By Alusine Sesay
Sierra Leone – September 9, 2025: The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), in collaboration with key partners, officially launched the Freetown City (Western Urban) High Resolution Imagery on Tuesday, September 9, 2025. The event, held in Freetown, marked a significant milestone in the city’s journey toward data-driven urban planning, inclusive development, and improved municipal service delivery.
The initiative, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and GIZ, was implemented in partnership with OSM Sierra Leone, Freetown City Council (FCC), the Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOSAPA), and the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD). The launch drew participation from government ministries, departments and agencies, local government officials, NGOs, and the drone operations team.
A New Era of Urban Mapping
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Ibrahima Cissé, Regional Director of HOT for West and North Africa, emphasized HOT’s commitment to empowering communities across 24 countries through regional hubs in West, East, and Southern Africa. Since 2022, HOT has focused on building local capacity by offering training, grants, and support to help communities adopt formal procedures and evolve into NGO-like structures.
Dr. Cissé highlighted HOT’s disaster response capabilities, including remote mapping and data collection, and its collaboration with global organizations such as the IRC and Red Cross. He cited successful projects in Senegal (public health), Liberia (cooling solutions), Indonesia (water access), and London (simulation exercises), noting that Sierra Leone is the first country to pilot HOT’s eco-smart city planning and drone mapping approach.
Referencing drone mapping tools developed in Seattle, Dr. Cissé described them as transformative for urban planning and economic development. He stressed the importance of building local data capacity—particularly for FCC—to support informed decision-making. He concluded by underscoring HOT’s reliance on committed local actors and its shift toward sustainable, collaborative models, even in the face of funding challenges.
Modupe Williams, an integrated municipal expert assigned to FCC by GIZ, explained that the mapping initiative was made possible through GIZ funding and technical execution by OpenStreetMap. He traced the project’s origins to 2023, when Ivan Gratiniak visited Freetown and collaborated with Kodeshapara to map informal settlements. Their work revealed the potential of drone imagery in identifying individual dwellings and supporting city planning.
Williams also spoke about his efforts to build a partnership between Freetown and Mannheim, Germany, where cities rely heavily on map-based data. He emphasized the importance of open data sources and recalled FCC’s previous attempt to upgrade its property tax database using satellite imagery—a costly and less accessible solution.
He noted that drone mapping now offers a more affordable and reliable alternative, referencing the UK’s Ordnance Survey maps as a model for standardized planning tools. With Sierra Leone’s official maps largely outdated, this new approach is especially valuable. The project, funded through GIZ’s Rural Non-Discrimination Fund, focused on mapping six informal settlements to assess accessibility for people with disabilities. A drone survey of the entire 18-square-kilometer district was also completed, with the data to be made available on an open-source platform.
Williams expressed gratitude to GIZ and project partners for their efforts in training local citizens in map-based skills. He concluded by emphasizing FCC’s interest in recruiting a drone or map operator to sustain the initiative.
Peter Abdul Koroma, Deputy Chief Administrator of FCC, and Amadu Sahr Fayia, Valuation Officer, described city mapping as a vital tool for enhancing revenue collection, improving deployment planning, and contributing to better living conditions. They emphasized the importance of accurate and current data, especially compared to the outdated 2019 datasets currently in use.
The integration of satellite and drone imagery, they said, places FCC in a stronger position to plan effectively and fulfill its mandate to develop the city. Both officials highlighted the challenges posed by informal settlements and slums and explained that the Council is actively working on community and ward ranking, including ward demarcation. They welcomed the mapping initiative as a significant advantage.
National Planning and Disaster Preparedness
Sahr Kanawa, Director of Country Planning at the Ministry of Lands, emphasized that the high-resolution imagery will support urban planning, strengthen control measures, and help maintain a robust cadastral system. He noted that previous efforts were constrained by the lack of real-time mapping capabilities. With the new imagery, planners can now model terrain usage, populate cadastral maps, and make evidence-based zoning decisions. He added that the data will aid in risk reduction and the acquisition of critical geographic information.
Michael Osunga Otieno, Geospatial Associate at HOT’s Open Mapping Hub for West and North Africa, explained that the team used low-cost drones to capture high-resolution imagery of Freetown City. This imagery provides detailed, up-to-date information, including the ability to generate 3D models and digital information systems.
Otieno noted that the technology offers wide geographic coverage at a lower cost, enabling real-time tracking of urban changes. He emphasized that the data supports the FCC in updating its outdated tax base, conducting urban analysis, and improving decision-making. He added that high-resolution imagery is essential for environmental monitoring, risk assessment, and identifying areas prone to landslides and flooding.
He outlined several benefits of drone mapping, including its ability to track urban growth, provide local knowledge, enhance planning, promote inclusion and open data, build city resilience, and improve service delivery.
Gerald King, Acting Deputy Director for Regional Operations and Disaster Risk Reduction and Prevention at the National Disaster Management Agency, emphasized the critical role of drone imagery in disaster mitigation and response. He stated that such imagery provides a pre-incident visual overview, essential for effective planning and intervention.
King noted that the agency relies heavily on drone data for disaster mapping and vulnerability assessments. He acknowledged that in the past, a lack of accessible imagery limited their ability to respond effectively. With the availability of high-resolution drone imagery, the agency can now better prepare and coordinate response activities, improving both timeliness and accuracy.
Ivanson A. Kargbo, Programme Officer at the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, expressed gratitude to HOT and its partners for conducting a mapping initiative that identified accessibility challenges within informal communities. He emphasized the Commission’s need for comprehensive demographic data on persons with disabilities, including the number and types of disabilities, levels of violence in certain areas, accessibility and transport challenges, and the effectiveness of existing programs aimed at improving access.
Kargbo noted that such data is essential for evidence-based planning and for enhancing the inclusion and welfare of persons with disabilities across the city.
Project Impact and Community Transformation
Over the past two years, HOT has been working to transform how cities map themselves. The mission: to generate high-quality, openly available mapping data that supports sustainable urban development and gives everyone a seat at the planning table.
The results have been transformative. In communities like Cockle Bay and Kolleh Town, the imagery is being used to power disability assessments, helping to identify barriers faced by people with disabilities during their everyday journeys. Local advocates now have robust, current evidence to push for inclusive public spaces and services and to support their quest for Special Planning Area (SPA) status.
Achieving SPA would mean formal government recognition and the promise of a development plan created with—and for—the people who live there. If successful, these will be the first communities in Sierra Leone to reach this milestone, made possible by people mapping their own futures, one image at a time.