Mayor of Freetown, Campaigner, Finance Expert [Sierra Leone]
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr is a finance professional with over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, risk management, and project management across the public and private sectors. She has served as the mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, since May 2018 and was successfully re-elected in 2023. She currently serves as Co-chair of C40, evidence of her commitment to confronting climate crisis in Sierra Leone.
Driven by her vision to #TransformFreetown, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is implementing a comprehensive transformation plan focused on resilience, human development, healthy city features, and urban mobility, underpinned by innovation, transparency, accountability, and data-driven decision-making. Her approach emphasizes community ownership and sustainable development to improve the lives of Freetown’s residents.
Yvonne has dedicated over two decades to serving Sierra Leone, both locally and internationally. She played a prominent role in campaigning against the trade in “blood diamonds” and advocating for an end to Sierra Leone’s civil war. In 1999, she co-founded the Sierra Leone War Trust (SLWT), which continues to support disadvantaged children and youth in the country.
In response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Yvonne led a campaign in the UK from August to October 2014 to raise awareness and recruit volunteers for Ebola treatment centers. She later returned to Sierra Leone to support the Ebola response as Director of Planning at the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), where she co-developed and implemented the strategy that successfully ended the outbreak. Her contributions earned her an Ebola Gold Medal from the President of Sierra Leone in December 2015 and recognition as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom in January 2016.
Following her work on the Ebola response, Yvonne served as Delivery Team Lead for the President’s Recovery Priorities from 2016 to 2017, overseeing a multi-stakeholder initiative to drive sustainable socio-economic recovery in Sierra Leone post-Ebola.
Before transitioning to public service, Yvonne held senior management roles in the UK financial services sector, providing risk management, regulatory, and corporate governance consulting to blue-chip clients.
A Chartered Accountant, Yvonne holds an MSc in Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics and a BSc (Hons) in Economics from Fourah Bay College. Her career reflects a lifelong commitment to transforming Sierra Leone and improving the lives of its people.