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To describe the state of the library system in Sierra Leone in the recent period after the civil war, and its part in post‐conflict reconstruction.

A descriptive account with some historical, social and geographical contextual information.

The paper demonstrates how libraries have an essential role to play in the recreation of a nation's civil fabric following a period of destruction and social disintegration.

This account of library reconstruction during a period of post‐conflict stability describes a situation, the future development of which is dependent on a number of external variables. It is difficult to predict how those factors will in fact play out, but there is reason for cautious optimism.

This paper describes the pragmatic steps and policy commitments needed to restore library services in a period following a breakdown in civil order.

The paper gives an important insight into library work in a difficult and traumatic setting and provides ample evidence of how librarianship has an invaluable contribution to make in such environments.

Fintech is having a profound impact in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because it offers more financial inclusion. In this paper, the authors examine the interrelationship of Fintech, base of the pyramid (BOP) entrepreneurs and social value creation, particularly in the SSA context.

The current paper uses a qualitative research design with open-ended, in-depth interviews as the main data sources. The authors interviewed respondents from the Sierra Leone Fintech Association and four BOP entrepreneurs operating in different sectors.

The authors find that Fintech services, specifically mobile money, play a significant role in reducing uncertainty surrounding business operations. FinTech also offers growth possibilities for BOP entrepreneurs and creates social value by providing transactional security, convenience and reducing physical cash robberies. At the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing BOP entrepreneurs as well as consumers' skills development.

This study highlights the importance of context-specific theorization when analyzing the interlinkage between BOP entrepreneurship, social value creation and Fintech. For example, the possibility of safety from a street robbery may not appear to be part of social value creation by a technological development like Fintech. However, in a country like Sierra Leone, which has experienced both a civil war and Ebola outbreak, insecurity has been one of the biggest concerns expressed by BOP inhabitants. Hence, scholars need to incorporate contextual elements of risk, uncertainty and volatility while theorizing on Fintech's application in BOP contexts.

A key managerial implication relates to micro-firm entrepreneurs and information specific benefits. Fintech offers entrepreneurs the possibility to be in regular contact with customers and evaluate their purchasing patterns as well as emergent needs. Fintech offers BOP entrepreneurs a possibility to further develop their technological skills as learning to use such apps can be used as a basis for further skills development. From a policy perspective, our study highlights the importance of regulating Fintech charges so that the affordability is increased, which is expected to result in significantly more BOP entrepreneurs using these services.

The authors find that at the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing skills development of BOP consumers who interact with case firms.

This paper is one of the first studies that specifically focuses on BOP entrepreneurship and social value creation by Fintech services in an SSA context. It is also one of the few studies that incorporates views from both entrepreneurs and the country's Fintech association, rather than focusing solely on either entrepreneurs or Fintech firms. Finally, there is a specific focus on BOP entrepreneurs engaging in micro-entrepreneurship.

Discusses the development of local history collections within libraries in Sierra Leone.

The article is a reflective viewpoint.

That there is a growing interest in local history collections in libraries in Sierra Leone, and that more formal structures should be put in place to safeguard these materials for the future.

Proposes some ways forward for ensuring the long term viability of local collections in Sierra Leone.

The article is the first on the topic of local history collections in Sierra Leone's libraries, and should be of interest to librarians around the world who have an interest in local history librarianship.

To argue for the development and implementation of a national library and information policy in Sierra Leone.

The paper is an opinion piece discussing the current situation in the country and proposing a new model.

That Sierra Leone would greatly benefit from a national policy that could aid development in the post‐war period.

The paper offers a model for the implementation of a national policy.

The paper is the first paper to argue for a national policy for Sierra Leone.

The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions and lived experiences of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants, vis-à-vis their professional identity with a particular focus on two elements of postcolonial theory, hybridity and diaspora.

A qualitative methodological framework was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants about their perceptions of their professional identity and their professional experiences both within and outside Sierra Leone.

The current professionalisation process is conceptualised as a postcolonial third space where hybrid professional accountants are constructed. Professional hybridity blurs the local/global praxis being positioned as both local and global accountants. Participants experience difficulty “fitting into” the local accountancy context as a consequence of their hybridisation. As such, a diaspora effect is induced which often culminates in emigration to advanced countries. The paper concludes that although the current model engenders emancipatory social movements for individuals through hybridity and diaspora, it is nonetheless counterproductive for Sierra Leone’s economic development and the local profession in particular.

This study has significant implications for understanding how the intervention of global professional bodies in developing countries shapes the professionalisation process as well as perceptions and lived experiences of chartered and aspiring accountants in these countries.

While extant literature implicates the legacies of colonialism/imperialism on the institutional development of accountancy (represented by recognised professional bodies), this paper employs the critical lens of postcolonial theory to conceptualise the lived experiences of individuals who are directly impacted by such institutional arrangements.

When a major landslide and floods devastated Freetown, Sierra Leone had just overcome the Ebola crisis, which had left its mark on socio-political relations between different disaster response actors. With international disaster response frameworks increasingly shifting to local ownership, the national government was expected to assume a coordinating role. However, in “post-conflict” settings such as Sierra Leone, intra-state and state–society relations are continuously being renegotiated. This study aimed to uncover the complexities of state-led disaster response in hybrid governance setting at national and community levels in the response to the 2017 landslide and floods.

During the four months of fieldwork in Freetown in 2017, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with various state, aid and societal actors were conducted.

The findings show that a response to policy building on the idea of a uniform state response did not take into account intra-state power politics or the complexity of Sierra Leone's hybrid governance.

This paper argues for a more nuanced debate in humanitarian governance and practice on the localisation of aid in post-conflict and fragile settings.

The study's findings contribute to the literature on the disaster–conflict nexus, identifying paradoxes of localised disaster response in an environment with strong national–local tensions. The study highlights intra-local state dynamics that are usually overlooked but have a great impact on the legitimacy of different state authorities in disaster response.

The purpose of this paper is to provide forum for critical discourses in the area of retroduction thinking in the re-orientation of social sciences research at the Bank of Sierra Leone. It is acknowledged that economic research at the bank is more oriented towards the orthodox approach (Keynesian, etc.), while that of the un-orthodox (heterodox) view is being blighted by the need to prove economic theory application without much consideration given to the imperfect market economic conditions faced in the country.

The methodology of the paper is based on critical theoretical literature review of documents and also the assessment of current approach to research practices at the Bank of Sierra Leone.

There is actually a pool of professionals from different backgrounds, whose passion have been coordinated to embrace the idea of integrating variety of triangulation approaches (methodological, theoretical, data, and investigator) in their pursuit of exploring best practices for policy research at the bank. Research is an ontological journey and the process of its epistemological inquiry requires pool of experts, drawn from wide range of backgrounds (mainstream Social Sciences, Mathematical Science, etc.), whose approaches are pertinent in the pursuit of human discovery, and particularly for policy development, as in the case with the Bank of Sierra Leone. This work has highlighted several salient recommended points for future action in the lead towards energizing research at the bank.

The effort to provide this paper is very original, which is based on the author's experience of working in a research focused environment. This paper will be of value to future pursuance of work in promoting triangulation research at the Bank of Sierra Leone. It is hoped that the outcome of this will spearhead mixture of professional engagement of work activities that is geared towards addressing effective policy formulation at the bank in meeting its key objective (maintaining price stability).

With increasing urbanisation in developing countries and the concomitant overcrowding on streets, serious questions remain about the liveability of inner-city residential-commercial streets. This paper contends that lively streets are not necessarily liveable streets. Liveability is defined by other criteria that take cognizance of human comfort and capabilities within living environments. Observations suggest an uneasy relationship between a crowded public space and the private residential spaces that sit next to them. The paper’s focus is to measure the liveability of a lively but overcrowded street and how its everyday use affects the physical characteristics of buildings, the activities, and the wellbeing of residents. Employing a mixed-method strategy, the study draws on observations, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaire survey of residents, shopkeepers, and street traders. The findings suggest that an overcrowded street space has a negative effect on the liveability and quality of living of residents and other users but that this is tempered by intra-dependency amongst the users and the negotiation of the rights accruing to all as individuals and as groups.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the extent to which female and male university students from low-income countries express different entrepreneurial intentions. Specifically, the study empirically tests whether the anticipated financial returns to entrepreneurship versus salaried employment, or the perceived barriers to entrepreneurship exert a stronger influence on the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intentions.

To test the relationship of anticipated rewards versus barriers to entrepreneurship on gender and entrepreneurial intention, the study uses new data from a field survey in Sierra Leone and employs multiple mediation analyses.

The authors find that the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intentions operates through the mediator of perceptions of the financial returns to entrepreneurship but not perceived barriers to entrepreneurship.

The authors study intent, not behavior, acknowledging that cognitive intent is a powerful predictor of later behavior. Implications for future research on entrepreneurship in the African context are discussed.

The results from this study can be applied to both pedagogic and business settings in the field of entrepreneurship, with concrete implications for policymakers.

Results suggest that the gender gap in entrepreneurial intentions (EI) for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)- and business-educated students in Sierra Leone is predominantly influenced by anticipated financial returns to occupational choices, as opposed to perceived barriers to entrepreneurship, a more frequently studied antecedent to EI.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a more expansive recounting of the process of fieldwork, taking place over a number of years in diverse locations, in order to show how research design develops through the process of field research, as well as to highlight the complexity of fieldwork, especially issues of access, identity, and power.

The paper is based on the author's fieldwork experiences in Sierra Leone, working from and expanding upon fieldnotes from time in the field. Reflexive, autoethnographic personal narratives of fieldwork experiences are juxtaposed with theoretical writing about ethnographic observation and qualitative research.

The expansive discussion of the process of fieldwork and the development of the research project through time demonstrates and explicates the complexity and temporal dimensions of qualitative field research. Issues of access, identities, and power/privilege are also crucial aspects of the fieldwork process.

This paper shows the importance of acknowledging and articulating the development of fieldwork and research design over time and in different places. It also discusses the complexity of fieldwork due to issues of access, identity, and power. Its claims are limited by its focus on one case, the author's fieldwork.

This piece will help members of society better understand the process of qualitative fieldwork. Given its format and writing style, this piece can be easily read and understood by interested members of the public.

This paper provides narratives and commentary that provide a more complete picture of the practice of field research and the development of research design over the course of time and in diverse locations. This will be valuable to researchers, especially those preparing for field experiences for the first time or for their first time in a particular field, as well as students interested in learning about qualitative fieldwork practices.