Whose Peace? Grappling with Local Ownership in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Local ownership has become a basic tenet of post-conflict peacebuilding strategies sponsored by the International Community. However, research on peacebuilding underlines a gap between policy discourse and actual practice. This paper illustrates the challenges and opportunities posed by the promotion of local ownership by assessing the case of Sierra Leone. This West African country is often labelled as one of the most successful peacebuilding interventions thus far. However, by analysing the interaction between insiders and outsiders during the initial post-conflict phase (1996-2007), this paper concludes that stakeholders perceived differently the meaning and policies associated with the concept of local ownership. In this regard, the country’s peacebuilding “success story” should be nuanced in light of the shortcomings and challenges identified. The Sierra Leonean case study provides us with an opportunity to revisit and reflect on the contradictions and limitations of the liberal peacebuilding project with a view to work towards sustainable peace and development.