Workshop: Governance and Accountability in Sierra Leone

On February 25th 2014, IGC Sierra Leone held a workshop in Freetown on the topic of governance and accountability, led by Lead Academic Rachel Glennerster. Bringing together an unusual mixture of progressive parliamentarians, civil society representatives, academia and donor agencies, the workshop centered around a presentation of findings from a recent investigation looking at the impact of information, through the medium of debate screenings, on voting behaviour. Following discussion of the Sierra Leone context, a presentation by Amrita Johri from the Indian NGO Satark Nagrik Sangathan illustrated how accountability initiatives are proceeding in a different country using MP score cards published in newspapers. By importing the insights from one continent to another and by canvassing a wider variety of stakeholders, the workshop constituted a significant success.