Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 07/2014

Local Government Discretion and Accountability in Sierra Leone

Benjamin Edwards, Serdar Yilmaz, Jameson Boex

March 2014

Urban Institute

Abstract

Sierra Leone is a small West African country with approximately 6 million people. Since 2002, the nation has made great progress in recovering from a decade-long civil war, in part due to consistent and widespread support for decentralization and equitable service delivery. Three rounds of peaceful elections have strengthened democratic norms, but more work is needed to cement decentralization reforms and strengthen local governments. This paper examines decentralization progress to date and suggests several next steps the government of Sierra Leone can take to overcome the remaining hurdles to full implementation of decentralization and improved local public service delivery.