Evaluating youth
reintegration training and education for peace
Sierra Leone
February 2002
 USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives
has implemented programming in Sierra Leone, designed to
restabilize Sierra
Leonean society by improving the capacity of local communities
to peacefully move from war to peace. These programs required
a complex examination, and BEPS expertise was sought to provide
feedback on the Youth Reintegration Training and Education
for Peace Program, Diamond Management Program, and OTI’s
general performance.
The evaluation team conducted extensive
research on the OTI project and the political situation
before leaving for
Sierra Leone. Once on the ground, field visits and interviews
throughout the country assisted the team in carefully analyzing
the program’s results.
The assessment found that the program
had a notable impact on the peace process, with the most
impressive finding being
significant behavioral change and the reintegration of ex-combatants
into communities. The impact of the program on peace-building
and reconciliation resulted in emotional and spiritual impacts
as well as social impact, and the OTI program also generated
unanticipated progress in community development. However,
the program did engender unmet community expectations for
program follow-up. The assessment found that the program’s
curriculum was popular, but achieved low literacy gains and
that greater consideration could have been used to empower
women involved in the program. The BEPS team also identified
missed opportunities for complementarity with other projects,
noting that the demands of swift implementation generated
problems in organization and implementation. In sum, BEPS
found that the program serves as a model in dealing with
war-affected communities and the provision of necessary assistance
during demobilization processes, and that it can and should
be replicated in other locations.
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