| Abstract
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The challenge of ensuring the full reintegration of refugee women and returnees in post-conflict societies is an important one, yet there is gap in the literature that evaluates interventions designed to assist them. This article seeks to narrow this gap by examining the gender policy of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (unhcr) as applied to reintegration programs in Sierra Leone, particularly in Kailahun district. Using Amartya Sen’s concept of agency, the paper begins with an exploration of the pre-war status of women and girls in Sierra Leone and their marginalization in flight and exile. The paper then argues that the conceptual framework of unhcr’s Community Empowerment Projects (ceps) created a foundation for an open, democratic process that, in theory, could lead to enhanced well-being for women as beneficiaries and greater political agency for them as decision-makers. In practice, the ceps resulted in the implementation of projects that benefited women both directly and indirectly, especially in the areas of water and sanitation and education. The lack of emphasis on health projects, however, especially when compared to the strong support for rebuilding community buildings controlled by elders, shows the impact of traditional, patriarchal decision-making on the cep process. The paper further argues that special women’s centers constructed or supported by unhcr, though small in number, both enhanced the well-being of and promoted political agency for women; this intervention contributed to the high levels of females elected as local officials in Kailahun district in the 2012 elections.
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