Extreme gender inequality persists in the West African country of Sierra Leone, despite increased political efforts to promote gender equality. Women are severely discriminated in terms of access to education, health services and economic opportunities. Moreover, gender-based violence is widespread. In this context, the project titled ‘Linking Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and WASH towards Nutrition Security’ (LANN+), implemented by Welthungerhilfe in collaboration with the local NGO SEND Sierra Leone from 2017 to 2022, employed the Gender Model Family Approach. Therein, couples are sensitized to gender equality, instructed to reflect on gender roles and norms, and encouraged to act as role models in their communities. The present study demonstrates that this has resulted in lasting changes of gender norms and roles at household level: workloads are distributed more equitably, women are more involved in decision-making processes, and financial resources are increasingly managed jointly. This goes hand in hand with a reduction of the number of intra-family conflicts. At the same time, transforming deeply rooted discriminatory social norms remains a challenge. Integrated approaches that link gender work with tangible improvements of living conditions can increase the target group’s willingness to address gender issues. At the same time it is necessary to take the respective socio-cultural context into account and to coordinate closely with local actors to ensure long-term gender-transformative effects.
Carolin Rosenberg (Wed,) studied this question.