President Bio Urges MDAs To Fast Track Delivery

By Abdul Rahman Bah

For a family in a remote community, development is not measured by the number of policies announced in Freetown. It is measured by whether the village has clean water, whether a child can study after sunset, whether a farmer can reach a market, whether a pregnant woman can get to a health facility and whether a young person can find work without leaving home.

That is why President Julius Maada Bio’s recent call for faster implementation of development programmes and stronger accountability has raised an important question: how far are Sierra Leone’s development promises reaching the people who need them most?

Speaking at the Presidential Development Partners Committee meeting at State House on September 10, President Bio said the country’s Medium-Term National Development Plan 2024–2030 and the Government’s Big Five Game Changers provide a roadmap for transformation, but stressed the need for greater urgency, coordination and discipline in turning plans into measurable results. He called for every agreed action to have a responsible institution, a clear deadline and a measurable outcome.

For ordinary Sierra Leoneans, however, the challenge is not simply whether another plan exists. It is whether the plan changes daily life.

The gap is particularly visible in basic services. An IMF assessment published in 2026 found that only about half of Sierra Leone’s rural population has access to treated water, with many people still relying on rivers, lakes and unprotected wells. In Freetown and other urban areas, rapid population growth and unregulated expansion are placing additional pressure on ageing water infrastructure.

Electricity presents another test of what “last-mile” development means. The country’s national energy compact identifies affordable connections for underserved communities as a specific policy challenge, including the need for a last-mile electricity connection policy and measures to make connections affordable for poorer households.

These gaps matter, because infrastructure is not merely about concrete, pipes and power lines. Water determines whether families spend hours searching for safe supplies. Electricity determines whether a small business can operate after dark. Roads determine whether farmers can move produce before it spoils. Reliable services can determine whether a young person sees opportunity at home or feels compelled to search elsewhere.

The financing challenge is equally significant. President Bio disclosed that the 2026 Population and Housing Census faces an estimated US$37 million financing gap. Government has committed US$24 million, with about US$15 million disbursed, while development partners have committed approximately US$1.5 million. Census Night is scheduled for December 1, 2026.

The question of financing goes beyond the Census. Sierra Leone’s development ambitions depend heavily on government resources and external partners at a time when international development financing is becoming more constrained. The OECD’s 2026 review found that although most development-partner project objectives align with Sierra Leone’s national frameworks, only 53 percent of indicators are drawn from those frameworks and only 48 percent can be monitored using government data. The review also identified limited parliamentary oversight and the absence of a mutual accountability mechanism as challenges. That makes accountability central to the last-mile question.

If a project is announced, citizens need to know who is responsible, how much money has been allocated, when the project should be completed and what happens if the deadline is missed. Without that chain of responsibility, development can remain trapped between policy documents, meetings and funding commitments.

There are encouraging signs. The World Bank reports that Sierra Leone’s economy grew by an estimated 4.5 percent in 2025, supported partly by agriculture and services, while programmes in areas such as smallholder agriculture, youth employment and social protection have reached substantial numbers of beneficiaries. But national growth and individual experience are not always the same thing.

For the farmer without a reliable road, the trader struggling with transport costs, the household without treated water or the young person searching for employment, the real measure of development remains painfully simple: has life become better?

President Bio’s call for faster delivery therefore creates an opportunity to shift the national conversation from promises to evidence.

The ultimate test of Sierra Leone’s development agenda will not be how many programmes are launched, how many meetings are held or how many strategies are written.

It will be whether development finally reaches the last mile and whether the people living there can feel the difference.