Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr: The Mayor of Freetown's 1st 100 days explained.

Transform Freetown- First 100 Days 

18 th August 2018

Freetown has enormous potential as a city but faces severe challenges 

across all sectors and is at an increased risk of natural disasters 

Freetown has over 1 million residents, 

and with current growth rate of 4.2% 

p.a., it is projected to have 2 million 

residents by 2028 

The unique ecological, aesthetics 

and recreational resources of the 

natural environment of Freetown 

are extraordinarily high, but are 

threatened and are at risk of loss 

The expansion of the footprint 

or built-up area beyond 

Freetown’s municipal 

boundaries started in 2000s, and 

has expanded by almost by a 

third. 

About 95% of Freetown’s population not 

served by the water supply utility; the entire 

city outside the Central Business District 

served by septic tanks, pit and bucket 

latrines; urban mobility severely impaired by 

poor infrastructure, poor management of 

road space, inadequate public transport and 

a weak institutional and regulatory 

framework 

The absence of 

With 40 percent of Sierra 

Leone’s urban population, 

Freetown is host to the 

national government’s 

legislative, executive and 

judicial branches as well as 

foreign embassies and 

consulates 

The importance of Freetown to Sierra Leone’s economy is clear, with the city 

creating 30% of the country’s GDP despite housing only 15% of its population 

and being located on less than 0.5% of the national land mass 

an adequate 

waste 

management 

system negatively 

impacts residents’ 

health and 

environmental 

sustainability

Furthermore, very limited revenues are currently at the disposal of 

Freetown City Council 

50 

Own-Source Revenues per capita (USD) 

45 

40 

35 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

Lagos Nairobi Kampala Accra Freetown 

Lagos (2017), Nairobi (2016/17), Kampala (2016), Accra (2015 budget), Freetown (2017)

The vision to transform Freetown seeks to address these challenges 

through a focus on 14 sectors, grouped into 4 transformation clusters 

…. Working in collaboration with CENTRAL GOVERNMENT, the determination of targets 

and development of initiatives within sectors will be underpinned by INNOVATION and a 

drive towards making Freetown a SMART CITY 

SMART CITY 

INNOVATIONS 

Resilience 

Human 

Development 

Healthy 

Cities 

• Environmental Management 

• Urban Planning 

• Revenue Mobilisation 

• Education 

• Skills Development 

• Job Creation (Tourism focus) 

• Disability 

• Health 

• Water 

• Sanitation 

• Housing 

Women and Girls 

Urban 

Mobility 

• Transportation 

• Traffic Management 

• Road Maintenance

3 concurrent work streams in the first 100 days to address immediate imperatives, 

provide a situation analysis & develop the 4 Year Freetown City Transformation Plan 

Week 1.5 

Month 1 

13th June 2018 13th July 2018 21 st August 2018 

Month 2 Month 3 

Mayor’s start date – 13 th May 2018 

Council Orientation 

1 

2 

Initial work streams 

Planning 

immediate 

initiatives 

FCC situation 

review 

3 

Validating the 

vision 

Flood Mitigation, CBD Beautification and Revenue Mobilization 

Review of: 

Revenue 

Mobilization, 

Service 

Delivery 


Capital, 

HR, 

Physical 

Assets 

Consultations 

and Ward Level 

Needs 

Assessment 


Contracts, 

Existing 

Projects 

Sector working groups to determine sector 

targets, initiatives and detailed plans for 

development of 4 Year Freetown City 

Transformation Plan by end 2018 

Capacity support for the implementation of the initial 3 work streams and the 4 Year Freetown City Transformation Plan is 

provided by the Mayor’s Delivery Unit comprising UNDP, Cordaid & Hull City funded local analysts and embedded 

personnel from the Tony Blair Institute and McKinsey & Co

Work stream 1 Achievements – Flood Mitigation

The flood mitigation element of work stream 1 is time critical and 

this work began in June 2018 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

What is the problem? 

