No More Delay – Yvonne Sabi Di Way
Meet the Woman Transforming Freetown: Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr
What We’ve Achieved
As your Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne has:
- Launched "Transform Freetown"—A Blueprint for Urban Renewal
Mayor Yvonne mobilized 49 community-led targets across 11 priority sectors—including sanitation, housing, and job creation turning local ideas into lasting policy. This people-powered plan put Freetown on the map for inclusive, data-driven city governance.
- Planted Over 1 Million Trees to Fight Climate Change
Through the #FreetownTheTreeTown campaign, Mayor Yvonne led one of Africa’s most ambitious reforestation efforts aiming to plant, digitally track, and grow 1 million trees. This boosts biodiversity, reduces landslide risks, and helps offset citywide emissions.
- Appointed Africa’s First-Ever Chief Heat Officer
Mayor Yvonne made global headlines by prioritizing urban heat as a public health crisis. She launched cooling centers, tree-planting campaigns, and early warning systems to protect the city’s most vulnerable.
- Reformed Waste Management—From Chaos to Clean-Up
Mayor Yvonne brought Freetown into global coalitions like C40 Cities and the Mayors Migration Council, and secured international recognition.
- Raised Freetown’s Global Profile—From Local to Leader
Mayor Yvonne’s team transformed waste collection by deploying a mobile app, boosting community sanitation, and introducing cashless transactions for waste services, cutting illegal dumping and creating green jobs.
- Re-Elected with a Stronger Mandate in 2023
After a transformative first term,Mayor Yvonne was re-elected with overwhelming support proof that real leadership, even without full central government control, delivers real results.
- Managed Crisis Like a Pro—From Ebola to COVID-19
Mayor Yvonne prior Ebola leadership shaped her hands-on pandemic response: mobilizing public awareness, innovating city health data systems, and coordinating vaccine rollouts with grassroots precision.
What We Stand For
Mayor of Freetown
Why Yvonne?
I’m running to be the APC Flagbearer for the 2028 elections, because I believe that the people of Sierra Leone deserve visionary leadership that delivers real solutions. From transforming Freetown to reimagining our nation’s future, together we can turn #Hope2Reality.
Mayor of Freetown
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr
I’m running to be the APC Flagbearer for the 2028 elections, because I believe that the people of Sierra Leone deserve visionary leadership that delivers real solutions. From transforming Freetown to reimagining our nation’s future, together we can turn #Hope2Reality.
Mayor of Freetown
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was Mayor of Freetown from May 2018 to February 2023 and was re-elected to serve for a second term in June 2023. A finance professional with over 25 years of private sector experience in strategic planning, risk management consulting and project management, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr has adopted an inclusive, data-driven approach to addressing challenges in the city. In her first term, she championed the 4-year “Transform Freetown” plan which detailed 19 concrete targets across 11 sectors; annually published Transform Freetown reports that document progress made against targets can be found at https://fcc.gov.sl. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s notable achievements include the construction and operation of Freetown’s first ever wastewater treatment plant, the digitalization and expansion of the city’s property rate system, the planting and tracking of 1.2m trees against #FreetownTheTreeTown’s 1m trees target and securing the recently concluded feasibility study for the introduction of a mass transit cable car system for the city. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s second term development agenda “Transform Freetown – Transforming Lives” (https://fcc.gov.sl/transform-freetown-transforming-lives-freetown-development-agenda-2024-2028/) is focused on the creation of 120,000 decent jobs for women and youth through climate action, the growth of heritage tourism and the digital economy underpinned by investments in human development.
Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is the Laureate of the German Africa Award 2024, she was listed in the inaugural Forbes Sustainability Leaders 2024 List, she was a Schwab Foundation Outstanding Public Social Innovator for the Year 2023, was featured by Time Magazine in the inaugural Time100 Climate List 2023, the Time100 Next 2021 List and by the BBC in the BBC 100 Women 2020 List. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is Co-Chair of C40 Cities, a network of almost 100 cities committed to addressing climate change. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s TedTalk “How to turn dissatisfaction into action” has had over 2.2million views.
"We are on a journey together as a city and I am certain by God's grace and with our colective committment and determination, inspite of the challenges of today and tomorrow, we will #TransformFreetown"
