Flagship project
Shaping Freetown's Urban Development Plan
Freetown's development-planning initiative established the evidence, institutions and regulatory foundations needed to guide the capital's long-term urban growth.
A coherent planning foundation can help Freetown locate growth more carefully, protect environmentally sensitive areas and align future infrastructure with community needs. Better spatial evidence gives decision-makers a common reference point, while a dedicated municipal planning function strengthens continuity. Together, these elements support a city that can respond to urbanisation with greater clarity and accountability.
The challenge
Rapid urban development had outpaced the city's planning tools, spatial information and institutional capacity. Freetown needed a shared understanding of its built and natural environment, clearer planning rules and a municipal structure able to coordinate growth across sectors and administrative responsibilities.
Our goal
The initiative aimed to create a strong technical and institutional basis for a Freetown Development Plan and an Urban Development Master Plan. Its wider purpose was to help the city manage land, infrastructure and environmental pressures through informed, coordinated and locally anchored planning.
Our approach
Urban and non-urban areas were analysed through knowledge mapping, geographic information and land-information systems. The work connected this evidence with a review of urban-planning legislation, proposals for an urban-planning department within Freetown City Council and targeted staff development so that new planning instruments could be used in everyday administration.
Key highlights
- A citywide knowledge base brought together information on settlements, land and the environment.
- Institutional design complemented the technical studies, while legislative recommendations addressed the rules shaping development.
- Training helped municipal staff interpret and maintain the planning evidence instead of leaving it as a one-off external study.
Success story
A development plan becomes useful when it changes how a city sees itself and makes decisions. In Freetown, the project assembled a clearer picture of urban and non-urban areas, connected that picture to planning law and considered the municipal capacity required to keep the information alive. This creates the possibility of moving from isolated approvals towards coordinated choices about land, infrastructure and environmental protection. Staff who can work with geographic and land-information systems are better placed to test proposals against reliable evidence. Over time, that combination of knowledge, rules and institutional ownership can help the capital accommodate growth while safeguarding healthy, connected and well-planned neighbourhoods.