The situation of small-scale coastal fisheries in Sierra Leone is dire, with diminishing fish stocks and fish sizes due to massive industrial fishing and widespread use of banned nets by artisanal fishers. Repeated attempts have been made by fisheries management to improve the situation, but with little or no success. Superficially, it might seem that the two main causes of the problem -foreign industrial fishing and damaging artisanal netscould be readily dealt with, but closer analysis reveals that tackling these causes is immensely complicated. This is because their roots lie deep in Sierra Leone's history, culture and politics, and any attempt to deal with them could lead to unintended consequences which might make the situation worse not better. Does this mean there is a 'wicked problem' herei.e. a problem so intractable that it has no practicable solution? This is the issue which the present study addresses. The research is based on extensive fieldwork carried out in two large fishing coastal fishing communities in Sierra Leone (Tombo and Goderich) during April and May 2017 when 200 openended questionnaires (SQs) were administered and 51 key informant interviews (KIs) were conducted. The study concludes that the situation faced by small-scale fisheries in these communities meets several, but by no means all, of the criteria of a wicked problem, and that while a definitive solution to the problem is unfeasible, stakeholders could adopt strategies to alleviate its more harmful consequences.

This paper explores the perceptions of Ogoni people about their system of inherited leadership in Ogoniland, It focuses on whether the Ogoni people believe that their traditional system of inherited leadership has ameliorated or exacerbated the adverse impact of oil capitalism and political interference on their communities. Fieldwork was carried out in eight communities in Ogoniland in early 2014 when 69 key informant interviews were conducted as well as three focus group discussions. The conclusion reached by the paper is that many Ogoni people believe that the system of inherited leadership has let them down in the face of external threats, and that it is time to reform that system by incorporating into it some contemporary western principles of good governance.

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in [Community Development Journal] following peer review. The version of record [Okeke-Ogbuafor NA, Gray TS, Stead SM. A comparative analysis of the role of traditional and modern community-based organizations in promoting community development in Ogoniland, Nigeria.

This paper analyses the myriad perceptions about coastal fisheries in Sierra Leone expressed by respondents in 66 interviews conducted in 2017 and 2020 during two periods of fieldwork in two coastal communities (Tombo and Goderich). Most of these perceptions focused on the respondents’ explanations for the dire state of the coastal fisheries, and often these explanations sought ‘scapegoats’ to blame. Our findings are that the main ‘scapegoats’ were foreigners, industrial trawlers, artisanal fishers, fishers’ unions and the government. Other interpretations focused on the respondents’ recommendations for restoring the health of the coastal fisheries, and our findings here are that the main ‘panaceas’ were coercion, sensitisation, and co-management. In discussing these findings, we came to the conclusion that both the identification of scapegoats and the search for panaceas were unhelpful ways of understanding and alleviating the problems facing Sierra Leone’s coastal fisheries because they polarised and over-simplified the issues, sowing divisions between the stakeholders, thereby reinforcing and prolonging the crisis. A more fruitful approach is to look for ways of forging links and establishing partnerships between the disparate players, especially between the government and community organisations.

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In the face of governmental failure across the world to effectively tackle the menace of hunger, this paper explores the perceptions of food bank users in Glasgow in Scotland and Ogoniland in Nigeria's Niger Delta. It relies extensively on qualitative data collected in Glasgow and Ogoniland between 2013 and 2016. Results show that although the concept of food bank is more widespread and established in Glasgow than in Ogoniland, both Glaswegians and Ogonis are increasingly becoming dependent on food banks. In Glasgow, food banks have moved from being last, and short‐term, resorts, to becoming permanent means of alleviating hunger. However, the managers of these food banks are clearly unsure about their long‐term sustainability, and this paper argues that the established model of food bank operating in Glasgow should not be replicated in Ogoniland. Instead, using Freire's concept of ‘education for critical consciousness', we suggest an alternative model for food banks that shifts the focus from alleviating hunger to tackling the causes of poverty, that is, a shift from dependency to independency. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The use of foreign fisheries consultants in developing countries is increasing, despite growing controversy about their value. On the one hand, they bring expertise and analytic skills, which can turn around ailing fisheries, but on the other hand, their prescriptions may be inappropriate, based on ignorance or misunderstanding of local circumstances. This study, based on results from 51 key informant interviews and 199 survey questionnaires , finds the contributions of foreign fisheries consultants in Sierra Leone of limited benefit.

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