Student-Advocate Partnership in Sierra Leone: Summer 2011
by Margaret Yukins, BC ‘12
Jennifer Wilmore in Sierra Leone
Jennifer Wilmore, a student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, exemplifies the increasingly global scope of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. During summer 2011, she completed an international internship with a nongovernmental organization coordinated by a Human Rights Advocate Program alumnus, Agnes Tamba. Jennifer is pursuing a Master of International Affairs with a concentration in Human Rights and a specialization in International Media, Advocacy and Communications. She had the opportunity to work with the Mining and Extractives program at the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) this past summer in Sierra Leone. NMJD employee Agnes Tamba completed the Human Rights Advocate Program in 2006 and has used this training as an active community leader.
The NMJD is a civil society organization that works to ensure that mineral extraction in Sierra Leone benefits the country’s overall economy. More specifically, NMJD aims to protect human rights of local communities wrongly affected by rapid industrialization. As Sierra Leone has expanded its economy in recent years, much of its economic and industrial development has focused on mineral extraction. At the same time, many communities have been displaced in favor of economic growth, in a process commonly referred to as “land grabbing.” Often, local community leaders are urged to sign over their lands for empty promises or for their own benefit. This has forced hundreds of families from their homes in the eastern region of the country. Many families have lost access to adequate housing and healthcare, in addition to not fully understanding their own rights to land and proper resettlement. NMJD works to ensure that foreign mining investment and development occurs without causing local communities wrongful harm. While endorsing economic development and foreign investment, NMJD believes that these transactions must be managed fairly and holistically.
Working with NMJD, Jennifer had the opportunity to conduct in-depth field research about child miners, the foreign mining company Koidu Holdings, and issues of forced displacement in the area. In addition to field research, Jennifer helped NMJD’s Learning and Development Program by entering and analyzing data from a water and sanitation survey. She assisted in facilitating a workshop between the African Development Bank and local communities that worked to educate community leaders on the available access to the Bank’s grievance system. Through this workshop, community leaders were trained on utilizing the bank to voice complaints. Finally, Jennifer helped organize three launching ceremonies (two of which were with local mining communities) for a report that analyzed agreements made between the government and two foreign mining companies.
Jennifer’s internship with NMJD allowed her both to acquire new practical skills and substantively contribute to the organization using her academic training. For example, her SIPA statistics course was especially useful in conducting data collection and analysis. Jennifer also conducted a mini-workshop for her fellow NMJD’s staff on data input and statistics programs. At the close of her internship, Jennifer had developed a much greater understanding of the links between foreign investment and sustainable development. In the future, she hopes to work in communications for an international advocacy or development organization.
Published in RightsNews
Volume 30, no. 1, November, 2011.
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