The Recruitment of an Individual Consultant for the Review for the Cybersecurity and Crime Act 2021 and Development of Governance and Regulatory Framework

Overview

Scope of Work

Conduct a thorough legal, regulatory, and institutional assessment of the Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Act, 2021 to determine its adequacy, relevance, effectiveness, and enforceability in addressing current and emerging cyber risks, cyber-enabled crimes, and digital vulnerabilities. Evaluate the coherence, alignment, and interoperability of existing policies, regulations, strategies, institutional mandates, and operational arrangements governing cybersecurity, cybercrime prevention, data protection, digital governance, critical infrastructure protection, and national security. Undertake a comprehensive desk review and benchmarking exercise against relevant regional and international legal instruments, frameworks, standards, and best practices, including but not limited to the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (Malabo Convention), the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, ITU Global Cybersecurity Index, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and ISO/IEC standards, to identify areas of convergence, divergence, and opportunity for reform. Identify legal, regulatory, institutional, operational, technical, and capacity gaps, overlaps, inconsistencies, and coordination challenges that may hinder the effective implementation of cybersecurity governance and cybercrime prevention in Sierra Leone. Clearly define and rationalise institutional roles, responsibilities, mandates, reporting lines, and coordination mechanisms across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), law enforcement bodies, regulatory institutions, national security agencies, the judiciary, private sector operators, civil society, and development partners, to ensure clarity, accountability, efficiency, and synergy in cyberspace management. Design and propose a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework supported by appropriate subsidiary legislation, operational guidelines, compliance mechanisms, and enforcement protocols, ensuring a balanced, risk-based, and proportionate approach to cybersecurity regulation and cybercrime control. Develop a comprehensive national cyber governance and coordination framework, including institutional architecture, multi-stakeholder collaboration mechanisms, public-private partnership models, incident response coordination protocols, information-sharing arrangements, and crisis management structures. Formulate a clear, actionable, and costed implementation roadmap, including short-, medium-, and long-term actions, institutional capacity-building measures, financing strategies, and sustainability mechanisms.

Quoted from the notice published by World Bank. Read the full notice on their site

Requirements & Qualifications

Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services. The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” July 2016 Revised November 2017, August 2018, November 2020 and September 2025, Procurement Regulations setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Methods for Individual Consultants set out in the Procurement Regulations.

Quoted from the notice published by World Bank. Read the full notice on their site

Documents

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