After over five months of both national and international consultations and deliberations among Sierra Leoneans from all walks of life, the much anticipated Sierra Leone Conference on Development and Transformation will now take place at the Miatta conference centre in Freetown starting Monday 30 January to February 1, 2012.

The conference, an initiative of the president, is about aligning the entire population behind the goal of transforming Sierra Leone into a prosperous country in 25 - 30 years, and about re-examining all aspects of the nation's development since independence, in order to determine how best to achieve the country's goal without the pitfalls of the past.

The Conference will be opened by President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, and will provide Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to have a say for the very first time on the strategy for the development of the nation. Participants will discuss the conference report and emerging issues drawn from wide ranging consultations including focus group discussions (FDGs), suggestion boxes, text messages and phone-ins on radio and television programmes, Facebook and the secretariat's website-www.sierraleonetransformation.org, an essay competition for senior secondary school pupils, public lecture series and the presentation of papers from professionals in their areas of specialization.

International experts have also shared their wealth of experience with the secretariat at a technical workshop that was held at the Bintumani Hotel while the development models of countries like Ghana, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore were also studied.

Four hundred participants from every spectrum of society will participate at the three-day conference. During the opening ceremony which will start at 9:00 am on January 31, the secretariat's Coordinator, Mr. Herbert M'cleod will also give the Transformation Report - past, present and future trajectory. In all the sessions, there will be presentations, breakout sessions to analyze key transformative ideas and afterwards, report back to the plenary.

Participants will also examine recommendations that the secretariat has received thus far from consultations on issues on governance, managing the nation's natural resources, social service delivery, the private sector, infrastructural development and the role of the diaspora.

After the validation of the entire process, a communiqué will be issued at the end of the event.