John Idriss Lahai Libri

This book provides a timely examination of the Ebola pandemic in Sierra Leone from four different standpoints: 1) a social standpoint that focuses on the way in which the vulnerable Sierra Leonian population viewed the pandemic in light of their cultural beliefs, memories of past wars and narratives and actions of the government; 2) a good governance standpoint that exposes lapses in health governance and the general unpreparedness of the government and international community to deal with the outbreak; 3) a scientific research standpoint that looks at the role played by the Sierra Leone's Lassa Fever Research Laboratories as a main hub for the investigation, monitoring and evaluation of communicable diseases in the Mano River Union countries; and 4) an international politics standpoint that examines the development of a new bio-security international apparatus involving a wide range of international actors and institutions. 

Exploring the dynamics of gender equality and women's empowerment in Sierra Leone, this book delves into the complexities of women's relationships with governmental bodies and development partners. It examines the challenges and progress in achieving equality, highlighting the critical role of women's voices in shaping policies and fostering change within the socio-political landscape. Through detailed analysis, it sheds light on the intersection of gender, governance, and development in the context of Sierra Leone.

This volume counters one-sided dominant discursive representations of gender in human rights and transitional justice, and women’s place in the transformations of neoliberal human rights, and contributes a more balanced examination of how transitional justice and human rights institutions, and political institutions impact the lives and experiences of women. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the contributors to this volume theorize and historicize the place of women’s rights (and gender), situating it within contemporary country-specific political, legal, socio-cultural and global contexts. Chapters examine the progress and challenges facing women (and women’s groups) in transitioning countries: from Peru to Argentina, from Kenya to Sierra Leone, and from Bosnia to Sri Lanka, in a variety of contexts, attending especially to the relationships between local and global forces

The book examines the various ways that fragile states (or states with limited statehood) in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas have adopted, and adapted to, the processes of liberal political governance in their quests to address the problem of political fragility. It presents the stories of resilience in the political adaptation to Western liberal conceptions of governance. In addition to singular or comparative country case studies, this project also examines the interplay of culture, identities, and politics in the creation of people-centric governance reforms. Towards these ends, this volume sheds light on weak states’ often constructive engagement in the promotion of state governance with a variety of political conditions, adverse or otherwise; and their ability to remain resilient despite the complex political, sociocultural, and economic challenges affecting them. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the authors aim to counter the noticeable shortcomings in the discursive representations of fragility, and to contribute a more balanced examination of the narratives about and impact of political adaption and governance in people’s lives and experiences.

In Sierra Leone, the dominant epistemological frames of the political and social history of the country and the post-colonial understanding of the place of men and women, are conditioned on the inter-subjective discourses of power, place, identities and belongingness. These have exposed the gendered uncertainties in people's lives.