scholarly journals ‘They Call Me Warrior’: The Legacy of Conflict and the Struggle to End Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emeka Chukwu ◽  
Sonia Gilroy ◽  
John Sesay ◽  
Lalit Garg ◽  
Kim Eva Dickson

BACKGROUND UNFPA launched two one-month campaigns to reach Sierra Leoneans at scale with critical Sexual Reproductive Health and gender-based violence messages during the Coronavirus 2019 pandemic. OBJECTIVE The intervention objective was to deliver Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and gender-based violence (GBV) messages to mobile phone subscribers in Sierra Leone. This paper presents the intervention’s messaging campaign design, deployment methodologies, and design-decisions; shows campaign effectiveness; and share lessons learned, including call pickup rates and listening-duration. METHODS We designed and deployed a two-phased campaign – phase one targeted Freetown (urban) residents, and phase two targeted Sierra Leoneans nationwide (urban and rural). Phase one delivered Family Planning, Maternal Health, Gender Based Violence (GBV), and Coronavirus 2019 messages through automated voice calls, SMS, radio jingles, and social media. Phase two of the campaign delivered national GBV only campaign messages through SMS and Radio jingles. RESULTS In phase one, only 31% of the 1,093,606 initiated automated calls to 290,000 subscribers were picked up, and this dropped significantly at 95% confidence (p=1) after each of the four weeks. Also, at 95% confidence levels, a significant number of subscribers did not listen to the complete messages when repeated (p=1). Thirty-one million two hundred (31.2 million) SMS messages were sent to all 3.9 million active Africell subscribers in Sierra Leone during the second phase. Also, SRH and GBV messages were aired on thirteen national radio stations in Sierra Leone during the second phase. The national toll free helpline for GBV cases reported an increase in calls and attributed it to the campaign. Automated call interventions are cost and human resource intensive. Call pickup rates, listening duration, language, and consideration for users’ ability to re-reference messages are key factors when selecting scalable messaging campaign channels. The drop in the number of subscribers picking up automated calls from the first to fourth week was significant at a confidence level of 95%. According to the GBV helpline operators, the increase in calls reporting GBV was attributable to our campaign. CONCLUSIONS Only a third of subscribers called with pre-recorded messages picked up their calls. When automated calls are repeated, it leads to a significant drop in call completion rates. There was an increase in demand for service to the GBV helpline in the month following the campaign. A multi-channel messaging campaign helped reach different groups of young people.


2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (894) ◽  
pp. 539-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Thuy Seelinger

AbstractFrom 2011 to 2014, the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law conducted qualitative research in Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda to identify accountability mechanisms and challenges related to sexual violence committed during periods of conflict or political unrest. This article shares two aspects of that research: first, it presents key challenges related to the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of sexual violence committed during and after the periods of recent conflict. Second, it flags the emergence of specialized units tasked with investigating and prosecuting either sexual and gender-based violence or international crimes, noting the operational gap between these institutions. It notes that if not bridged, this gap may impede responses for the intersecting issue of sexual violence committed as an international crime. The article closes with recommendations for a more coordinated response and more accountability at the domestic level.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Laura S. Martin ◽  
Caroline Bradbury-Jones ◽  
Simeon Koroma ◽  
Stephen Forcer

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-112

This sample of photos from 16 August–15 November 2019 aims to convey a sense of Palestinian life during this quarter. The images capture Palestinians across the diaspora as they fight to exercise their rights: to run for office, to vote, and to protest both Israeli occupation and gender-based violence.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Snodgrass

This article explores the complexities of gender-based violence in post-apartheid South Africa and interrogates the socio-political issues at the intersection of class, ‘race’ and gender, which impact South African women. Gender equality is up against a powerful enemy in societies with strong patriarchal traditions such as South Africa, where women of all ‘races’ and cultures have been oppressed, exploited and kept in positions of subservience for generations. In South Africa, where sexism and racism intersect, black women as a group have suffered the major brunt of this discrimination and are at the receiving end of extreme violence. South Africa’s gender-based violence is fuelled historically by the ideologies of apartheid (racism) and patriarchy (sexism), which are symbiotically premised on systemic humiliation that devalues and debases whole groups of people and renders them inferior. It is further argued that the current neo-patriarchal backlash in South Africa foments and sustains the subjugation of women and casts them as both victims and perpetuators of pervasive patriarchal values.


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