Freedom of Information Law and Good Governance

Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai is a barrister and solicitor of the High Courts of Sierra Leone, and Lecturer in the Department of Law, Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sierra Leone. Over the last two decades, Abdulai has been a leading campaigner for the passing and implementation of freedom of information law in Sierra Leone and Africa as a civil society practitioner working for the Society for Democratic Initiatives, Sierra Leone. Abdulai chairs the Governing Council of the African Freedom of Information Council, and is also Chairperson of the Political Affairs Cluster of the African Union’s Economic Social and Cultural Council. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the EITI Multi-Stakeholders Working Group of Sierra Leone. He holds a Masters Degree in Anti-Corruption Studies from International Anti-Corruption Academy. He also has the following other qualifications: BA, LLB (FBC-SL), LLM (CEU) and PhD Candidate (University of London).

• Chapter 1: Introduction: A Brief Global History of the Emergence, Evolution, Development and Proliferation of Freedom of Information: Principles Definitive of Scope and Substance.- Chapter 2: Myths Surrounding Freedom of Information Laws .- Chapter 3: How FOI aids women’s Empowerment and redcues Gender and Sexual Based Violence .- Chapter 4: Comparative Analysis of Freedom of Information Laws in Sierra Leone and Liberia.- Chapter 5: Sierra Leone’s Resource Curse: How the Abuse of Diamonds, Politics and Power Collapsed a Nation .- Chapter 6: War, Business as Usual: The Global Scramble for Sierra Leone’s Natural Resources.- Chapter 7: Diamonds, War, Poverty and Underdevelopment: A Multidimensional Perspective on the Global Diamond Industry and its Need for Reform .- Chapter 8: The Place of FOI in the Second Republic.- Chapter 9: Localising Transparency and Accountability: Access to Information and Citizen Engagement Under the Local Government Act 2004.- Chapter 10: The Effect of The EITIProcess on Transparency and Accountability in Sierra Leone’s Extractive Industry.- Chapter 11: Conclusion; Breaking Free of the Bog: The Need for a Novel Impetus in the Implementation of the RTAI Act 2013.