How Policies Are Made in Sierra Leone

Stage one: naming the problem

Everything starts with someone deciding a policy is needed. The trigger might be a gap in the existing law, a shift in the economy, a new international obligation, fresh evidence, or a direct instruction from the Presidency or Cabinet. Usually the ministry that owns the sector takes the lead. The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, for example, runs a directorate of policy planning and project development whose job is to research, draft background papers and line up proposals with the ministry’s goals.

Where public pressure or donor interest is high, a ministry may be told to start work by the Presidency, the Office of the Chief Minister, or Cabinet, which has become the place where the government’s flagship priorities are turned into coherent policy across ministries. However the need arises, this first step fixes the mandate and the scope of what follows.

Stage two: research, drafting and consultation

Once the mandate exists, the responsible ministry researches and drafts, drawing on its own planning staff and, where useful, on external experts, civil society, donor agencies and community groups, so that the draft rests on evidence and on what will actually work on the ground. Some sectors have written this down. The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, for instance, publishes a guide to policy development that sets out a six-stage cycle and spells out the roles of drafting, consultation and approval.

The draft is shaped and reviewed internally, and where it needs them, standards, guidelines or standard operating procedures are prepared to support it, though those remain secondary to the policy itself.

When the draft is ready, the ministry sends a policy memorandum to Cabinet through the Cabinet Secretariat. The Secretariat organises Cabinet business and reviews proposals for quality, evidence and coherence. Its Cabinet Policy Review Unit tests each memorandum: is the problem clearly defined, is the evidence there, have the likely impacts and costs been worked out, and did the right people get consulted. The unit does not take over the ministry’s policy, it checks whether the proposal is sound enough to put in front of Cabinet.

This stage often loops. The ministry revises, consults again, sometimes commissions a cost or impact analysis, and returns with a final memorandum.

Stage three: Cabinet decides

Once it clears the Secretariat’s review, the memorandum is scheduled for Cabinet. Because ministers share collective responsibility, a decision at this level is meant to reflect government-wide priorities, avoid duplication across sectors, and hold together. The Secretariat arranges the business, records the minutes, and makes sure the decision reaches the ministries that must act on it.

A recent example is the Cabinet approval, on 13 July 2025, of the framework on diversion and alternatives to detention for children in conflict with the law, which followed work by the judiciary, the police family support unit, several ministries, the human rights commission, civil society and partners, and came after Parliament passed the revised Child Rights Act 2025. Once Cabinet approves, the policy becomes an official government instrument, usually with directions on who leads, by when, and how it will be paid for.

Stage four: paying for it

Approval is not delivery. What turns a policy into action is the national budget. The Ministry of Finance has to write the necessary provisions into the annual budget and the detailed estimates, or the policy stays on paper.

For a small policy, existing allocations may cover it. For an ambitious one, the ministry has to negotiate with Finance or find donor support, and implementation can lag approval by a year or more while the money is found. A policy with no budget line is a promise, not a plan.

Stage five: implementation and regulation

Where a policy needs concrete action, the lead ministry usually develops regulations, guidelines or standard operating procedures. Where it needs a change in the law, the ministry works with the Ministry of Justice to prepare a bill for Parliament, if Cabinet has recommended that route.

Where no legislation is required, ministries issue administrative directives to their agencies and, in sectors like environment, land or social protection, to local government units. When Cabinet approved the national science, technology and innovation policy, for instance, the government set up an inter-agency council to steer its rollout.

Stage six: monitoring and review

Policy that is not followed up tends to drift. As the lead agency implements, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Office of the Chief Minister track progress, gather performance data and report on where things stand, a discipline that recent public service reforms have pushed harder, with their emphasis on delivery and measurable results.

Long-term sectoral policies, in social protection, land or education, are usually folded into medium-term development plans, which give regular points to review and adjust. Civil society, partners and parliamentary committees also weigh in, especially where public money, rights or basic services are at stake.

Who does what, and why coordination is the weak point

The roles are spread across institutions, and the seams between them are where policy most often fails. The Cabinet Secretariat prepares, reviews and presents proposals and communicates decisions, and its head carries a double role as Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service, which gives it authority over both policy coordination and the public service.

Line ministries do the research, drafting, consultation and delivery, usually through their planning directorates. The Office of the Chief Minister keeps priority initiatives aligned across ministries. The Ministry of Finance decides whether and how a policy can be funded, and the gap between Cabinet approval and a real budget line is where many commitments quietly die. Implementation then depends on regulators, sectoral departments and local councils, whose overlapping mandates make coordination the thing most worth watching.

The bottom line

Policy in Sierra Leone runs through a clear sequence: name the problem, research and draft, consult, decide in Cabinet, fund, implement, monitor. The Cabinet Secretariat, the line ministries, the Office of the Chief Minister and the Ministry of Finance each hold a distinct piece.

The 2015 Cabinet Manual and the growing reach of the Chief Minister’s Office are deliberate attempts to make that machine more professional and better coordinated. For anyone doing advocacy, accountability work, or, where it comes to it, litigation, knowing where each decision sits is what makes it possible to move the outcome.