Key findings: Political economy analysis is concerned with the interaction of political and economic processes in a society: the distribution of power and wealth between different groups and individuals, and the processes that create, sustain and transform these relationships over time (Collinson, 2003). Despite a large body of research on the Sierra Leone Civil War there is little recent political economy analysis on Sierra Leone. The most relevant pieces of research is a 2005 DFID-funded Drivers of Change study and a 2008 World Bank Governance and Political Economy study. It is also possible to draw inferences from the other literature on Sierra Leone. The key message from the literature is that actors should focus attention more on informal institutions while acknowledging that their legitimacy and durability should not be taken as certain.
