An official website of the Republic of Sierra Leone Government

Branches of the Government: Executive | Legislative | Judicial

Historical Background

In the aftermath of the post 1999 war period, level of poverty driven by poor governance was identified as one of the key underlying causes of the war. To that end, the government, since that time and supported by donor partners, have supported reform programmes whose underlying theme has been the improvement of the governance structures of Sierra Leone. Some of the reforms have been aimed at the Security Sector, the Civil Service, Chiefdom Governance, Law, the Justice Sector, the Financial Sector, Good Governance including Anti-Corruption, Procurement, Privatisation, Public Sector Financial Management, Social Security, Media Development and Decentralisation.

These reforms have yielded significant gains in addressing some of the key deficiencies in the governance structures and processes. Often, however, these reforms were uncoordinated and to a large extent, reflect a donor driven agenda rather than as part of a coordinated, comprehensive and holistic approach to improving governance in Sierra Leone. These reforms will also help in further reducing the fragility of the state which is reflected in higher unemployment, weak public services and weak capacity.

Since the assumption of power in October 2007, the new government has committed itself to a more coordinated and comprehensive programme of public sector reform. To that end, the Governance Reform Secretariat was restructured to become the Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU) located in the Office of the President. The PSRU is now charged with the responsiblity of deepening the reform process including the formulation of an over-arching public sector reform programme.