Resource information
Sierra Leone has recently emerged from a long period of political instability and civil war, and is ranked among the world’s poorest countries. Thousands of displaced people are in the process of returning totheir villages to rebuild their mainly farming-based livelihoods, and many are growing food crops for the first time in a decade. Drawing on recent fieldwork carried out in two rural communities in the Eastern Province, Kayima (Kono District) and Panguma (Kenema District), this paper considers how institutional arrangements function in Sierra Leone’s swamp wetlands and explores how stresses associated with a post-conflict environment are shaping land-use decisions and mediating access to resources in new ways. With pressure on food production increasing in rural areas, the inland valley swamps in particular, have been identified by the government as a vital resource for sustaining rural livelihoods and achieving food security through the production of rice and other commodities. However, previous government policies directed at enhanced wetland production have largely failed to achieve their goals, and have been criticised for neglecting the institutional challenges of development. The findings of the enquiry, the author asserts, have implications for Sierra Leone’s recently adopted commitment to decentralisation, a move that has, in theory, seen the state strengthen its position at the local level, and will allegedly create new spaces for increased interaction between state agencies, traditional leaders and communities. The author argues that two institutional challenges must be addressed - access to land and access to water - if decentralised reforms to resource management are to be effective for wetland rice production. The analysis concludes by considering one recent initiative at the forefront of efforts to decentralise the Ministry of Agriculture, the ‘Agricultural Business Unit’ (ABU) initiative, to elucidate some of the challenges faced in post-conflict wetland rehabilitation. It notes that:
local interests in rural society are embedded in unequal social relationships in far-reaching ways. As such, readdressing these tensions remains central to achieve the benefits of decentralisation
the creation of democratic, accountable institutions at all scales will be essential not only in making rice wetland production more effective but also for achieving food security and keeping the country on track for sustainable development in the years to come
the possibility of a return to pre-war systems of patrimonialism remains one of the greatest threats to derailing the recovery process and subverting its potential benefits in the countryside.
