Sonnia-Magba Bu-Buakei Jabbi is the Director of Demographic, Health and Social Statistics Division at Statistics Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone's National Statistics Office [NSO]) with over ten years’ experience in managing the design and implementation of Statistical Surveys and Censuses. He also lectures Research and Statistical Methods for postgraduate students at the University of Sierra Leone on a part-time basis. He also consults on a regular basis for the United Nations, the African Development Bank and the World Bank on issues relating to statistical research. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree (with Honours) in Mathematics from the University of Sierra Leone, and, a Master of Science in Management Science from De Montfort University, Leicester in the United Kingdom. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Toronto.
Recently, Sonnia was appointed as the National Coordinator for the Countrywide Mortality Surveillance for Action (COMSA) project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which is a Sample Registration System (SRS), seeking to document and register mortality, cause of death, and other vital statistics within Sierra Leone, in the absence of a comprehensive Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system. This COMSA project is being implemented over a period of four (4) years (2018 to 2022).