Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, is set to lead the second leg of the Government’s Regional Decentralization Tour this weekend, taking nationwide consultations on local governance to Makeni and Port Loko as part of a broader drive to strengthen grassroots institutions and improve public service delivery.
The engagements will bring the Government face-to-face with traditional authorities, district representatives, local council leaders and other stakeholders to examine how national policies can be translated into tangible development outcomes at community level.
“A Government closer to the people is a Government that works,” Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh said ahead of the engagements.
He added: “I’ll be engaging directly with traditional, district and local council leaders to ensure national policy delivers local impact.”
The Makeni and Port Loko engagements follow the first leg of the regional consultations held in Kenema and Bo on August 14 and 15, 2026, respectively. Those meetings brought together Paramount Chiefs, local councils, Ministers, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, development partners and representatives from critical sectors.
The nationwide initiative is examining some of the longstanding challenges affecting Sierra Leone’s decentralization programme, including inadequate financing, institutional capacity, coordination between central and local authorities, revenue mobilization and the incomplete transfer of responsibilities to councils.
During the Kenema engagement, Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh made clear that the consultations were designed primarily to hear directly from local authorities rather than prescribe solutions from Freetown.
“This is not a meeting where we come to tell you what to do. It is a learning process. We are here to listen to the challenges of local governance,” he stated.
The Vice President stressed that recommendations emerging from the consultations could contribute to Government policy, Cabinet decisions and, where necessary, legislative reforms aimed at improving the decentralization framework.
Central to the discussions is the capacity of local councils to deliver essential services. Councils increasingly face demands relating to healthcare, education, sanitation, waste management, agriculture, roads, markets, drainage, land administration and social welfare, particularly as communities experience population growth and urban expansion.
Government officials have acknowledged that transferring responsibilities without corresponding financial, technical and logistical resources could undermine the effectiveness of decentralization.
Deputy Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs, Alfred Moi Jamiru, has consequently called for greater investment in councils, maintaining that stronger institutional capacity is necessary for local authorities to effectively discharge their responsibilities.
Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, Dr. Falla D. Lamin, has similarly emphasized competent personnel, improved coordination and stronger institutions as important pillars of an effective local government system.
Regional Coordination Committees were inaugurated during the Kenema and Bo consultations to improve collaboration among institutions and create mechanisms for addressing decentralization challenges at regional level.
The engagements have also placed relations between traditional authorities, councils and Central Government under scrutiny. Greater clarity over responsibilities, resources and institutional authority is considered essential to preventing duplication and strengthening accountability.
Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Decentralization, has indicated that the exercise will eventually be expanded to district level, allowing Government officials to spend more time engaging stakeholders on challenges specific to individual communities.
More than two decades after Sierra Leone restored elected local Government, decentralization remains central to efforts to bring decision-making closer to citizens. While progress has been recorded, challenges surrounding financing, accountability, administrative capacity and effective devolution continue to affect the system.
The Makeni and Port Loko engagements therefore represent another stage in the Government’s attempt to close the gap between national policymaking and realities confronting communities.
For the Vice President, the underlying objective remains clear: governance must extend beyond institutions in Freetown and deliver visible results in the schools, health facilities, markets, councils, chiefdoms and communities where Sierra Leoneans experience Government every day.
