The World Bank, through the Harmonizing and Improving Statistics in West Africa Project (HISWA), has provided full funding for the establishment of three research sites in Sierra Leone.

The approval to commence this novelty was received through the Project Task team lead who is based in Washington DC.
For almost two decades, Sierra Leone’s Statistician General & CEO of Stats SL, Professor Osman Sankoh (Mallam O)(COR), was at the helm of demographic, epidemiological and public health research outside his home country.

Professor Sankoh served as CEO of the leading global research INDEPTH network based in Accra, Ghana where he raised and managed research money for field sites in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

As Statistician General and CEO of Stats SL, Professor Osman Sankoh led his team’s successful negotiation of the $30m Grant with the World Bank to the delight of the Statistics Council.

“I thank God that the World Bank has made our Stats SL dream come true with the $2m over an initial 3-year period,” said Mallam O. “This will enable Sierra Leone to take part in cutting edge longitudinal population-based research which many countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific have been implementing,” concluded Prof Sankoh.

Making a remark on the approval of CHESS, Director of Demographic, Health and Social Statistics, Mr Sonia-Magba Bu-Buakei Jabbi, said the research sites would add value to the work of the National Statistics Office since it would have the opportunity to generate empirical evidence to guide planning and policy development processes in the country.

In the Comprehensive Health and Epidemiological Surveillance System (CHESS) being established, Stats SL will be collaborating with NCRA, MoHS, and the universities so that diverse groups of Sierra Leonean people and institutions will benefit from research to be led by Professor Osman Sankoh CEO Statistics Sierra Leone.