Donor Policies In Post-War Sierra Leone

Abstract

The Sierra Leone peace process following the country’s 1991–2002 civil war between the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) benefited immensely from the energetic involvement of an eclectic mix of donors. Traditional inter-governmental financial institutions and relatively new private funding foundations all channelled aid money and technical expertise through various multilateral and bilateral mechanisms for rebuilding the country. Without a doubt Sierra Leone’s recovery from the debilitating 11-year war would not have come to pass in the time and manner it did without the robust intervention of such funders. Based on fieldwork conducted in Sierra Leone at the height of the peacebuilding process, this article outlines the role played by international donors in rebuilding post-war Sierra Leone. It posits that understanding the modus operandi of the assorted mix of donor agencies in creating the country’s aid architecture is key to grasping the nuances of the Sierra Leone peace process. This is partly because the aid largesse, though well intentioned, was injected into a barely functioning system that lacked a coherent recipient regime. The article concludes that though donors were critical to Sierra Leone’s rebuilding efforts, their lack of emphasis on a needs-centred funding mechanism created an inadequate model to address the country’s complex post-war reconstruction challenges.

Keywords:

• donors
• peacebuilding
• conflict resolution

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the anonymous reviewers, editors for their feedback as well as colleagues in the Conflict Resolution Program at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vandy Kanyako

VANDY KANYAKO teaches conflict resolution, transitional justice and human rights at Portland State University. Between 2004 and 2005 he coordinated the UN-NGO Conflict Prevention Working Group in New York. He has written widely on civil society and the political economy of conflict. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; a Master’s in Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA; and a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, USA