This report presents an overview of the evidence and impacts generated by Exploring the Future of Women in Sierra Leone. An eighteen-month action research project. Funded by the Canadian International Research Development Centre (IDRC) and implemented in collaboration with the University of Makeni (UniMak), the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, and Badenya,Inc.. The project pursued three main objectives. First to conduct research into the anticipatory systems and processes that shape the images of the future of women in Sierra Leone. Second, to enhance the capacity to understand and deploy the theory and practice of futures literacy (FL) in Sierra Leone, particularly at UniMak. Third, to gain a deeper appreciation of the nature and role of anticipation in shaping the relationships of lived gender conditions, including the dynamics of meaning, power, and respect in societal development, understood as a broad concept of well-being and transformational resilience. In practical terms, this project combined elements of futures studies (methods/content), storytelling (methods/content), and gender relations (content).
The project was undertaken with support and direct engagement by members of three different communities in Sierra Leone: villagers in a small and remote town of 3000 people, Dankawalie; a diverse and dedicated team of postgraduate students and professors at the University of Makeni; and, a varied set of policy makers covering the Sierra Leone Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, international NGOs, and UN agencies in Freetown.