q 

q 

q 

Flooding is a common hazard in Freetown 

and regularly affects several parts of the city 

during the rainy season 

Heavy rainfall, deforestation, construction of 

dwellings in streams, inadequate garbage 

collection and inadequate design of the 

existing drainage infrastructure and poor 

maintenance have worsened the problem 

The carrying capacity of the existing storm 

water drainage system is constrained due to 

unplanned development in natural water 

ways and because solid waste clogs the 

waterways 

Immediate solutions for this rainy 

season being delivered in collaboration 

with SLRA, RSLAF, ONS and partners 

q 

q 

q 

q 

Increasing public awareness of the risks 

Cleaning of key waterways and drainage 

infrastructure and undertaking related 

urgent remedial works 

Community engagement including 

development of early warning 

mechanisms 

Strengthening enforcement of sanitation 

related bye-laws 

q 

Annual average losses from damage from 

floods in Freetown is as high as US$2.5m a 

year

In advance of cleaning of key waterways & drainage infrastructure, an 

assessment of the current state of flood flash points was undertaken 

q 

q 

q 

q 

q 

A team comprising Freetown City Council representatives and engineers from RSLAF 

and SLRA visited circa 40 flood prone sites and communities over a 2 week period 

commencing on 21 st May 2018 

The exercise enabled the team to group the flood prone sites into catchment areas 

beginning in the hills, flowing down through the city plains and then into the sea 

Observations in respect of the cause of flooding in each flood flash point were noted by 

the team and short-term and long-term solutions were proposed 

One consistent short-term solution across all the flood flash points is the clearing of 

waste from the key waterways, culverts and drains 

The flood mitigation work will not be limited to clearing but will also include some limited 

remedial works to drains, gutters and culverts

Our flood mitigation work was delivered in two phases - Phase 

1 is complete and Phase 2 will be delivered by end August 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

Flood Mitigation: Phase 1 

• 15-day exercise to clean waterways and 

bridges, and desilt blocked culverts and 

gutters at 35+ flash flood points 

• In collaboration with SLRA and RSLAF 

“Every year at this time, Kroo Bay 

will be in the news for flooding. But 

we want to thank the Mayor and the 

Freetown City for clearing our main 

waterway which has prevented 

flooding this year” 

Pa Alimamy Mbempah 

Chief of Kroo Bay 

Flood Mitigation: Phase 2 

• Target 22 additional areas identified as 

needing immediate intervention for flood 

cleaning, desilting, and opening of 

blocked gutters, culverts and storm 

drainages 

• Continuously raise pubic awareness 

about proper waste management 

practices and the importance of keeping 

gutters, culverts and waterways clean 

from garbage and silt 

• Also in collaboration with SLRA & 

RSLAF

Flood mitigation: Phase 1 

Overview 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

Overview of exercise 

Cash & Non-Cash Donors 

Conducted from 20 th June to 4 th July at 35+ 

flash flood points including at: 

• Kroo Bay 

• Culvert 

• Mountain Cut 

• Brookfields 

• Rokupa Wharf 

• Oloshoro Murray Town 

• Babadorie Springs 

• Wilkinson Road by Mazda Garage 

• CRS 

• UNICEF 

• GOAL 

• World Food Programme 

• Irish Embassy 

• Chinese Embassy 

• Zenith Bank 

• Ecobank 

• Commercial Mortgage Bank 

• G4S 

• UNOPS 

• BRAC 

• Orange


Summary Impact 

WORK 

STREAM 

1


Congo Water – Wellington Old Road: Before and After 

WORK 

STREAM 

1


Overview 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

Phase 2 will target 22 additional areas that have been identified as needing 

immediate intervention for flood cleaning, desilting, and opening of blocked gutters, 

culverts and storm drainages 

Objectives 

• Revisit critical flash flood points cleaned during Phase 1 for regular desilting during 

the course of the rainy season 

• Continuously raise pubic awareness about proper waste management practices and 

the importance of keeping gutters, culverts and waterways clean from garbage and silt 

