The Netherlands Institution for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) facilitated a joint legislative-civil society organization peer learning visit to the House of Parliament of the Republic of Sierra Leone between May 13-17, 2025. 

The Peer Learning visit is an integral part of the Liberia Electoral Support Project (LESP), which is co-funded by the European Union and the Embassies of Sweden and Ireland in Monrovia and managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), implemented jointly with UN Women and NIMD Liberia. 

The purpose of the visit was to create an opportunity for the Liberian delegation to learn about legislative governance from the House of Parliament of Sierra Leone, around openness, transparency, and participation. It also further sought to understand the system and processes for parliamentary and civil society engagement in Sierra Leone.

Margibi County District #3 Representative and Chairperson of the Liberian Women's Legislative Caucus, Ellen Attoh Wreh, led the Liberian delegation to neighboring Sierra Leone.

The Clerk of the House of Representatives, staff members of the Secretariat of the National Legislature, and representatives of civil society organizations and the media also attended.

Providing an overview of the visit, Counselor Oscar Bloh, Country Director of the Netherlands Institution for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), said that the visit was an integral part of the LESP that seeks to strengthen the institutional capacity of the legislature in terms of modernizing how the legislature works in Liberia. 

Cllr. Bloh noted that Sierra Leone was selected out of three countries for this peer learning study visit based on the level of progress made by the Sierra Leonean Parliament in terms of openness, transparency and participation based on a recent report of the Open Parliamentary Index (OPI) conducted by the African Parliamentary Network based in Accra, Ghana.

Rt. Hon. Segepoh Solomon Thomas, Speaker of Parliament of the Republic of Sierra Leone, said that the Sierra Leonean parliament has tried to be extremely open so that the people can know exactly what the parliament does. 

Speaker Thomas stressed that citizens are encouraged to appreciate the kind of work the parliament does, and a day set aside every year called Open Parliament Day, where the public is invited to observe the proceedings and workings of parliament. 

The Liberian Senate’s IT Director mentioned that digitizing parliamentary documents has made communication easy in the Sierra Leone Parliament. He recommends that a similar system be introduced in Liberia’s National Legislature.

For his part, the Deputy Clerk of the Parliament of Sierra Leone, Gilbert Bosco N’habay, disclosed that due to the partnership between the parliament and CSOs, there exists a desk for CSOs within the parliament of Sierra Leone for coordination.