The Chief of Staff in the Office of the President Saidu Conton Sesay (pictured) has described the role of civil society as very vital in strengthening good governance in Sierra Leone.
He made this statement during a meeting with a consortium of civil society organizations Tuesday 18th August, 2015 at State House, Freetown. The purpose of the meeting was to work in collaboration with Office of the Chief of Staff in the implementation of the National Ebola Recovery Plan to enhance trust between citizens and government.
The Chief of Staff promised that his office is ready to work with civil society organizations in the implementation of the post-Ebola recovery plan not only to help establish public trust, but also keep informing each other about areas that need attention.
"The better society we have, the better the governance," Sesay said, adding that his office has posted two officers each to all districts - one facilitator and one analyst who will be engaging local councils to update them in detail. He expressed desire to meet with the consortium upon the return of officials assigned to the districts for better planning and understanding.
According to Mr. Mohamed Sillah, Executive Director of ActionAid International Sierra Leone (AAISL), the consortium has put together a project titled: “Civil Society Ebola Response and Recovery Platform” with the goal of enhancing collaboration in rolling out recovery programmes as well as engendering public trust.
Sillah went on to note that the project aims to galvanize a broad civil society platform comprising credible organizations currently working on governance issues to compliment efforts of government and development partners in the fight against the Ebola virus disease (EVD).
He disclosed that the consortium received funding for the project from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) to the tune of $178, 300 (One Hundred and Seventy-Eight Thousand, Three Hundred United States Dollars)
Sillah also pointed out that they had already deployed a total of 30 Tracking Monitors in eight districts including Kailahun, Kenema, Tonkolili, Bo, Bombali, Port Loko, Western Area Urban and Rural districts.
The membership of the civil society platform who met with the COS comprised ActionAid International Sierra Leone (AAISL), Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), Democracy Sierra Leone (DSL), Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) and the Centre for Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA).
SHCU
Comments