Does Post-Conflict Policy Work? Addressing the Reintegration of Girl Soldiers in Sierra Leone

This article explores the relationship between post-conflict policy and the characterisation of non-Western women through the case study of Sierra Leone. International organisations’ prescription for reintegration proved, in this case, to be insufficient, and through the use of Mohanty’s decolonial approach and Bacchi’s analytical framework, a novel insight into the reductive depiction of ‘Third World Women’ is identified. It mainly focuses on the need for specificity regarding the unique experience of girl soldiers, who simultaneously straddle the intersection of child, female and combatant. Through a close analysis of policy documents and an attentiveness to the language and history of Sierra Leone tribes, a reflective position is forwarded. This position is driven by a questioning of the efficacy of current policy processes and a desire to consciously recentre the importance of reconciliation into post-war policy to avoid shallow and homogenous post-conflict policy.