Women's Political Participation and Influence in Sierra Leone

Gender relations in Sierra Leone are extremely unequal and Sierra Leonean women face high levels of exclusion, violence and poverty. In this context, this paper will seek to explore the extent to which women in Sierra Leone are able to participate in and influence both formal and informal politics, the barriers that they face in doing this, and the outcomes of women's political participation.

The paper offers a number of findings, including:

• Sierra Leone has three layers of government and in each of these layers women face distinct sets of challenges and opportunities to participate in politics and they are largely excluded from participation in customary governance systems, although the extent of this exclusion varies between regions
• Since the end of the war there has been some shift in social attitudes on women's role and there is now a growing awareness that women have rights and should be able to participate at least to some extent in governance
• Following the immediate post-conflict phase, gender issues have now dropped off the national agenda, women have not gained the political space that they had hoped for, and the momentum of Sierra Leone's women's movement has stalled.
  

The document offers a number of recommendations/conclusions, including:

• Actors in Sierra Leone who are concerned with promoting women's involvement in politics are overwhelmingly focused on the target of getting women elected to formal political institutions yet a holistic and long term approach is needed that goes beyond elections and focuses on strengthening the multiple ways in which women can be political actors
• Donor support should also be aimed at building the capacity of women who are already in political office, as well as of young women and non elite women who have the potential to be future political leaders
• It is important that donors provide core funding to women's organisations particularly those with genuine grassroots outreach or a broad membership base to allow them to build up their capacity and independent political agenda.