Sierra Leone

The Sierra Leone country programme started in 2010 with three broad strategies to make available the results of frontier research and empirical evidence to meet the demands of policymakers: (a) Conduct literature reviews and analysis in order to produce short policy briefs; (b) Respond to policy research requests from government by encouraging world-class researchers to intervene often in collaboration with nationals; (c) Events – to disseminate findings and recommendations from research papers, exchange views on potential lessons, and discussion of the implications for specific policy challenges.

The country office has a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Finance and a close working relationship with the Ministries of Planning and Economic Development; Energy, Agriculture and Food Security, as well as Trade and Industry, Freetown City Council and Kono District Council. With these relationships, the IGC has responded to research demands by engaging international experts and researchers to produce cutting-edge policy research encompassing all the thematic area of focus in Sierra Leone — economic governance, trade and productivity, cities and infrastructure, and energy and environment.

The programme has produced much research with high policy impacts. This includes the strategy for accessing the US market through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), collaborated in the formulation of the National Development Plan, the management of the economic implications of the Ebola epidemic, intra-party dialogue for the selection of candidates for the parliamentary elections, and supporting Freetown City Council to increase revenues through reforms to property tax and its business license system.

Going forward, the Sierra Leone programme aims to forge a deep partnership with more Government authorities to address pressing policy challenges.

Our Sierra Leone Country Strategy Note is available here (updated February 2021).