Youth, associations and urban food security in post-war sierra leone

Sierra Leone has recently emerged from a long period of instability and dislocation following the end of a protracted decade-long civil war during the 1990s. The country’s economy and quality of life deteriorated rapidly during this period, when many people were forced to flee their homes and abandon their mainly agricultural livelihoods due to the rebel insurgency. As a consequence, the population of the country’s capital city, Freetown, almost doubled in size, with youths being at the forefront of this influx. As agricultural production in rural areas became severely dislocated, food security and the state of the agricultural sector in the post-conflict period have become a major concern for governmental and non-governmental development agencies.