At the 2026 FFD Forum plenary session “Country strategies and platforms” on 24 April 2026, H.E. Kenyeh Ballay, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Sierra Leone, presented Sierra Leone’s post-Sevilla follow-up as deliberate, structured and nationally owned.
The speech explains how Sierra Leone convened national dialogues after Sevilla, anchored follow-up within its existing INFF and used technical and high-level coordination platforms to translate global commitments into practical national action. It highlights a national policy conference on financing for development, 11 priority policy areas, a follow-up action matrix and results framework, and current priorities including blended finance, diaspora finance, sustainable investment coordination, bankable project pipelines and the national credit rating process.
The intervention underlines Sierra Leone’s shift from strategy to execution, including the presentation of energy and blue economy projects at the SDG Investment Fair.
You can find the full script below:
I would like to reflect on Sierra Leone’s initial experiences in implementing the Sevilla Commitment.
In implementing these commitments, Sierra Leone has been deliberate, structured and nationally owned in its follow-up.
Immediately after returning from Sevilla, we convened national dialogues to reflect on the key takeaways most relevant to our development and transformation agenda.
These discussions focused strongly on strengthening domestic resource mobilisation and crowding in private capital, including raising the tax-to-GDP ratio towards at least 15 percent, enhancing transparency to curb illicit financial flows, scaling up blended finance, strengthening investor confidence and ensuring meaningful inclusion of the private sector and civil society actors in decision-making.
Many of these actions were already being pursued before Sevilla, but after Sevilla we decided to anchor follow-up action within our existing Integrated National Financing Framework.
The Technical Coordinating Committee was the pivot. We also had a High-Level Development Partners Committee platform, which brought together cabinet members, senior public officers and development partners.
My directive to these bodies after Sevilla was clear: to translate global commitments into practical national actions.
Dialogue in these fora culminated in a national policy conference on financing for development, which we held before the end of that year, in December 2025. This was organized jointly with the Ministry of Finance, development partners, the private sector and research institutions.
The conference produced a set of forward-looking recommendations centred on innovative financing solutions.
Building on this, our INFF Technical Committee consolidated 11 priority policy areas. Because of time, I will not go into all of them, but they range from strengthening public financial management and domestic revenue mobilisation to advancing blended finance, diaspora finance, climate finance and public-private partnerships.
We have since developed a follow-up action matrix and results framework to guide implementation, with a strong emphasis on prioritisation and sequencing.
Currently, our focus is on mobilising blended finance and diaspora finance, strengthening coordination for sustainable investment, developing bankable project pipelines and advancing key reforms such as the national credit rating process.
Just this week, as a follow-up, we presented two bankable projects in energy and the blue economy at the SDG Investment Fair, demonstrating our commitment to moving from strategy to execution.
Having said this, in Sierra Leone, the Integrated National Financing Framework has served as a central platform for coordinating financing policy across government and aligning engagement with our development partners.
We have strengthened cross-government coordination by linking planning, budgeting and financing decisions.
We have ensured that financing strategies are not developed in isolation, but are fully integrated with our medium-term national development plan.
At the same time, it has provided a structured interface.
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