Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has highlighted the challenges of urban management in Freetown while delivering a lecture at the Norman Foster Foundation Institute in Madrid.

The lecture, titled “City Management without City Management Tools,” was part of the 2025 Programme on Sustainable Cities, where she engaged with master’s students and faculty on the complexities of governing a rapidly expanding city without critical urban management tools such as land use planning and building permit issuance.

Freetown is one of three pilot cities selected for the 2025 Programme on Sustainable Cities, alongside Cape Town, South Africa, and Melilla, Spain. The initiative offers technical collaboration between faculty, postgraduate architecture students, and city leaders to explore innovative urban solutions

As part of this collaboration, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is returning to Freetown with Olivia Poston, a faculty member of the Freetown Pilot City team, who, along with another colleague, will be in the city for preparatory work ahead of a full team visit in May.

The Mayor emphasized that this partnership presents an invaluable opportunity for Freetown to benefit from global expertise in sustainable urban development.