Maternal mortality rates in low-income countries remain high and almost two thirds of global maternal deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO, 2019). Communications interventions such as media and entertainment education initiatives could help improve maternal health outcomes. The aim of this research is to explore this area further; focusing on the case study of ‘Di Kombra Di Krai (Cry of a Mother)’, a maternal health drama produced in Sierra Leone in 2020. The research utilises interviews with key stakeholders in the production, and content analysis, to understand why film is an appropriate medium of communication for maternal health, the processes involved, and the benefits to the participants. This research aims to provide further information that will be beneficial for communication for development professionals and organisations on the role of film in maternal health communication in low-income countries.

This volume is the first instalment of the Sierra Leone journals and diary of Zachary Macaulay (1768-1838), who arrived in Sierra Leone in December 1792 as one of two members of council appointed to assist the governor of the Sierra Leone Company's new colony for free blacks.

Peacekeeping operations have since their inception become a widely-used tool used to address the acute crises emerging in international relations. For a long time, their success or failure were not object of scientific scrutiny. This has changed in recent years. This thesis describes evaluation frameworks developed by three authors and then applies them to three cases of peacekeeping operations (Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Rwanda) and it tries to assess the extent to which the assumption about the too optimistic evaluation criteria proposed by Virginia Page Fortna and too pessimistic evaluation criteria suggested by Diehl and Druckman are substantiated by empirical reality of peacekeeping operations. These approaches are supplemented by the evaluation criteria proposed by Daryia Pushkina which serve as an evaluation mainstream.

The thesis based on analysis of international community peacebuilding policy and consequent reaction by local actors assesses the influence of this interaction onto the liberal peace and changes in missions' operation. In accordance with O. Richmond the conclusion of post-liberal peace coming to the fore is accepted if only in contextually based forms. The extent of local ownership and the real agency of local actors is then dependent on the time of mission occurrence, power related interests of international community and the force and accessibility of structures that the international community tries to influence. Key words: peacebuilding, hybridization, local ownership, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone

The diploma thesis deals with the phenomenon of child soldiers and their reintegration into the post-war society. The subject of the theoretical part is the general characterization of the problem of child combatants in relation to selected sources of international law, economic and social factors of recruiting girls and boys, together with the consequences and theoretical approaches to disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs. The analytical part focuses on former child soldiers in post-conflict reconstruction in selected countries of West Africa, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a focus on their reintegration into society after the de-escalation of civil wars in 2002 and 2003. In the final part of the thesis measures for solving the problem of children in armed groups and forces, together with proposals for completing the process of reintegration of former child soldiers into civil society are proposed.

Even if child mortality has decreased significantly since 1990, it is still a substantial issue that is prevalent all over the world. Regional differences are significant, and Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected area. Traditionally, researchers have turned to the medical field for health-related issues. However, social, and structural factors, among them gender inequality, are also crucial in determining health and life conditions. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how intrahousehold gender inequality affects child mortality in Sierra Leone. The study was made through a cross-sectional study using data from the Sierra Leone Demographic Health Survey. A quantitative method was used, and analysis was conducted using OLS regression. In contrast to previous research, the results do not show a significant covariation between maternal education and child mortality. Likewise, paternal education and the difference in education between men and women showed no significant covariation with child mortality. However, polygyny, the number of wives and the first event of intimate partner violence were positively associated with child mortality. More studies about gender inequality in relation to child mortality should be conducted to strengthen the results and increase the knowledge and understanding of this subject.

No description available.

