COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT Public Disclosure Authorized CONFLICT PREVENTION & RECONSTRUCTION Paper No. 12 / April 2004 Public Disclosure Authorized Social Capital and Survival: Prospects for Community-Driven Development in Post- Conflict Sierra Leone Public Disclosure Authorized Paul Richards Khadija Bah James Vincent Public Disclosure Authorized 2 Summary Findings This social assessment study of Sierra Leone seeks to Part 2 considers how the state re-established itself in analyze and evaluate how collective action functions the countryside through restoration of chiefdom in rural communities recovering from the war in administration and current progress towards Sierra Leone. The objective is to better understand administrative decentralization. As an example is poverty and vulnerability in order to strengthen the considered proposals to create a hierarchy of local National Social Action Project (NSAP), a modality management committees in the education sector. The for funding direct community action administered by emphasis on a hierarchy of management institutions the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) apparently at the expense of parent power is as part of the Transitional Support Strategy for post- indicative of concerns to retain political control over war recovery and poverty alleviation in Sierra Leone. a decentralized process. Part 3 discusses the nature of “the community” in rural Sierra Leone, and analyzes In the rural areas, the division between ruling the main sources of poverty and vulnerability. It lineages and dependent lineages, and migrant argues that women, youth, and strangers have been “strangers” is perpetuated through the control politically marginalized, and that the rural lineage that elders exercise over marriage systems, community is typically divided between leading and over the labor of young men. This is a strong lineages and the rest. push factor in the decision of many to leave the rural areas, and opt instead for diamond digging where There are ten main conclusions of the assessment six they become vulnerable to militia recruitment. of which have specific operational implications for Reversing this rural outflow will require a changed NaCSA. mindset, local legal reforms and better rural market · The SA identifies an agrarian crisis as a major opportunities. High rural outflow represents a cause of rural poverty and war in Sierra Leone. problem for community-driven development, since · The agrarian crisis is institutional; the rights of projects depend on community contributions land-owners are over-protected and the rights of generally put forward in the form of the labor, rural laborers under-protected. especially of young men. · The agrarian crisis is technical; the opportunity structure is weak due to inadequate markets, Nevertheless, there are still rural institutions that roads, credit, training and technology policy. work and are respected. Membership cuts across the · There is a lack of true cohesion in rural divide between leading lineages, commoners and communities to support community-driven strangers. Evidence is presented that club activity development. has increased as a result of war and displacement. · There is evidence of extensive change in social attitudes among marginalized groups in the As a result of humanitarian aid, ad hoc committees countryside, and these changes need to be appointed by relief agencies emerged, generally understood and built upon. known as Village Development Committees (VDCs). · CDD is threatened by undemocratic procedures, These tended to be dominated by leading lineages, villagers’ lack of knowledge of their rights, and and are argued to have added to the divisions lack of local capacity to handle project inputs. between rural elites and the bulk of the poor. · CDD is threatened by fraud, and a failure to understand that fraud is an institutional failure, Furthermore, the report argues the failure of not a cultural failure. chiefdom governance was a cause of the war. A · CDD implies that international and local consultative process launched by government in rural implementing partners need to develop new roles chiefdoms in 1999 and 2000 revealed a pattern of and skills. local complaints about failed local institutions. Local · CDD requires collective action, which in turn is people voiced many good reform ideas, however the underpinned by a distinction between the sacred consultation was not extended to the newly accessible and the profane. Agencies will need to “do no areas following the November 10, 2000 Abuja harm” and to respect the sacred as an aspect of agreement. local culture. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PAPERS Community-Driven Development Conflict Prevention & Reconstruction Paper No. 12/ April 2004 Social Capital and Survival: Prospects for Community-Driven Development in Post- Conflict Sierra Leone Paul Richards Khadija Bah James Vincent This Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage discussion and exchange of ideas on conflict and development issues. Papers in this series are not formal publications of the World Bank. The findings, interpretations and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The series is edited by the Community Driven Development (CDD) and the Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction (CPR) Units in the Social Development Department of the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank. To request copies of the paper or more information on the series, please contact the CPR Unit at [email protected]. Papers are also available on the CDD Unit’s website: http://www.worldbank.org/cdd and the CPR Unit’s website: http://www.worldbank.org/conflict under publications. Printed on Recycled Paper Table of Contents Acronyms Foreword Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... i Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 1 PART 1: SOCIAL CAPITAL IN RURAL CIVIL SOCIETY ..................................................................... 2 Families and Chiefs .................................................................................................................................. 2 Households................................................................................................................................................ 7 Sodalities (Secret Societies)...................................................................................................................... 8 New Social Capital from Closed Association: The CDF........................................................................ 11 Merchants and Blacksmiths .................................................................................................................... 12 Labor Mobilization ................................................................................................................................. 13 Community Obligatory Labor................................................................................................................. 14 Labor Cubs and Credit Associations....................................................................................................... 16 Post-War Recovery of Clubs and Associations ...................................................................................... 19 Social and Religious Aspects of Clubs and Associations ....................................................................... 21 Patterns of Community Recovery........................................................................................................... 22 Communities of the Afflicted ................................................................................................................. 22 PART 2: GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY .................................................................................. 23 The Humanitarian Interregnum............................................................................................................... 24 Village Development Committees.......................................................................................................... 24 Non-Governmental Organizations and Community Recovery............................................................... 26 The Return of the State ........................................................................................................................... 29 Chiefdoms Revived................................................................................................................................. 30 Decentralization: The Example of Education ......................................................................................... 31 Organizing the Farmers .......................................................................................................................... 33 New Interest-Based Forms of Collective Action .................................................................................... 34 Community Reintegration: The Displaced and Ex-Combatants............................................................. 36 NSAP Sensitization................................................................................................................................