Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone Third Inclusive and Sustainable Growth DPF - Implementation Completion and Results Report

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings of the Sierra Leone Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Development Policy Financing Series for Sierra Leone were as follows: Overall Outcome was moderately unsatisfactory; Relevance of Prior Actions was satisfactory; Achievement of Objectives (Efficacy) was moderately unsatisfactory; Bank Performance was moderately unsatisfactory. Lessons learned underscore that greater selectivity in the scope of reforms is needed to improve timely, on-the-ground implementation, particularly where institutional and technical capacity is constrained; a narrower focus on fewer sectors can enhance depth and impact. Complementary technical assistance and closer collaboration with development partners are essential to bolster capacity, sustain reform momentum, and address bottlenecks during and beyond the series; pairing policy operations with targeted TA or investment projects can help translate laws into results. A results-based instrument, such as a Program-for-Results or an Investment Project Financing with performance-based conditions, may be more effective than a pure DPF in sustaining implementation and disbursing against verified outcomes over longer periods, provided programmatic and fiduciary prerequisites are met. Foundational legislative actions should not be backloaded into the final operation of a series because parliamentary approval and subsequent regulations often exceed the program timeframe; critical laws and their implementing regulations are better frontloaded to allow sufficient time for operationalization. The results framework in programmatic series requires iterative refinement to maintain relevance, ensure measurability, and calibrate targets to country capacity and timelines; teams should reassess baselines, definitions, and ambitions at each operation to enable credible attribution and feasible achievement tracking. Recommendations following these lessons include focusing future operations on a smaller set of priority reforms where ownership and capacity are strongest, systematically bundling DPFs with TA and coordinated donor support to strengthen institutions, deploying results-based approaches where feasible to incentivize and verify implementation, sequencing legal reforms earlier with clear plans and resources for regulations and rollout, and revising results indicators and targets during preparation of subsequent operations to reflect updated data, definitions, and implementation realities.