Sierra Leone: Strengthening ‘Open Initiatives’ strengthens accountability and transparency  | Sierra Express Media

"Sierra Leone passed the Right to Access Information Law in 2013 and joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2014. In its action plan submitted to the OGP, Government committed itself to launching an open data initiative. Then, it planned to go one step further to ensure its information is not only accessible, but open to the public in a way that allows users to explore, analyze and reuse such information. To this end, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development (MoFeD), Dr. Kaifala Marah, in May 2014, formally endorsed the Open Aid Partnership (OAP) and its principles making Sierra Leone the newest partner. Dr. Marah had requested the support of the OAP, which is hosted in the World Bank, to help improve access to development project data and to build the capacity of local stakeholders in that regard. The OAP is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together governments, development partners, civil society and media groups to collectively improve aid transparency and effectiveness. It has successfully provided such support in about 20 other developing countries ..."