Empowering Sierra Leone Through Knowledge – Rand Sandton Powers Three Day GONAT Training to Transform Resource Governance

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) continue to pose serious challenges to sustainable economic development across Africa’s resource-rich nations. At Rand Sandton Consulting Group, we are proud to deliver context-specific, data-driven solutions.

We contributed to the African Development Bank’s Governing Natural Resource Outflows for Enhanced Economic Resilience in Fragile and Transitional Countries (GONAT) initiative, a multi-country effort aimed at strengthening domestic resource mobilisation and economic resilience in the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.

Strategic Engagement in Sierra Leone

From 8–10 July 2025, Rand Sandton successfully completed a three -day technical training of 41 participants from senior government ministries, the private sector, civil society, and local communities at The Place Resort, Tokeh, Freetown, Sierra Leone. The project commissioned by the AfDB to Rand Sandton aims to strengthen Sierra Leonean institutions’ ability to monitor, analyze, and govern the natural resource sector using advanced policy and risk-assessment tools.

The training sessions were convened by the African Development Institute (ADI) and the Natural Resources Management and Investment Centre (ECNR) as part of the Bank’s GONAT initiative, which supports improved natural resource governance in fragile and transitional states. The sessions were led by Rand Sandton Senior IFF Expert Dr Bernd Shlenther.

Dr Bernd Shlenther Rand Sandton Consulting Group’s Senior IFF expert delivering training on the GONAT Project in Freetown Sierra Leone

Participants raised pressing concerns around unlicensed marine exploitation, opaque exploration contracts, and poor resource valuation issues they linked directly to underdevelopment and vulnerability in Sierra Leone’s economy. They welcomed tools such as the IFF Tracker and AI-driven trade data analysis to improve detection and oversight. Dr. Adeleke Salami, Chief Capacity Development Officer, at the African Development Bank, emphasized the urgency of improved fiscal governance in fragile states, noting GONAT’s role in enhancing resilience through accountable natural resource management. Echoing this, Dr. Innocent Onah, Chief Natural Resource Officer at the African Development Bank, described Natural Resource Accounting as essential for sustainable policymaking and long-term reform.

This marks the second successful GONAT engagement, following Rand Sandton’s workshop in Bangui, Central African Republic (10–13 June 2025), which convened over 80 participants across critical sectors. Both trainings reaffirm Rand Sandton’s ability to deliver cross-sectoral programming grounded in:

• Country diagnostics with practical implementation support
• Multidimensional governance tools with stakeholder-led planning
• Gender-responsive frameworks embedded in sector-specific financial instruments

Through GONAT, Rand Sandton continues to scale its impact across fragile and resource-rich African economies, translating diagnostics into action, building institutional resilience, and positioning gender equity as a central pillar of governance transformation.