Beyond liberal institution (re)building:conversations on peacebuilding and statebuilding in Sierra Leone

This paper contributes to debates on the relationship between peacebuilding and statebuilding with its analysis of post-independence Sierra Leone. It considers the extent to which peacebuilding has returned Sierra Leonean society to post-independence statebuilding conversations and how the issues that have emanated from such conversations have interacted with settlement and post-settlement arrangements. This paper analyses original data from focus group discussions and interviews in fieldwork from January 2016. It finds that the situation in Sierra Leone heralded opportunities for peacebuilding processes to engage concerns that have been linked with historical statebuilding conversations. Yet formal statebuilding processes, which were particularly focused on liberal institution building in the post-conflict context, were not sufficiently attentive to their antecedents. Nonetheless there are suggestions of some engagement with extant statebuilding conversations particularly in relation to how ethnicity continues to colour the statebuilding project, the significance of intergroup dynamics across intergenerational exchanges and gender and the challenges of socio-economic exclusion.</p

Building the state without peace or making peace without the state : a baseline study on the paradox of state-building and peace-building in Sierra Leone

This study takes a detailed look at the process of Peace-building and State-building in Sierra Leone after its bitter civil war. The paper focuses on four issues: identity politics; an effective national political culture; politics (and intrigues) involved in management of natural resource endowments; and the re-engagement of societies and communities at the margins of the state. It examines the outcomes of the settlement processes including the extent of the transformation of identity markers, and extracts lessons learnt from the peace process. Identity conversations in Sierra Leone’s state building process involve control and domination by political elites with manipulation of ethnic groups

Building the state without peace or making peace without the state : the paradox of state-building and peace-building in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s civil war resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people. Key issues around international assistance in the search for peace serve as crucial barometers in assessing how the past might predict the future of the country. This study posits that efforts to address four issues underline the state-building conversation and that lasting peace will depend on the extent to which these issues are addressed: identity politics; the search for a legitimate national political culture; the politics involved in management of natural resources; and the re-engagement of societies and communities at the margins of the state

Leadership and Peacebuilding in Guinea-Bissau

Leadership is rarely interrogated in the analysis of peacebuilding contexts. The dominant peacebuilding approaches focus on institutional building rather than on the relationship between leaders and the wider society. This paper examines the conceptual and practical connection between leadership and peacebuilding by examining the 14 September 2003 Coup in Guinea-Bissau. The coup presented a significant leadership conversation to be had between the elites and the wider society in Guinea-Bissau about transforming the instability that characterises Guinea-Bissau to date towards a common vision of lasting peace. The paper examines the response to the coup to determine whether the response reflected the needs and aspirations of the wider society in Guinea-Bissau. It does this in order to determine where leadership resided and therefore whether the responses reflected a mutual relationship between the elites and the wider society. It argues that the response to the crisis did not produce durable peace for the society as the exchange of influence occurred between the elites and the international actors rather than with the wider society. The coup remains significant even today not least as an important milestone in Guinea-Bissau’s statebuilding process. Failure to build mutually held goals between governing elite and wider society at a critical juncture in the country’s post-colonial history led to the continuation of fragile governance arrangements for more than a decade.</jats:p

Researching AIDS, Sexuality and Gender : Case Studies of Women in Kenyan Universities

The current HIV and AIDS regime has opened up unknown vistas in intellectual pursuits and knowledge creation. One such newly opened up area of research is studying HIV and AIDS in relation to gender issues. However, owing to the devastating nature of the epidemic, most studies tend to focus on women merely as an 'at risk' population leaving aside the wider sociological dimensions that pertain to women's sexuality in general, issues of AIDS related stigma and discrimination and how it impacts on women's careers as economic contributors to society. The uniqueness of the present study lies in the fact that it embodies the author's triangulated research into the tripartite dimensions of HIV and AIDS, women's sexuality, and gender-sociology, all against the backdrop of analysing actual experiences of career women in Kenyan universities

Invisibility, silence and absence : a study of the account taken by two Kenyan universities about the effects of HIV and AIDS on senior women staff

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