• Capture and clean 22 new flash flood points in communities, streets and waterways 

by desilting blocked culverts and silted gutters and water channels in flood prone 

communities 

• Increase community engagement activities, mobilizing them to participate and 

develop their own flood mitigation, disaster management and response plans 

• Conduct a post-cleaning phase to establish longer-term sustainability of the 

cleaning of storm water infrastructure and re-enforce public awareness in flood prone 

areas and waste creating communities

Work stream 1 Achievements – Revenue Mobilisation

~90% of Freetown City Council’s own-source revenues are generated 

from property rates, license fees, market dues and lease rent 

12,000 

Very low compliance 

despite over SLL 2.5bn 

potential revenue 

Freetown City Council Own-Source Revenues (2017, SLL mn) 

10,000 

1,169 10,040 

1,061 

8,000 

1,112 43 

2,410

Our revenue mobilisation quick wins are listed below; longer term 

plans include restructuring property tax and outsourcing asset 

management 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

Collecting property rate arrears from 

large debtors A 

Conducting month-long ward-by-ward 

collection drives (Le 222mn raised in 12 

days) B 

Enabling payment of local tax via Africell 

and Orange mobile money by Sept 2018 

Deducting local tax at source from large 

private sector employers 

Expanding corporate parking in the CBD

A 

We improved our ability to identify and collect arrears from large 

debtors: property rate arrears amount to almost SLL 35bn 

Property rate arrears owed to FCC (Le mn) 

Largest 10 debtors 



Largest 100 debtors 


Total arrears 

amounts to almost 

SLL 35bn 

- 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 

Arrears collection strategy 

• Digitised existing arrears 

database 

• Writing to top 300 largest 

commercial debtors 

• Will engage with Corporate 

Affairs Commission and 

Office of the Administrator 

General to identify highvalue 

commercial properties 

not in FCC’s database 

• Sent management team unit 

to visit non-compliant 

properties 

• After a grace period, will 

publish list of non-complaint 

properties online and in 

newspapers

B 

Conducting ward-by-ward collection drive across Freetown to collect 

local tax and license fees 

Data-driven targeting 

of wards 

• Identified highest-value 

wards using existing 

FCC and external data 

• Targeted highest-value 

wards for first collection 

drives 

Illustrative 

Field visits by 8 FCC 

teams, ward-by-ward 

• Deployed 8 teams of 

FCC staff and 

Metropolitan Police to 

collect and enforce 

payment for local tax 

and license fees 

• Conducting drives 

ward-by-ward, with 1-2 

days to cover each one 

• Running a city-wide 

and local sensitisation 

campaign alongside 

field activities 

Regular monitoring of 

revenues collected 

• Daily reporting of 

payments collected and 

reconciled with bank 

records 

• Fortnightly performance 

reviews, with decisions 

made on whether to 

continue field activities 

• Post-implementation 

report to be prepared 

detailing revenues 

raised and lessons 

learnt for future years

Additionally calls for “Expressions of Interest” have been drafted and 

reviewed by NPPA for publication in week of 20 th August 

Calls for “Expression of Interest” to cover on-demand street parking and market 

construction (see highlights below) as well as operation of public toilets 

Street parking 

• Supporting the development and 

operation of parking systems in defined 

zones in the city, including: 

• Marking out and advertising 

parking bays 

• Building a ticketing and payment 

system 

• Enforcing compliance and 

payment 

• Reporting on parking demand 

• Predominantly for on-demand parking, 

but may also include longer-term 

parking solutions for corporates 

Market construction/refurbishment 

• Supporting the improvement of markets 

in the city through: 

1) Construction of new markets / 

refurbishment of existing markets 

2) Ongoing operation of these 

markets 

• Each market will need to provide 

adequate storage, cold stores, clean 

water, electricity, toilets and showers, 

waste management, parking, and 

space for under 5 childcare 

• A range of sites across Freetown will 

be selected, including Dovecot, 

Aberdeen, Wilberforce and Allen Town

Work stream 1 Achievements – Central Business District (“CBD)” 

Beautification

Relocation of traders from 17 locations within the CBD 

negotiated and implemented with the Traders’ Council 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

Effective 22 nd Aug, supported by SLRSA & SLP 

• Relocating traders from 17 locations in the CBD to 

Sibthorpe Street 

• Partnership between Freetown City Council and 

Traders Council Sierra Leone, with enforcement 

support from the Metropolitan Police 

Benefits to the CBD 

• Beautifies the area, 

increasing attractiveness 

to tourists and investors 

• Improves traffic and 

reduces congestion 

CBD locations to be cleared 

• Siaka Stevens St (from 

Wilberforce St junction) 

• Sanders St 

• Lamina Sankoh St 

• Wellington St 

• Walpole St 

• Campbell St 

• Pa Demba Rd 

• Skye St 

• Goderich St (from Rokel 

St to lower Lumley St) 

• George St 

• Gloucester St 

• Charlotte St by Siaka 

Stevens St 

• St John 

• Big and Small Waterloo 

Streets 

• Bathurst St 

• Lightfoot Boston St (excl. 

Belgium sellers) 

• Circula Rd (Pademba Rd 

to Truscott St)

Street sweeping, bin placement and work on roll-out of 

comprehensive waste management plan underway 

WORK 

STREAM 

1 

using 25 existing 

OCF youth groups 

§ CRS funding confirmed for plastics recycling 

plant at Kingtom and small waste to energy 

pilot. FCC supporting introduction & 

strengthening of other recycling businesses 

§ DFID funded feasibility study for new sanitary 

landfill almost complete; to be followed by 

World Bank funded investment study 

§ AfDB/BADEA funded project to create 

Materials Recovery Facility at Kissy Granville 

Brook and AfDB funding to improve FSM at 

Kingtom 

§ GoSL funding urgent remedial works to be 

carried out at Kissy Granville Brook 

imminently 

§ Actively exploring options to convert Kingtom 

into sanitary landfill within 20 months

Work stream 2 Achievements – Situation Analysis

Work Stream 2’s Situation Review will assist in planning for 

improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of processes 

WORK 

STREAM 

2 

Increasing visibility and accountability through… 

Human Resource 

Review 

Asset Review 

Financial Review 

• In support of Head of HR 

• Pro bono services 

provided by Job Search, 

• Report to be submitted to 

Labour and 

Establishment Committee 

• Comprehensive review 

conducted by FCC 

Education Department of 

all municipal schools 

• In support of FCC Estates 

Manager Pro bono 

property valuation services 

to be provided by Arthur 

Johnson of Sanako 

International Services 

• External review of FCC 

financial position 

• Ongoing discussions for 

potential pro bono partner

Work stream 3 – Developing the 4 Year Freetown City 

Transformation Plan

Development of the Freetown City Transformation Plan combines 

community needs assessment with strategic, data driven technical input 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

August September October November December 

Preengagement 

Ward-level 

community 

needs 

assessments 

Consultation 

GIS data 

collection 

Aligned with Ministry of 

Finance development 

plans and budgeting 

process 

Validation 

workshops 

Sector 

Working 

Groups 

Invitations and 

reading materials 

sent 

½ day intro 

mtgs 

Results of community needs 

assessment will be a key input 

into Sector Planning Labs 

2-day Planning Labs 

1-day validation 

workshops 

Plan development and approval 

Plan 

submission

Community needs assessment process has started; will be completed in 

mid-September and results fed into the technical Sector Working Groups 

Methodology 

• Pre-Community engagement to be conducted jointly by CRS and FCC across 48 wards 

• 48 wards maps to be provided by GIS teams that identify existing facilities within the communities as 

well as the population size (these will be used as a base line for resource mapping and gap analysis). 

