Reform or more of the same?

Although the paper will touch on some of the problems in bridging the gap between the two in the concluding section, the broader project of which this paper is a part examines this aspect of the subject in the context of Sierra Leone from 1999-2005. [...] The End of the Cold War and the New Challenges Facing the International Community The proliferation of civil conflicts at the end of the Cold War and a sense of donor fatigue and disillusionment with conventional relief and development models prompted a fundamental change in the international community’s engagement with the developing world.5 It became evident that donor programs and policies desi [...] The prevalence of gender-based violence, the mass displacement of women and children, the feminization of poverty and the militarization of masculinity witnessed in conflicts during the 1990s all reinforced the need for a gender-sensitive approach. [...] The UN and Peacebuilding in the 1990s From this brief survey of the reform agenda of the UN in the 1990s it is reasonable to argue that at the outset, the various actors within the emerging peacebuilding industry showed little concern or sensitivity to the role of gender issues in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. [...] Much work has been done on the specific roles of men and women in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding, and the findings of these analyses reinforce the need to ensure that the differences are acknowledged.52 The advocacy of women’s groups throughout the previous decade and the increased level of public awareness about gender issues due to the large-scale crises in Rwanda and Bosnia gath