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.