Facing post-crisis livelihood challenges? Insights from young farmers in Kenema city, Eastern Province, Sierra Leone

Globally, urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) research has focused mainly on capital cities, has avoided conflict-affected locations and rarely considered the challenges faced by young cultivators. The latter are particularly important because of the vulnerability of unemployed young people to being drawn into violent, criminal or antisocial behaviour in conflict or fragile states. This paper examines the post-crisis livelihood challenges of youth farmers in Kenema, Sierra Leone’s third largest city. The research on which this paper is based comprised multiple methods, including GIS mapping, in-depth interviews and group discussions with youth cultivators and key informants in several sites in Kenema city. Research participants gave first-hand accounts of their experiences of the Civil War and the subsequent Ebola epidemic crisis, and the paper explores their transformation from dangerous living to productive agriculturalists within Kenema. The research uses an exploratory approach to critically examine the engagement of youth in urban and peri-urban agriculture, as a strategy for encouraging young people to become responsible citizens who support city and national development. The paper challenges the pessimistic view that contemporary urban youth in developing countries are characterised by disaffection leading to crime. The study reveals how urban youth in post-crisis contexts can play a vital role in national development when a proactive and pro-youth public platform is evident locally. Appropriate resource mobilisation can unlock the latent potentials of youth for both self and community development.