INSIGTHS ON SECURITY EFFECTS OF GENDER OVERSIGHTS: RECONSTRUCTION POLICY IN SIERRA LEONE

Security policy in post-conflict Sierra Leone has fallen short of recognizing female combatants as soldiers. As a result, post-conflict reconstruction policies have failed to adequately deal with women’s needs as ex-combatants, which would be critical for their successful reintegration and the rebuilding of the country. 

Security policy in post-conflict Sierra Leone has fallen short of recognizing female combatants as soldiers. As found by Dr. Megan MacKenzie, joint Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) and Belfer Center International Security Fellow, much of the research and examination regarding the crisis describes women participants as “abductees” or “camp followers” rather than the more hard-line classification of “war soldier.” As a result, post-conflict reconstruction policies have failed to adequately deal with women’s needs as ex-combatants. MacKenzie’s research, based on a series of 50 individual interviews, found that during the country’s eleven-year civil war, women engaged as frontline combatants, comprising nearly 30-50% of Sierra Leone’s 75,000 member military forces. Women, however, remain largely unaccounted for in the national Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process that provides services to former combatants.

During her presentation at the October 24 WAPPP seminar, MacKenzie painted a stark reality of why security policies need to be more inclusive, especially as they address women. Although their war-time activity would categorize them as soldiers, MacKenzie’s research discovers that these women faced heavy stereotyping during post-conflict reconstruction. When female soldiers are stereotyped as victims, in attempt to de-legitimize and de-politicize their activities as combatants, they become unaccounted for during post-conflict reintegration.

Groups such as Doctors Without Boarders estimate that 70-90% of the women soldiers experienced sexual violence during the war. In her talk, MacKenzie argued that in order to comprehensively rebuild Sierra Leone, female soldiers must be treated for the violence perpetrated against them and for the violence they committed. The national DDR process did not recruit female soldiers, and those they did treat were housed in the same spaces as the male soldiers, leaving them vulnerable to further sexual assault. For this reason, MacKenzie found during her interviews that of the women who knew about the DDR process, few chose to partake as they were concerned for their personal security.

With special thanks to WAPPP's Security Alliance.  From supporting HKS faculty, fellows and students to training women peacebuilders, the Security Alliance is vital to the investigation of critical issues at the intersection of gender and security, as well as to supporting and elevating the role of women in creating and influencing sustainable peace and security. 

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