• Community sensitisation and verification of stakeholder list to be conducted by ward teams. 

• 6 teams to conduct needs assessment across 48 wards (@ 6 wards a day for 8 days) 

• One (1) Technical staff will be allocated to each group to support ward teams in the needs assessment 

facilitation session 

Needs/ 

Service 

Quality check 

• Baseline maps to be used to identify and verify existing facilities within the wards eg (schools, hospitals, 

markets, community centers, public toilets, available community lands etc.). 

• Service delivery rating of existing facilities within the communities to be conduct to identify functional and nonfunctional 

facilities (This to be done in percentage(%) 

• Community to be guided to identify their felt and unfelt needs/Challenges . 

Data 

collection 

• Primary data from Community needs assessment will be collected by Facilitators. 

• Data will be inputted by Analysts using CRS electronics data tools 

• Data will then be aggregated and consolidated by ward by the data Analyst and GIS team 

• Data will be validated and presented to the Mayor

The Freetown City Transformation Plan will be developed with multistakeholder 

Sector Working Groups providing technical support to FCC 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

Legal framework 

Council Committee 

Sector Working Group 

• s.15 Local Govt Act 

requires council to meet 

at least once per month 

& by s.18 must be 

minuted 

• s.19 provides for the 

appointment of council 

committees 

• s.19(5) provides that a 

council committee may 

co-opt any person to 

advise it on any matter 

(no vote) 

Key: 

• Members of both groups 

• Members only of council 

committee 

• Members only of Working Group 

• Chair of Committee 

• Deputy Chair of Committee 

• Relevant FCC Lead (Officer; 

Dept Head, etc) 

• Councillors 

• Technical Co-chairs of Sector 

Working Group [non-voting] 

• 3 co-opted members of 

Sector Working Group [nonvoting] 

• Co-Chair – Council Committee 

Chair 

• Technical Co-Chair – MDA 

• Technical Co-Chair – Develop’t 

or Implementing Partner 

• Members: 

• Other MDAs, 

• Development & 

Implementing Partners 

• Private Sector, Academic 

Institutions 

• CBOs, Civil Society 

• Deputy Chair Council Committee 

• Relevant FCC Lead 

7 individuals will be common to both groups

Suggested MDA technical co-chairs listed below; participation of 

other MDAs & sector stakeholders in working groups will be critical 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

4 Transformation 

Clusters 

14 Sectors/Areas of Focus 

11 Sector Working Groups 

Suggested MDA 

Technical Co-Chairs 

Resilience 


• Urban Planning 



• Urban Planning & Housing 


EPA 

MLHE 

LGFD 

Human 

Development 

Women and Girls 

• Education 




• Education 




MBSSE 

MTHE 

MTI 

MSWCGA 

Healthy 

Cities 

• Health 

• Water 


• Housing 

• Health 

• Water 


DHMT 

MOWR 

MOHS 

Urban 

Mobility 

• Transportation 

• Traffic Management 

• Road Maintenance 

• Urban Mobility 

MTA

Sector working groups will develop concrete targets and priority 

initiatives, which will be regularly and transparently reported 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

Each sector will have concrete targets, priority 

initiatives and milestones… 

… which will be reported on regularly for 

accountability and early issue identification 

Sector targets 

Priority 

Initiatives 

Subinitiatives 

Concrete sector targets 

KPIs and Delivery Indicators will be 

used to track initiatives to measure 

results 

Milestones and activity planning 

for each sub-initiative 

Dashboards showing progress against plans and targets… 

… and publicly tracked on FCC website and social media 

Milestones 

Activities 

Each activity plan to include details: 

• Start/end date 

• Responsible organisation 

• Responsible person 

• Ward (where applicable) 

Detailed activity plans in 3 month cycles 

1 Milestones which start on time, out of all of those which are scheduled to have started. As of the current week 

2 Milestones which end on time, out of all of those which are scheduled to have ended. As, of the current week

Activity level tracking will be against planned activity dates, 

milestones and planned completion date of initiatives 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

