Responsible reconstruction after war: meeting local needs for building peace

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE CUBITT
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
Reconstruction Project ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cost

AbstractContemporary peacebuilding operations are often mandated to rebuild ‘collapsed’ or weak states and provide unique opportunities for internationals to exert far reaching influence in their reconstruction. The responsibility to help secure peaceful transformations and longer term stability is profound. This article explores the issue of efficacy and propriety in reconstruction programming and draws from field work in Sierra Leone – a rare example of ‘success’ for international partners in peacebuilding missions. The assertion is made that, despite the euphoria over the mission in Sierra Leone, the peacebuilding operations were more about the mechanics of statebuilding than the local politics of building peace, and that there was a distinct disconnect between the policy rhetoric and the policy practice. The argument is put that the pressing local concern of giving citizens a stake in government was not best served in the reconstruction project because the wider and more influential objectives of the peacebuilding mission were about meeting international goals not local aspirations. This reality has come at the cost of exploiting a unique opportunity for creative thinking about the kind of state structures which can better address the main challenges for sustainable peace facing post-war states like Sierra Leone.

Is it worth doing fieldwork with this organisation? A method for considering context before conducting fieldwork research in Sport for development and peace.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tegwen Gadais ◽  
Laurie Décarpentrie ◽  
Andrew Webb ◽  
Marie Belle Ayoub ◽  
Mariann Bardocz-Bencsik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
Sport For Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Existing Data

Much has been written about sport as a tool for development and peace. But more research on Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) organizations, is needed to better understand their actual contributions to the UNs sustainable development goals. Yet, the unstable, risky, and restricted contexts in which many NGOs and SDP agencies operate often leaves researchers struggling to find effective yet feasible methods through which to examine agencies in these fields. Indeed, conducting field work on and with SDP agency often implies allocating significant quantities of researcher’s limited time, funding, and other vital resources. And as limited resources need to be invested wisely, SDP researchers will clearly need to prepare their fieldwork. Nevertheless, there are but a handful of methodological papers that address the question of how to prepare for SDP field work. In other words, the question of how we know if it is worthwhile, and safe enough, to proceed with SDP field work remains. Building on previous research, the purpose of this study is to raise important ontological and epistemological questions about what can be known about a given context, before setting off on fieldwork. We further explore the use of the Actantial Model as a research method for analyzing existing data before deciding whether to conduct fieldwork in complex and frequently insecure situations. In other words, will the cost (material, temporal, financial, and physical) of conducting fieldwork be worth it? By applying the Actantial Model, with the specific aim of informing decisions regarding subsequent fieldwork, to one specific case, contributions regarding the pertinence of conducting fieldwork are provided.

Formalization as a tool for environmental peacebuilding? Artisanal and small-scale mining in Liberia and Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-55
Author(s):  
Christina Ankenbrand ◽  
Abrina Welter ◽  
Nina Engwicht
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Benefits ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Ethical Sourcing ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has long been a vital source of livelihoods for rural populations in the global South. Yet, it has also been linked to a host of social, political and environmental adversities, including violent conflict. As environmental peacebuilding increasingly stresses the importance of livelihood improvement as a means of fostering peace in conflict-affected extractive societies, ASM formalization has been identified as a solution to mitigate the sector's challenges, thereby addressing underlying causes of conflict. This article critically investigates the contribution of ASM formalization to sustainable peace by focusing on its impact on the livelihood dimension of peacebuilding. It analyses the livelihood impact of three formalization interventions in the diamond sectors of two countries: cooperatives in Liberia, and, in Sierra Leone, ethical sourcing schemes and a community-based natural resource management initiative. In line with calls for a paradigm shift from a narrow legalization-centred understanding of formalization to a broader approach that accounts for livelihood quality, the analysis presented here focuses on interventions that were informed by the ideal of improving the well-being of ASM workers and communities. We propose three pathways through which ASM formalization could potentially contribute to livelihood enhancement: income security, working conditions and community benefits. Based on fieldwork, this article highlights the challenges of generating livelihood improvements through formalization. Even when specifically designed to address the needs of ASM communities, during implementation, they risk prioritizing a narrow conceptualization of formalization and thus failing to become a conductor of transformative change.

The Paradox of Planning: Agriculture, Schooling, and the Unresolvable Uncertainty of Ideal Family Size in Rural Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Bolten ◽  
Richard Marcantonio
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Optimal Number ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Agricultural Decline

Abstract Post-war Sierra Leone has experienced a population explosion that has raised questions among rural farmers about the relationship between family size and poverty. Agricultural decline and the high cost of schooling are not prompting parents to articulate a desire for smaller families; rather, they highlight that the uncertainty around articulating the “right” number of children is unresolvable because the ability to send children to school is predicated on increasing agricultural outputs that decline precisely because population pressure has reduced soil fertility. Bolten and Marcantonio conclude that this renders family size the heart of a paradox, where there is no optimal number of children.

