Breaking the Barriers: Sierra Leonean Women on the March

Offered as part of the Oxfam Great Britain (GB) publication "Learning for Action on Women's Leadership and Participation", this paper describes the activities of two projects - the Women In Leadership (WIL) project and the Promoting A Culture of Equal Representation (PACER) project - designed to increase the numbers of women in Sierra Leone's local and national government.

The opening section explores recent political history, and the way it has created barriers that are difficult for female election candidates in Sierra Leone to overcome. According to Oxfam, women were made to suffer the consequences of the poor choices of the male-dominated political leadership during the civil war (1990-2001), and suffered rape and exploitation at the hands of the rebels. Post-war calls for the increased participation of women in elected leadership failed to spawn affirmative action policies. Women remain underrepresented in decision-making, yet overrepresented among economically poor people. The 2004 local elections marked the first opportunity for Sierra Leoneans to elect local government representatives and supported a new policy of decentralisation, meaning that women elected to local government positions might have an important opportunity to ensure that local poverty reduction and development policy meets the particular needs of economically poor women.

Within this context, Oxfam GB joined with a Sierra Leonean women's rights organisation (the 50/50 Group) to increase the quantity - and quality - of women in local council positions and to ensure that as leaders they would work towards the alleviation of poverty and gender inequality. The WIL Project involved identifying 390 women, one from each council ward in Sierra Leone, and providing them with intense training and support during the 2004 election period. Training was provided by women who had received election training from 50/50 prior to the 2002 parliamentary and presidential elections; several of the trainers were members of Parliament themselves. The training focused on preparing the would-be candidates for election, and covered campaigning skills, communication skills, information on the workings of representative government, and the principles, rights, and responsibilities of an elected government and its electorate. Candidates also received ongoing support from 50/50 throughout the election period, and were assisted in developing their manifestos and campaign strategy.

It was hoped that of the 390 women, all would stand for election, and at least 100 would be elected. In reality, 370 women received the training, of whom 116 aspired to council positions. Of the 116, 86 did eventually stand for election, and 53 were elected (out of a total of 475 councillors). Women who had participated in the training and went on to stand for election reported that it had strengthened their confidence, both in terms of giving them the courage to stand up and speak on campaign platforms and to challenge intimidation, and in helping them to develop their ideas into a manifesto. Knowing that they had access to ongoing support from 50/50 was also identified as a positive factor that helped them to secure election, as was the support of a good campaign manager, and of family and community members. Oxfam contends that the WIL project has also helped ensure that the quality of women councillors is higher than it might otherwise have been. In addition, WIL helped build the capacity of 50/50 itself, providing it with the opportunity to expand beyond the capital Freetown, to recruit new members, and to raise awareness of its activities.

The WIL project also generated information about specific barriers to women's political leadership and participation in Sierra Leone. Women candidates, members of Parliament, and councillors reported hostile attitudes among men and women towards the very concept of women standing for election. The lack of solidarity from women voters was particularly difficult for female candidates, as was the lack of family support. Women candidates also identified their own lack of confidence and experience, in part due to lack of education, and limited literacy, particularly when it came to working in English. This points to the need to offer not only targeted adult literacy programmes, but also ongoing training for women councillors. The inability to raise funds was cited as another barrier to women standing for election. Candidates also reported a lack of support from their own political parties. Based on information gleaned through the WIL Project, organisers also stress that National Electoral Commission (NEC) officials need to be trained in how to deal with all candidates and voters in a professional and gender-sensitive manner.

Key lessons learned:

• Allow sufficient time to plan and implement the project. The local elections were announced at very short notice, meaning that the WIL training of trainers (who then went on to train candidates) was not held until a few days before the start of the campaign period. Training materials were adapted from a manual developed by 50/50 and the British Council for the 2002 national elections, and did not cover the decentralisation process or the Local Government Act. "This has of course impacted on the capacity of the women councillors to fulfil their responsibilities as elected officials."
• Striving to increase the numbers of women in positions of leadership will, on its own, have little impact on women's lives unless the discrimination, poverty, and violence that so many women face in Sierra Leone are also challenged.
• Ensure that the project is a genuine joint initiative between the two organisations, as well as to dedicate adequate attention to developing the capacity of 50/50 to be an effective champion of women's rights in Sierra Leone.
• Identify would-be candidates who are genuinely committed to their communities, making sure that they have a realistic understanding of what being a local councillor entails, and then providing ongoing support and training - particularly to help women councillors to be more assertive, and to be able to operate effectively in English.
• Identify and mobilise sympathetic male "champions" of women's right to leadership. One positive example comes from Makeni town council, whose male council chair recognised that the four female councillors elected in 2004 were less experienced and knowledgeable, so has ensured that they attend classes (e.g., on community education for development) and refuses to make council decisions unless all four are present.
• Sensitise men (and women) at all levels of society to the importance of women's participation in politics and governance, the benefits that this can bring for all by promoting inclusive and pro-poor policy, and the fact that women have the right to participate.
• Focus future work on enabling women from all levels of Sierra Leonean society to attain positions of leadership, in recognition of the vast differences among women in terms of socio-economic status, education, and access to power.
  

These challenges and lessons were taken into consideration in the design of the Oxfam GB/50/50 PACER project. Activities include providing tailored training to would-be candidates in public speaking, campaigning, communication, leadership, and fundraising, and encouraging and mobilising people to support the right of women to stand for office. The plan was to provide women elected at the 2007 national and 2008 local elections with ongoing mentoring support and training in gender analysis, participatory planning, and participatory monitoring and evaluation. Amongst PACER's other strategies are plans to lobby the government to establish formal mechanisms to promote more equal numbers of women at all levels of government.

The PACER project is ongoing; successes to date are discussed here. Centrally, 50/50 is now firmly established as a national organisation with dedicated programme and administrative staff. 50/50 and Oxfam GB managed to ensure that, prior to the 2007 elections, NEC produced new voter education materials that were gender-sensitive. Also, a training manual was developed for use with candidates standing for those elections. PACER trained 164 electoral officials to be more gender-aware in their work during the election period. The numbers of women who did stand for Parliament in 2007 was lower than desired (64), in part because the country moved away from the proportional representation system to constituency-based elections (which require candidates to carry out face-to-face campaigning that put women candidates at a disadvantage). 50/50 has formed an alliance with other like-minded organisations to challenge the national government and political parties to review policies on women, including considering the introduction of quotas for women in government.