DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE IN SIERRA LEONE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF INSTITUTIONAL OUTCOMES, 2010-2026

Abstract

Africas governments have dedicated substantial resources to building digital systems to increase the quality of public service delivery, but the achievement of tangible improvements in governance is not on par with this digital ambition. Sierra Leone is an example of this paradox, with significant investments in digital infrastructure and e-government platforms, but with limited and fragmented evidence on whether investments have led to improved public sector performance.This systematic review and meta-analysis is a synthesis of evidence that investigates the impact of digital transformation on the institutional performance of public sector institutions in Sierra Leone and similar African contexts and how the institutional conditions influence the impact.According to PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the following databases were searched: Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, EBSCOhost and PubMed for articles from 2010 to 2026. Records were independently screened for methodological quality and data extracted by two reviewers. The quantitative data from studies reporting sufficient data were analyzed using a random-effects meta- analysis, while the qualitative data were analyzed using thematic synthesis. This protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework.