Resource centre

Beyond the state: The role of traditional leaders in COVID-19

This report explores the role of traditional leaders – Paramount Chiefs, Youth Leaders and Mammy Queens – in Sierra Leone in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. While there is much reference to the role of such traditional leaders in pandemic response, there is little written on how this has happened in practice. This qualitative study in Kono district finds that traditional leaders did indeed play a key role, but that participation and decision-making was uneven. The report lays out recommendations to institutionalise the role of traditional leaders, in an inclusive way, to ensure further successes of state collaboration with traditional leaders in future crises.