Detailed Activity Plan & 

Timeline shows: 

v 

v 

v 

v 

v 

v 

v 

Initiative and Sub- 

Initiatives 

Initiative Leads 

Activity owner 

Planned dates for 

activities with timeline 

Updated fortnightly for 

actual progress 

Clear ID of whether 

activity completed 

Spreadsheet 

automatically updates 

subsequent activities if 

dates re-planned 

• Activity level planning and tracking will be in 3-monthly cycles 

• Working Groups will use activity tracker for progress and performance management

Sector Working Group schedules are timed to enable completion 

of the Freetown City Transformation Plan by December 2018 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

August 

September October November December 

Invitations sent to 

potential members of 

sector working group. 

Resources & 

research materials 

sent 

Responsible parties: 

FCC & Facilitators 

Working Group – 100% 

attendance required 

Co-Chairs & Facilitators 

Review & approval by 

relevant FCC committee 

½ day 

introductory 

meetings held 

2 day Planning Labs for 

each sector working group to 

produce outline plan 

Co-chairs & facilitators 

document outline 4-yr plan 

leading to… 

1 day validation workshop 

Outline plan submitted to FCC 

committee for review & approval 

Outline Plan 

identifies: 

• Targets/KPIs 

• Initiatives & 

sub-initiatives 

• Initiative leads Detailed plan 

Following approval of outline plan, detailed 

activity planning, budgeting and resource 

mobilisation by initiative leads, leading to… 

Submission of Detailed plan to FCC committee 

All Sector Working Groups will have submitted 4 Year Freetown City Transform plan inputs by 

early December 2018, aligned with required FCC submissions to Ministry of Finance 

Aligned with Ministry of 

Finance development 

plans and budgeting 

process 

identifies: 

• Targets/KPIs 

• Initiatives & subinitiatives 

• Indicative budget 

for 4 yrs 

• Milestones for 

min. 1 yr 

• Activities for 3 

mths

Ongoing coordination and reporting will be required to optimise 

synergies and facilitate problem solving 

WORK 

STREAM 

3 

Purpose 

Activity level 

implementation and 

tracking 

Performance 

management, problem 

solving and issue 

escalation 

Overall 

performance 

management & 

vision 

Who 

Initiative Working 

Group, led by Sub- 

Initiative Leads 

Sector Working Group 

Meeting, chaired by 

Mayor 

Transform Freetown 

Forum: Mayor and Co- 

Chairs 

Task 

Formal reporting against 

detailed 3-monthly 

activity plan 

Review current status, 

unblock/escalate 

problems, revise future 

plans/timeline as required 

Sector reporting, lesson 

sharing, vision sharing 

Frequency 

Fortnightly 

Quarterly and ad hoc 

(especially for initiative 

groups) as needed 

Twice per year (first 

forum in December 2018)

As part of our commitment to transparent & open data, plans are underway 

to enable the FCC website to provide the information detailed below 

Delivery dashboard 

Ø Deep dive on various priority 

initiatives (will rotate over time) 

Ø Targets by sector, with committee 

details 

v Drill-down into milestones, with 

tracked progress 

Ø Map with ward-specific options to see 

specific projects under each four 

clusters 

6 

4 

2 

0 

Resource Utilisation 

Revenue collected 

Property 

Tax 

Market 

Dues 

Business 

Tax 

Waste Management 

Market construction 

CBD Beautification 

Etc. 

Etc. 

Q2 2018 Q3 2018 Q4 2018 

Budget 

Actual Spend 

Updated 

quarterly 

Principles for the website: 

Designed to be mobile-based Simple icons Intuitive information Opportunity to recognise FCC 

achievement

For more information about #TransformFreetown, 

please visit: 

Facebook – Freetown City Council 

Website – www.fcc.gov.sl

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr: The Mayor of Freetown's 1st 100 days explained.

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