Background: Maternal malnutrition in developing countries is associated with adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. Malnourished mothers are often faced with additional risk factors as a circumstance of poverty. Supplementary nutrition can improve the outcomes of both mother and infant. Identifying maternal nutritional and socioeconomic risk factors is critical for developing effective interventions. Objective: A secondary analysis to evaluate maternal risk factors associated with poor birth outcomes including pregnancy loss, low birth weight, stunting, and preterm delivery among moderately malnourished pregnant women in Sierra Leone. Maternal risk factors in the analysis are age, education, parity, BMI, MUAC, gestational weight gain, and recent exposure to malaria infection. Methods: Pregnant women were enrolled into a randomized controlled trial when presenting with a MUAC ≤ 23cm (N=1475). Demographic information was collected and women were randomly assigned two receive either a ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) or a corn-soy blended flour with an iron and folic acid supplement (CSB +IFA). Anthropometric measurements of height, weight, MUAC, and fundal height were measured every two weeks during pregnancy. Upon delivery the infant was measured for length, weight, MUAC, and head circumference and the mother was measured for MUAC. Infant outcomes of interest included stunting (length-for-age z-score Results: The mean age of enrolled pregnant women was 21.2 years with a mean BMI of 19.78 kg/m2. A total of 33.2% had never attended school. Controlling for weeks on treatment and BMI at enrollment, mothers receiving the RUSF treatment gained a mean 0.49 kg (p2 produced infants that were significantly smaller than women with a BMI ≥ 18.5 kg/cm2 . Similarly, infants born to women with a MUAC(p=0.004) and had a 0.26 cm smaller MUAC (p=0.008) compared to women with a MUAC ≤23. Additionally, for every one unit decrease in maternal MUAC, women has 1.2 greater odds of preterm delivery (p=0.022). Also, women with adequate weekly weight gain gave birth to infants with a 0.37 cm greater mean length (p=0.012), 7.0 g greater mean weight (p=0.030), and 0.08 cm greater mean MUAC (p=0.045) than women with inadequate weight gain. No association was found between recent exposure to malaria at enrollment and poor infant outcomes. Conclusion: In resource poor settings like Sierra Leone with high rates of maternal malnutrition and a high burden of stunting, LBW, and preterm delivery, use of RUSF improved maternal nutritional status but did not impact infant outcomes. The youngest adolescents had the most adverse infant outcomes. Education did not have the expected outcome, indicating other risk factors in this population may play a greater role in infant outcomes. Maternal risk factors of malnutrition such as BMI2and MUACpregnancy, women should be encouraged to gain adequate weight. Young primiparous adolescent are at the highest risk and interventions to postpone motherhood should be priority.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / To describe the structural strains and cultural conflicts that take place when two social systems confront each other, the concept of Transitional Role was used to analyze the sociological adaptation in the social system, and the concept of Perceptual Distortion of Transitional Roles by different groups was usee to analyze the strain and conflict that continued. In order to locate, describe and analyze Transitional Roles in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the social science reserach in five categories of Husbands and Wives, Buyers and Sellers, Priests and Pastors, Administrators and Agitators and Servants and Masters was examined. In order to evaluate the Perceptual Distortion of the Transitional Roles described, the available social science reserach was compared with two samples of novels (those by West Africans and those by Europeans) about West Africa. The following were the findings: (1) Social strain and culture conflict affect both groups, West African and European. (2) Social strains exist in all the above aspects of colonial life. (3) Despite severe dual systemic strain, the colonial social system operated as one viable social system. (4) Not all social strains are resolved immediately by the creation of Transitional Roles and therefore, the historical development of Transitional Roles indicates that they continue to change. (5) Social circles formed around transitional roles and as these social circles proliferated, the basis of a new society was established. Thus a positive resolution of social strain has been located and described in the development of Transitional Roles. The findings of this study resulting from the application of Levels of Transition to culture conflict indicate that: (1) the European novelists see culture conflict as maladjustment existing with the individual African either in the form of reversion to an earlier evolutionary stage or in the form of poor imitation of British culture; and they do not see their own involvement in culture conflict; (2) the African novelists, in contrast, locate culture conflict between the various Levels of Transition or within social relationships between the numerous West African social circles, and secondarily between British and West African Transitional Roles. The findings of this study resulting from the evaluation of Perceptual Distortion suggest that (1) Transitional Role incumbents are more accurate observers than are stabilized role incumbents. (2) Perceivers observe members of their own social system of origin more accurately than they perceive a foreign social system. (3) Segregation, "Time Lag" and ideology distort perception. This analysis substantiates the proposition that novels are of limited value as sources of sociological insights unless they are compared with social science research and unless the orientation in terms of social membership of the novelist is known. The reading public in the est, to the extent that it has depended upon European novels as its source of information about West Africa, is inadequately informed. Americans who rely on this fictional material have looked at West Africa primarily through European eyes. / 2031-01-01

The main purpose of this research was to understand the civil war in Sierra Leone and its antecedents, and to analyse the package of reconstruction reforms which came along in the post-war era and their relevance for and impact on the local challenges for longer term peace. Continued corruption among the political class, the persistent disenfranchisement of important social groups, and emerging tensions along political party lines suggested that, ten years on from the Lomé Peace Accord, there may have been a malaise in the peacebuilding plan. To investigate the complex issues, and to support the hypothesis that the model for reconstruction was not best suited to local conditions and local priorities, the work first made a deep interrogation of the historic political, cultural and economic factors which led to the violent conflict. This scrutiny of the local experience allowed the conceptualisation of a germane ¿framework for peace` which represented the most pressing priorities of the local community and the central challenges for peace. The framework reflected the main concerns of the local populace and was used as an analytical tool to better understand the relevance of the model for reconstruction vis-à-vis the local context. Through a critical analysis of the post-war reforms and their impact on the social dimensions of recovery, in particular macro-economic reforms and the promotion of democracy, conclusions were drawn about the appropriateness and efficacy of the model of reconstruction experienced in Sierra Leone and how it supported local priorities for peace. The enquiry found that, in general, the model for reconstruction was not best suited to the local context because of its inflexibility to support the local peacebuilding and its many challenges. In some ways the model for reconstruction heightened residual tensions from the conflict because it failed to address key issues for reform such as governance and social justice. / Economic and Social Research Council