ABSTRACT
This chapter explores new perspectives on peace building in Sierra Leone, the existential socio-economic and political challenges and their potential to negatively impact the existing peace and the country's transition to a development phase. A senior official of the Government of Sierra Leone argues that: Fifteen years is too small for Sierra Leone to be able to overcome the astronomical challenges that have been compounding for decades. Peace building is a complex phenomenon with a rather difficult implementation process that requires context specific short, medium and long-term approaches to deal with the challenges that usually characterise post-conflict settings. The chapter analyzes when a country ceases to be post-conflict in examining the decade and a half of post-conflict transition. It presents a critical analysis of the political and institutional developments and elite behaviours during this period in Sierra Leone to determine the extent to which the country has succeeded or failed in navigating the post-conflict transition.
