historic context, resources, conflict and compromise all shaped care systems. • Diverse local actors negotiated relationships to reconfigure healthcare arrangements. • It is local arrangements that lead and shape crisis-response at the decentralised level. • Health systems need to engage with "arrangers" to reconfigure locally responsive care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the widely lauded and much needed adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT), along with numerous implementation guides, and complementary international, regional, and sector-specific instruments (e.g. the Framework and Guidelines for Land Policy in Africa, and, the Sustainable Development Goals), key outcomes like tenure security at scale have not been achieved. The literature documents some important impacts of the VGGT on reform processes and highlights illustrative or "one-off" results. Yet, too many individuals, families and communities in rural areas of African countries, for example, still do not have recognized or secure land rights. And where they do have rights recognized by law, too many have trouble defending and leveraging those rights for economic gain or to achieve food security. The reality that significant improvements in security of tenure at scale in rural Africa are still needed nearly a decade after the adoption of the VGGT suggests a need to explore its limitations and consider what it would take to realize its objectives. This paper contributes by considering three questions: (1) has the VGGT had a measurable impact on improving tenure at scale in Sub-Saharan Africa; (2) are there country-level cases of VGGT application that might be demonstrative of ways the VGGT could be used or revised to have desired impacts on tenure at scale; and (3) what lessons can be drawn from these cases contextualized with reflection on the development and negotiation of the VGGT, that could improve the VGGT and its application (or be applied to future UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) products)? For Sub Saharan Africa, noting the lack of evidence to rigorously estimate the impact (or lack thereof) of the VGGT on tenure security, we analyze the available quantitative and qualitative information. This supports our observation that there has been little change in the outcome of tenure security and a widely held view that tenure insecurity persists. We illustrate innovative approaches to using the VGGT with case studies from Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This learning feeds into broader reflection on the VGGT process and critical thinking about how the VGGT might be better used going forward throughout Africa; considerations for how future international instruments are developed also emerge. We conclude that what is needed is revision of the VGGT, development of a VGGT 2.0 or other actions to address challenges and replicate successes. • The VGGT has not had measurable impact at scale in Africa. • Reflections on the negotiations for the VGGT. • Lessons from Nigeria and Sierra Leone illustrate promising application of the VGGT. • Lessons for the UN Committee for World Food Security future negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing quality and reliable power to grid-isolated areas has long been a difficulty in Africa, particularly in Sierra Leone, where government regulations are either weak or non-existent to assist the developing endeavour. Hybrid off-grid systems have grown in popularity as a way to offer electricity to people who live remote from power grids. This strategy, on the other hand, is capital demanding and prone to interruptions. This paper considers a decision-making process based on the Government of Sierra Leone's initiative to undertake a project to provide sustainable electricity to the people of Bo and Kenema in Sierra Leone's South-eastern region, with the assistance of the Africa Development Bank (ADB) and the Department for International Development (DFID). Two operating scenarios were modeled, and a comparative study was performed to determine which of the two should be considered. The results showed that the complementary scenario's proposed optimized hybrid configuration performed best in terms of technical, economic, and environmental features. Technically, it produced an excess energy of 2.29 %, compared to the combined total of the independent scenarios with 49.4 % (15.3 % excess energy from Bo and 34.1 % from Kenema). In terms of cost, it has a net present cost (NPC) of $45.6 million (M), compared to a combined NPC of $52 M ($37.8 M for Bo and $14.2 M for Kenema) for the independent networks. In terms of the environment, it generated 2,402,380 kg/yr of CO 2 which is 42 % less than the combined total produced by Bo and Kenema (3,408,018 kg/yr). Sensitivity analysis revealed that the overall system cost is heavily reliant on the diesel fuel price and average annual stream flow rate, as well as the hydro turbine's deplorable efficiency status, with the intention of project leaders' ignoring the impact of variations in the PV derating factor. • Design of a hybrid complementary power system is studied. • Seasonal variability has a great impact on renewable supply. • Diesel generator/photovoltaic/hydropower is a cost-effective and reliable hybrid option. • Joint-complementary system is superior to independent systems network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at an islanded complementary power system in Sierra Leone's South-eastern region. It presents a method for assessing or evaluating the performance of an existing complementary hybrid energy system (Bo-Kenema power network) in an urban environment, taking seasonal variability into consideration. The proposed method attempts to assess the feasibility of establishing either a new hybrid system without current sources or a hybrid system that includes both existing and new