Nationwide consultation vital for ERP says Sierra Leone Civil Right Coalition
The National Coordinator of the Sierra Leone Civil Right Coalition, Alfonso Manley is calling on the government to carrying out a nationwide consultation on the details in the Ebola recovery package, to raise awareness about the document to the last person in the village. He made this call during an interview with this reporter to voice out the youths’ views on the new development agenda.
According to Alphonso Manley, there was some gap at the initial stage of creating the paper, as the process to draft the document should have started with a nationwide consultation, as even the last farmer in the village is affected by the outbreak.
Presently the number of illiterate people in the country is very high and most of them do not understand what are some of the benefits in the document for them. During the height of the outbreak most of these people lost all their capital and source of livelihood.
Speaking further on the new Ebola recovery plan, the National Coordinator of SLCRC, stated that, since the plan targets four thematic areas health, education, social protection, and recovery of the business sector, the government must try to overhaul the entire health system in the country, as the outbreak exposes weakness in the health system both in administration and logistics, adding that transparency, cleanliness, training and workers welfare must be the top priorities in that area.
He also threw light on the need to develop and improve on areas like the water and sanitation, good education standards by reviewing the 2004 Education Acts, sustainable electricity, and also paying keen attention to social safety nets for survivors and orphans.
On the area of youth employment and empowerment, Alphonso Manley noted the youth of this country have the talent and zeal to do different works and therefore urged the government to provide them with support, some with direct financial support based on a good business plan.
He also urged the educational authorities to provide more empowerment programs through the establishment of innovative academic programs in technical areas such as IT, entrepreneurship skills training, youth participation in governance, and various other skills, rather than just focusing on ancient courses at some Universities.
Furthermore, he advised other local organisations to work together and always fit their programs in-line with the national Ebola recovery plan so that they do not come up with duplicating projects. ” We have accepted the document for what it is, so let take it as it is”, he said.
Manley urged the President the give full backing to the Anti Corruption Commission so that they will be able to minimize the level of corruption in the administering of this fund. Over Le1Billion has already been pledged toward the plan.
By Ayodele Deen Cole
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