RAIC & NACCED Chairmen and participants in the validation engagementThe Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) and the National Council on Civic Education and Democracy (NACCED) jointly reviewed and validated the Sixth Commitment of Sierra Leone’s National Action Plan on Open Governance which focuses on access to information on Wednesday, 27th August, 2025, at the RAIC National Secretariat in Freetown.
In his welcoming remark, Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Chairman and Information Commissioner of RAIC, encouraged representatives from NACCED, Open Government Partnership (OGP) and Civil Society Organizations to read carefully the eleven-point milestones the RAIC had put together to achieve the overall objective of the Sixth Commitment in the fifth Open Government Partnership National Action Plan (OGP-NAP 5) which centers on access to information.
“The Right to Access Information Commission has revised its Milestones in the OGP-NAP 5 to make our commitment in the said document more realistic, measurable and achievable. The RAIC, over the years, has done and continues to do a lot in advancing, promoting and facilitating access to information nationwide. This is testament to the thousands of information requests being received and processed, especially in the last four years. Our global rating as a country on access to information, in the last four years, has also been very impressive. So, I encourage you all to carefully and thoroughly go through our revised milestones and make your valuable inputs,” the RAIC boss said.
The National Council for Civic Education and Democracy (NACCED) is the coordinating government agency for the implementation of OGP-NAP Commitments.
In his statement, Joseph Munda Bindi, the Chairman of NACCED, emphasized the importance of access to information in open governance, civics and development in general.
“When we don’t tell our own stories, other people will do so in a way that might be misleading,” said the NACCED chairman.
He lauded the efforts of the RAIC in putting together what he described as a “more detailed and comprehensive set of Milestones and Expected Outputs” in achieving the OGP-NAP Commitment Six which is implemented by the RAIC.
The RAIC Chairman, Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, projected the document containing the RAIC’s Revised Milestones, Expected Outputs, Baselines, Current Status and Means of Verification for all participants in the validation exercise to see, read and make their contributions.
Staff of RAIC and NACCED together with representatives of civil society organizations such as Transparency International Sierra Leone (TI-SL), Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and Education for All (EFA) scrutinized the document thoroughly and made essential contributions to be captured in the final reviewed document.
The RAIC initially designed eleven milestones with their corresponding expected outputs, baselines, current status, and means of verification. However, after the extensive validation, the milestones became nine with some adjustments made to the rest of the document.
The revised and validated milestones include the review and enactment of data protection bill and the proposed amendments of the RAI Act; popularization of the RAI law at educational institutions and local councils; creation, population and capacity building on a digital access to information platform; increased compliance on RAI law and regulations; and the reactivation of the Civil Society Coalition on Access to Information in Sierra Leone.
Both chairmen of RAIC and NACCED thanked participants in the validation exercise and urged all stakeholders to support the RAIC in fully realizing the validated milestones, nothing that the task is a national one and not just for RAIC.
The Open Government Partnership’s Action Plan 2024-2028 allows institutions implementing established Commitments to review their milestones in realistically and ambitiously achieving the objective of their commitments. This is what the RAIC in partnership with NACCED, OGP and Civil Society has done.
The fifth OGP National Action Plan has Six Commitments: anti-corruption and integrity; open parliament; open extractives; access to justice; youth inclusion; and right to information.
The Right to Access Information Commission is implementing the sixth commitment whose milestones have now been reviewed and validated.