The Arizona Market

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine C. Sredl ◽  
Clifford J. Shultz ◽  
Ružica Brečić
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Community Members ◽  
War Economy ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
Divided Society ◽  
Marketing Systems ◽  
Post War

Through this longitudinal study of a historically significant, complex, conflicted and evolving macromarketing space, Bosnia’s Arizona Market, the authors reveal that marketing systems are not merely random artifacts of human behavior; rather, they are adaptive, purposeful, can be pernicious and/or provisioning, and ultimately—if they are to reflect our humanity—must be well integrated into other prosocial systems to affect the best possible outcomes for all stakeholders. By engaging with a marketing system in a post-conflict, divided society, we are better able to understand the genesis and evolution of markets and marketing systems; the relationships among war economy, peace accords, and the ways that post-war marketing systems create community, provide for community needs, and create new vulnerabilities for some community members. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications for sustainable peace and prosperity in Bosnia and in other post-conflict marketing systems, and suggestions for future research.

scholarly journals Arbeitslosigkeit und Einkommensverteilung.

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (99) ◽  
pp. 205-219
Author(s):  
Heiner Ganßmann ◽  
Grover McArthur
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Job Loss ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Conflict Behavior ◽  
Profit Distribution ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Structure Of Accumulation ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cost

The development of the wage-profit-distribution in post-war Germany is analyzed, applying the»cost-of-job-loss«-concept which has been elaborated in the social-structure-of-accumulation framework by radical US-economists. Statistical estimates show that the costs of job loss (as adeterminant of work and conflict behavior of workers) exercise a significant influence on the development of income distribution in (West) Germany.

scholarly journals LEBANESE NATIONAL RECONCILIATION AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE MARONITE CHURCH THROUGH THE PURIFICATION OF MEMORY

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52
Author(s):  
Ziad Fahed
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Active Participant ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
National Reconciliation ◽  
The Church

The post-war period in Lebanon brought to the open all sensitive subjects that have marked the history of Lebanon: how to avoid falling into such a crisis? How not repeating such war? How can the Lebanese society eradicate the reasons that may lead to any other war? The Lebanese crisis had challenged the Church inviting her to move from being a passive witness to an active participant in the peaceful struggle for the liberation of the Lebanese society and help the country to complete its incorrect reading of history. Can the Maronite Patriarchate have a positive role in this regard? Can the Maronite Patriarchate bring about the purifi cation of the memory in a multiconfessional country? In this paper, and after defi ning the meaning of the purifi cation of memory in the Lebanese context, we will consider the important challenges that must precede any serious and defi nitive solution to the crisis in Lebanon and how can the Lebanese Church contribute in the development of a national identity and in the building of a new state free from any kind of domination. The purpose of this paper is not to justify what has happened in the past 34 years, i.e. since the beginning of the Lebanese war, but to contribute in searching for a sustainable peace.

scholarly journals Examining the Role of Economic Actors in Post-war Reintegration Processes: Case of Sierra Leone.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 158-167
Author(s):  
MaryAnne Iwara
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Planning Strategy ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Aid Dependency ◽  
Post War ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
National Governments

This paper examines post-conflict peacebuilding activities in Sierra Leone by critically looking at the role of economic actors in the reintegration process of its post-war Disarmament Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) initiative. The civil war that lasted for 11 years in Sierra Leone, put doubts on the national governments ability to effectively provide both victims and perpetuators, the necessary protection and assistance needed to fully assume responsibilities within the communities. Because of this, poverty was further entrenched, thereby increasing the countries susceptibility to return to conflict. Though reintegration processes are continuous, integrative and involve exhaustive budgetary commitments, the process, in Sierra Leone was short-termed, not well coordinated and took time to begin delivering. With the United Nations, World Bank and the weak national government leading the process, financing was often insufficient or late, in combination with the lack of a coherent planning strategy; all these factors contributed to lapses in socio-economic profiling, skills and vocational training and spread disillusionment and resentment among ex-combatants and victims. Using content analysis, the paper argues that, post-war countries need active, equitable and profitable economic sectors if they are to graduate from conflict and from post-conflict aid-dependency. Moreover, as social contracts and corporate social responsibility to communities they govern and operate in, economic actors must create enabling environments and, generate jobs to support legitimate local capacities. The utility of this paper lies in the idea that for any post-conflict country to attain long-term social and economic development, reintegration programme design and activities, must holistically incorporate critical economic actors.  

Sierra Leone in the Post-War World

1959 ◽  
Vol 58 (232) ◽  
pp. 210-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. COTAY
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Post War
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