sources. A comprehensive techno-economic-environmental optimization analysis was carried out in which 13 scenarios were evaluated and compared. With a net present cost (NPC) of $50.4 million (M) and a cost of energy (COE) of $0.211/kWh, Case 1 (Solar photovoltaics (PV)/generator 1 (G1)/generator 2 (G2)/generator 3 (G3)/battery/hydro/converter) was found to be the most cost-effective and sustainable scenario. The sensitivity analysis performed on Case 1 (optimum scenario) revealed that the total system cost was heavily reliant on turbine efficiency, PV and battery capital prices. Furthermore, adding two extra high-efficiency turbines (75%) to the optimum scenario eliminated the PV component and reduced the COE and NPC by 38.9% (from $0.211/kWh to $0.129/kWh) and 39.1% (from $50.4M to $30.7M) respectively, while increasing CO 2 emissions by 49.9%. This elimination led to a change in the configuration of Case 1 (G1/G2/G3/hydro). The preference of the governing authorities determines whether the previous or later optimal design is to be implemented. By implementing this strategy, the optimum scenario can provide cost-effective and long-term electricity for the selected region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the inflation dynamics and common trends in the real gross domestic product (GDP) in the candidate countries of the embryonic West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). Using fractional integration and cointegration methods, we establish that significant heterogeneity in behavior exists among the countries. Shocks to inflation in Sierra Leone are not mean-reverting; results for the Gambia and Ghana suggest some inflation persistence, despite being mean-reverting. Further, the cointegration results indicate the presence of only one common trend. With much attention currently being placed on convergence criteria and preparedness of the aspiring member states, less attention has been given to the extent to which the dynamics of inflation and economic trends in the individual countries are (dis)similar. We discuss some policy implications and highlight political implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the land policies of Cameroon and Sierra Leone and arrives at the following conclusions: 1] the land policies of the two countries embody the politico-administrative philosophies of their erstwhile colonial master nations; 2] despite their marked differences, the policies share some features in common; and 3] land policies are critical in efforts to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs). The analysis further shows that: 1] the land policy of Sierra appears better positioned than Cameroon’s to guarantee access to land for all as well as ensure environmental sustainability; and 2] Cameroon’s land policy appears to outperform Sierra Leone’s with respect to fulfilling the preconditions for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by ensuring land tenure security, maintaining uniform land laws, and facilitating land markets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Existing foreign aid databases – the OECD’s CRS data and now AidData – are project-based. And yet nearly all empirical analyses using these data aggregate to the country-year level, thereby losing project-specific information. In this paper, we introduce new data on the geographic location of aid projects that have been committed to many African countries between 1989 and 2008. The data enable an examination of project-level information in a wider variety of systematic research contexts. To demonstrate the utility of the new data, we discuss how geographically disaggregated foreign aid and armed conflict data are needed to capture the theoretical mechanisms in the aid-conflict literature. We then map the disaggregated aid and conflict data in Sierra Leone, Angola, and Mozambique as specific examples of how these data could help disentangle competing causal mechanisms linking aid to conflict onset and dynamics. The research provides an important new perspective on the connections between aid and conflict. More generally, it is a crucial first step in geo-referencing and comparing foreign aid projects to various localized development outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Many accounts of cultural factors in armed conflicts are dependent on circumstantial details. Alternative quantitative approaches suffer from confusion of correlation and cause. This paper describes and exemplifies a third approach to the analysis of cultural factors in war—causal process tracing. Six key steps in implementing causal process tracing are outlined and applied to recent episodes of armed conflict in Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone. The virtue of the method lies in establishing a systematic framework for the comparison and evaluation of cultural mechanisms, thus providing an escape from hazards associated with subjective regression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Upon returning to their communities, children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups--commonly referred to as child soldiers--often confront significant community stigma. Much research on the reintegration and rehabilitation of child soldiers has focused on exposure to past war-related violence and mental health outcomes, yet no empirical work has yet examined the role that post-conflict stigma plays in shaping long-term psychosocial adjustment. Two waves of data are used in this paper from the first prospective study of male and female former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. We examined the role of stigma (manifest in discrimination as well as lower levels of community and family acceptance) in the relationship between war-related experiences and psychosocial adjustment (depression, anxiety, hostility and adaptive behaviors). Former child soldiers differ from one another with regard to their post-war experiences, and these differences profoundly shape their psychosocial adjustment over time. Consistent with social stress theory, we observed that post-conflict factors such as stigma can play an important role in shaping psychosocial adjustment in former child soldiers. We found that discrimination was inversely associated with family and community acceptance. Additionally, higher levels of family acceptance were associated with decreased hostility, while improvements in community acceptance were associated with adaptive attitudes and behaviors. We found that post-conflict experiences of discrimination largely explained the relationship between past involvement in wounding/killing others and subsequent increases in hostility. Stigma similarly mediated the relationship between surviving rape and depression. However, surviving rape continued to demonstrate independent effects on increases in anxiety, hostility and adaptive/prosocial behaviors after adjusting for other variables. These findings point to the complexity of psychosocial adjustment and community reintegration in these youth and have a number of programmatic and policy implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, recent social, political and environmental transformations have precipitated the intensification of wetland use, as local people have sought to safeguard and strengthen their livelihoods. Concurrent decentralization policies in both countries have also seen the government strengthen its position at the local level. Drawing upon recent field-based evidence from Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, this paper examines the compatibility between community-based local institutions for wetland use, and the process of decentralization. It argues that decentralization has in fact restricted the development of mature local institutional arrangements, due to its intrinsically political interventionist nature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The literature on fisheries for developing countries often cites inland aquaculture as a promising source of wealth creation for a nation in terms of revenue generation from export products. However, in this paper we argue that inland aquaculture has a greater prospect of success if it focuses on social welfare – i.e. alleviating food insecurity and poverty in coastal fishing communities, particularly those that are experiencing increased and unsustainable fishing pressure on marine fish. Nevertheless, promoting inland aquaculture in coastal areas faces many challenges, including financial, legal, political, environmental, logistical, educational, and attitudinal obstacles. Our study investigates these challenges in two coastal communities in Sierra Leone – Tombo and Goderich – where declining levels of marine fish catches are intensifying efforts to provide alternative or supplementary forms of employment for artisanal fishers, but where knowledge and experience of, and enthusiasm and funding for, inland aquaculture are limited. The research is based on the perceptions of 51 key informant interviewees and 199 survey questionnaire respondents. The main findings of the fieldwork are as follows. (1) Few local fishers were familiar with inland aquaculture and its potential benefits. (2) There were land tenure problems (for example, women were excluded from ownership of land). (3) There was little funding to buy/rent land and equipment. (4) Despite declining fish stocks, respondents were reluctant to take up full-time fish farming because of the easier option of fishing. Our findings suggest that greater uptake of inland aquaculture is more likely if presented to local fishers as a supplementary livelihood activity rather than an alternative occupation to marine capture fishing. Our study reinforces the importance of understanding local fishers' cultures, values, and preferences before introducing a new livelihood activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the spatial navigation of risk by international health responders working in Ebola Treatment Centres (ETCs) during the West African Ebola epidemic. Drawing on Black studies and geographies it argues for a race-conscious analysis of spatial strategies of risk aversion in order to highlight the geographical, postcolonial and racial inequalities at the heart of the West African Ebola response. Based on interviews with international health responders to Liberia and Sierra Leone, it argues that the spatial organisation of ETCs perpetuated non-equivalence between Black and white lives and contributed to the normalisation of Black suffering and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade a wealth of research has examined the relationship between natural resources and violent conflict. Cross-national evidence demonstrates that remote resource endowments and weak economies can increase the likelihood of civil war, yet relatively little is known about how armed groups actually extract, manage, and utilize mineral revenues inside a warzone. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with a paradigmatic "resource rebellion" – the former Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone – this paper identifies six key strategies and tactics armed groups can employ to manage resource wealth: resource rhetoric; destruction; looting; extraction/production; mortgaging; and taxation. Disaggregating these strategies reveals how the dynamic conflict context determines rebel resource strategies, which change over time in relation to their relative military capacity. Using archival documents and interviews, I also show how the pre-existing political economy constrains governance options if insurgents do control resources. This can lead to a rebel resource curse and weak institutions similar to what befalls state regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]