Sierra Leone

ObjectivesThis study aims: (1) to identify and describe similarities and differences in both adult and child COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and (2) to examine sociodemographic, perception-related and behavioural factors influencing vaccine hesitancy across five West African countries.DesignCross-sectional survey carried out between 5 May and 5 June 2021.Participants and setting4198 individuals from urban and rural settings in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone participated in the survey.Study registrationThe general protocol is registered on clinicaltrial.gov.ResultsFindings show that in West Africa at the time only 53% of all study participants reported to be aware of COVID-19 vaccines, and television (60%, n=1345), radio (56%; n=1258), social media (34%; n=764) and family/friends/neighbours (28%; n=634) being the most important sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines. Adult COVID-19 vaccine acceptance ranges from 60% in Guinea and 50% in Sierra Leone to 11% i...

National Action Plans (NAPs) have been hailed as the preferential mode of implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 at a national level. In recent years, member states, especially post-conflict member states, have been heeding the calls of the United Nations to develop their own National Action Plans. However, there has been limited assessment of whether or not National Action Plans are beneficial to women in post-conflict states. Using evidence from field research in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this article argues that, despite the intent to increase national ownership of 1325 in post-conflict states, National Action Plans are ineffective at creating meaningful local ownership because they are driven by a bureaucratic approach to peacebuilding. Furthermore, implementation of National Action Plans in post-conflict states is hampered by a variety of factors, such as lack of capacity and lack of political will. Finally, we conclude that National Action Plans also do a disservice to the hard work and dedication of local women's organisations.

Medical humanitarianism—medical and other health-related initiatives undertaken in conditions born of conflict, neglect, or disaster —has a prominent and growing presence in international development, global health, and human security interventions. Medical Humanitarianism: Ethnographies of Practice features twelve essays that fold back the curtains on the individual experiences, institutional practices, and cultural forces that shape humanitarian practice.

Contributors offer vivid and often dramatic insights into the experiences of local humanitarian workers in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas, national doctors coping with influxes of foreign humanitarian volunteers in Haiti, military doctors working for the British Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, and human rights-oriented volunteers within the Israeli medical bureaucracy. They analyze our contested understanding of lethal violence in Darfur, food crises responses in Niger, humanitarian knowledge in Ugandan IDP camps, and humanitarian departures in Liberia. They depict the local dynamics of healthcare delivery work to alleviate human suffering in Somali areas of Ethiopia, the emergency metaphors of global health campaigns from Ghana to war-torn Sudan, the fraught negotiations of humanitarians with strong state institutions in Indonesia, and the ambiguous character of research ethics espoused by missions in Sierra Leone. In providing well-grounded case studies, Medical Humanitarianism will engage both scholars and practitioners working at the interface of humanitarian medicine, global health interventions, and the social sciences. They challenge the reader to reach a more critical and compassionate understanding of humanitarian assistance.

Contributors: Sharon Abramowitz, Tim Allen, Ilil Benjamin, Lauren Carruth, Mary Jo DelVecchio-Good, Alex de Waal, Byron J. Good, Stuart Gordon, Jesse Hession Grayman, Jean-Hervé Jézéquel, Peter Locke, Amy Moran-Thomas, Patricia Omidian, Catherine Panter-Brick, Peter Piot, Peter Redfield, Laura Wagner

Sharon Abramowitz is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Africa Studies at the University of Florida and author of Searching for Normal in the Wake of the Liberian War, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Catherine Panter-Brick is Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs at Yale University, and Director of the MacMillan Program on Conflict, Resilience, and Health. She has coedited six books, most recently Pathways to Peace.