The Advocacy Movement Network started work in Sierra Leone as a small network in 2004 and registered as a right-based National Non-Governmental Organization (NNGO) in 2006 with the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). Since ??? AMNet operates a headquarter in Freetown and district offices in Bonthe and Kambia. In 2013 a branch of AMNet has started work in the neighboring country Guinea.
Sierra Leone is located on the west coast of Africa and bounded by Liberia in the South-East, Republic of Guinea in the North-West and the Atlantic Ocean in the West and Southwest. It has a land area of 73,326sq km with a population of 6.4 million. Sierra Leone gained its independence from Great Britain in 1961, but by 1978, it became a one-party state which was epitomized by widespread corruption, bad governance and dictatorship. This resulted into a dastardly civil war preceded by coups and counter coups in 1991, which was characterized by massive destruction to human life and infrastructure. Sierra Leone continues to be one of the poorest countries with over 70% of the inhabitants earning less than two dollars a day, low life expentancy, high illiteracy rate and low GDP per capital.
Even though there are gradual strides towards democracy, Sierra Leone is still considered a ‘fragile’ state with long term and immediate obstacle to change. There are key challenges such as rampant corruption, marginalization, bad governance, low quality of education to compete in the global market, high youth unemployment, injustice, obsolete laws, sexual abuse and exploitation of children, gender inequality, bribery, weak political structures, abject poverty, gender-based violence, harmful traditional practices, limited social services, social exclusion of women and children, prevalence of preventable diseases and weak infrastructure to cope with the rural-urban migration and increasing population in cities and towns. In addition, food security is a growing concern with the staple food-rice, increasing in price more than 200% as compared to 2007 price. The problem is compounded by high rates of inflation, sky-rocketing of the price of fuel with few international aid actors and donors.
Addressing these issues need the cooperation and collaborative efforts of donors, international non-governmental organizations, National non-governmental organizations, community based organizations, state and non-state actors through a right-based approach (RBA). AMNet’s strength is in the people. AMNet combines poor people’s experience with the expertise of our staff to proffer solutions. We work with networks groups and in partnership with like-minded institutions (national and international) to promote the basic fundamental rights of people especially the women and children. AMNet is a female- led organization.