The peacebuilding potential of technical and vocational education and training programmes in post-conflict Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT

In peacebuilding contexts unemployed youth are frequently perceived as a high risk for the stability of a country while employed youth are seen as carrying an enormous potential for economic growth. This paper applies a social justice framework (4Rs) in analysing a Business Development (BD) programme that was implemented as part of Sierra Leone’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) strategy to promote entrepreneurship development and reduce unemployment among youth. Despite the BD programme’s initial strengths, to recognize youth's heterogeneity with the aim to address some of the root causes of the war, we show how the programme struggled to counter social inequality, unemployment and neopatrimonialism. Sudden decreases in donor funding led to severe modifications of redistribution processes, thereby hampering youth's representation. This raises questions about the design of TVET strategies and BD programmes in post-conflict settings in general. Our paper further showcases how the resurfacing of the root causes of a conflict in the scope of small-scheme development programmes, can have far-reaching effects on young people’s various relationships of trust, if not reconciliation process as a whole.

KEYWORDS:

• Business development programmes
• TVET
• peacebuilding
• post-conflict Sierra Leone

Acknowledgments

This study was conducted as part of Rikke van der Veen’s master’s thesis in International Development Studies. Dr. Simone Datzberger acted as his supervisor during and after the research period. For the purpose of this paper only, Simone helped to analyse and write up the data and gave feedback on structure and content. We would like to thank the INGO and its employees that provided the case study and gave Rikke all the help he needed while in Sierra Leone. We thank Mr. Willie Gus Williams in particular as he helped Rikke during every part of the research process and became a good friend. Without all the participants this study would not have been possible. We want to thank everyone who was willing to participate and are responsible for the choice and presentation of views and opinions. We thank both reviewers for their helpful comments, efforts and time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. United Nations Development Programme Sierra Leone, available at: http://www.sl.undp.org/content/sierraleone/en/home/countryinfo.html (accessed 28 April 2019).

2. We do not disclose the name of the implementing agency to protect the privacy of the participants.

3. UN Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security (2250). Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/youth/international-youth-day-2017/resources-on-youth-peace-and-security.html (Accessed on 1 September 2019); See also: Lopes Cardozo and Scotto (2017) for a recent discussion of the UN security resolution on youth, peace and security (2250).

4. United Nations Development Programme Sierra Leone. Available at: http://www.sl.undp.org/content/sierraleone/en/home/countryinfo.html (accessed on 28 August 2019).

5. See: http://www.youthpolicy.org/factsheets/country/sierra-leone (accessed 23 August 2019).

6. OECD Aid at a Glance. Available at: https://public.tableau.com/views/OECDDACAidataglancebyrecipient_new/Recipients?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:toolbar=no?&:showVizHome=no (accessed 7 July 2019).

7. 1 million Leones equals a bit more than 100 Euros.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rikke van der Veen

Rikke van der Veen graduated from his master in International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in June 2018. He has been working with Maya Universe Academy, a social movement providing education in Nepal since 2012 and is currently the chairman of their Dutch foundation.

Simone Datzberger

Simone Datzberger is a Lecturer in Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, University College London. Before she joined the UCL-IoE, she was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow (individual fellowship) at the University of Amsterdam (2016–2018), Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development. From 2014–2016, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher (research associate) at the UNESCO-Centre (Ulster University), where she was part of a research consortium in partnership with UNICEF on Education and Peacebuilding. She obtained her PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2010–2014) in International Relations.