By OB Sisay

As the coronavirus spreads policymakers are facing the challenge of structuring effective responses to manage the risks to public health, critical services and the economy. It will get worse before it gets better as many find that previously-held assumptions about their capabilities to absorb and manage the shock are misplaced.

By Kemo Cham

After about an hour of deliberation, discussion came to a standstill. The disagreement, I later learned, was about representation: who should head a committee that had just been formed to champion development issues bothering the community people. The choice was between the Town Chief and the Youth Leader.

By Abu Bakar Jalloh

In 2019, Sierra Leone improved its scores in many corruption indexes, including the TI Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and the U.S Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) corruption control scorecard.

For example, Sierra Leone’s rankings improved in the CPI from 129 in 2018 to 119 in 2019, out of 180 countries, while the MCC’s corruption control scorecard shows that the country increased its scores from 49 percent in 2018 to 79 percent in 2019.

By Abdul Tejan-Cole

By Muctar Koroma

An imposing 22-foot structure is the first thing that meets the eyes as you enter Koryardu village. This is the newly built clock tower, which has become a center of attraction in the village. This is just one of several construction works that have been carried out in Koryardu, paid for from the community’s share of the proceeds from the sale of a massive 709-carat diamond, called the “Peace Diamond”.

By Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella

During a hunting trip at the beginning of the year, I used the quiet walk through the woods to reflect on 2019. In an effort to understand ordinary people’s perspectives about their welfare and aspirations, I dialogued with students and young professionals, and NGOs in Bo, Kambia and Makeni, and visited market women and youth groups in some parts of Freetown. I concluded that the best characterization would be that 2019 was one of our Country’s ‘Annus Horribilis’ - Bad Year.

Annus Horribilis?

By Abdul Tejan-Cole

On February 3^rd 2020, the Constitutional Court of Malawi delivered a landmark decision nullifying the election of Malawi’s President, Prof. Peter Arthur Mutharika. On May 21 2019, Malawians had voted in tripartite polls to elect a President, Members of the National Assembly and Local Government Councillors.