Power to Sierra Leone’s female politicians who are championing a culture of egality

Sudie Sellu is Trócaire’s women’s empowerment lead in Sierra Leone.

The way she tells it, it’s the job she was born to do. “This is what I live for,” says Sellu, who knows first-hand the disadvantages women can face in the West African country.

She grew up near the diamond fields of Tongo, in eastern Sierra Leone. From an early age she recalls questioning her mother why it was that she, as a girl, had to spend so much time in the kitchen, while her brothers “were allowed enjoy their leisure time after school”.

She wondered too why her studies were interrupted by chores, while those of her brothers were not.

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Despite the inequity, she aced her academic exams and went on to study applied accounting at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), at University of Sierra Leone, in Freetown, the capital.

As an undergraduate she volunteered on development programmes ranging from sexual and reproductive health for rural youth to protecting vulnerable women living in unofficial urban settlements, “or slums”, she explains.

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After graduating in 2019 she worked in the development sector full-time, becoming a field officer with a big international charity and a senior programme officer with another. But when an opportunity arose to work with Trócaire to become its women’s empowerment lead, in 2020, she jumped at it.

Helping women overcome significant challenges

Women face significant challenges in Sierra Leone, including violence, high maternal mortality rates and poor levels of education compared to men.

Women have limited participation in public leadership roles, a fact reflected in the small number of women in elected and leadership positions.

Women’s lack of voice and decision-making powers extend to the household too. Violence against women is common, with research indicating that as many as one in two of them have experienced domestic abuse in their personal relationships.

It breaks my heart to see girls in villages aged 14 or 15, who should be at school, getting pregnant and dropping out

—  Sudie Sellu, Trócaire

Trócaire has been supporting development programmes in Sierra Leone since the 1980s, with a clear focus on women’s empowerment. In 2003 it began working to improve governance and political participation.

It opened its country office in 2007 to provide more support after the country’s brutal Civil War, which raged from 1991 to 2002, left 50,000 people dead.

Today, Trócaire has a team of 23 people in its capital, all working to help improve women’s prospects for their livelihoods, promoting women’s leadership and challenging violence against women.

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“Sierra Leone is a very patriarchal society, rooted in social norms that are very, very limiting for women, and with very little honour or respect for women’s rights,” explains Sellu.

“Wives and girls are seen as just being for the satisfaction and support of men. Women have little or no voice in decision-making, inside or outside the home. Girls learn to aspire for less and boys learn to aspire for more.”

This doesn’t apply to her, however. “I grew up a very competitive person,” she explains.

As a child, Sellu determined to outperform the boys in her area in their school exams, and did so by a wide margin. It helped that she had parents who appreciated the value of education and, in particular, a mother who believed in her, predicting her daughter would “one day be Ban Ki-moon”, referring to the secretary general of the United Nations at the time, she recalls.

Sadly her mother passed away in 2021, but the values she instilled still guide her. “I always say my mother is my mentor,” says Sellu.

Providing positive role models for women – and men

It is because of her mother’s influence that Sellu knows first-hand the value of positive role models.

Today, much of her work involves identifying and targeting Sierra Leonean men who are highly respected within their communities. Trócaire and its partner agencies work with them on a one-to-one basis using a social norm change methodology called Masidama to change their perceptions of women, so that they in turn can go on to provide strong, positive role models for other men.

This approach is working. “Gradually things are improving,” she says. “Traditionally, men who helped their wives with domestic chores were thought of as weak. If men see a chief helping his wife, that changes things.”

Keeping girls in education gives them more options in later life. Even though there is legislation to prevent it, underage marriage remains a cultural norm in Sierra Leone. “It breaks my heart to see girls in villages aged 14 or 15, who should be at school, getting pregnant and dropping out,” she says.

Trócaire’s integrated programmes are designed to help build confidence and self-esteem among women, as well as awareness of their rights. It also looks to develop literacy and leadership skills.

Supporting women into positions of leadership

Last year saw a big step forward in developing woman leadership with the passing of Sierra Leone’s landmark Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act. Under it, a minimum of 30 per cent of elective and appointive positions in both public and private sector organisations must be reserved for women.

“We were directly involved in that,” says Sellu. It is just one of a series of legislative changes that are helping to reduce the marginalisation of women in the country.

The changes also include the Customary Land Rights Act of 2022, which finally gave women the same rights as men to own, lease or buy land in the country. Traditionally, rural women in Sierra Leone could only access land through a male relative.

We are among the poorest countries in the world. You can understand why, given that we have this huge resource locked in the kitchen, unable to participate

—  Sudie Sellu, Trócaire

There has been pushback on these issues, however. “Men have been in a privileged position for far too long and that breeds resistance [to change]. That is understandable,” explains Sellu.

“Because of cultural norms, they do not have the knowledge and can’t see how detrimental that privilege actually is to men too.”

Sierra Leone, which has a population of more than eight million people, is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranked 181 out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index. Some 58 per cent of its people live in poverty.

Yet it is rich in resources such as diamonds, iron, titanium and bauxite, a sedimentary rock that contains high levels of aluminium. But by far its greatest, if most underutilised, resource is the brainpower of 52 per cent of its population – women.

“We are among the poorest countries in the world. You can understand why, given that we have this huge resource locked in the kitchen, unable to participate,” says Sellu.

This is why Trócaire, which is set to receive Irish Aid funding for Sierra Leone this year, is working hard to give women a voice in society.

Sierra Leone has so much going for it, says Sellu. “It is a country of very beautiful landscapes and cultures, with great people who are very warm towards visitors. It is also one of the top countries in the world for religious tolerance,” she explains.

“We have a lot of potential, especially if women are truly allowed to occupy their rightful place and join forces with men.”

For 50 years, Trócaire has been working with supporters, partners and communities to tackle the underlying causes of poverty and injustice and respond to the crises they create. Together we bring about positive and lasting change for a just world. Discover more here