By Alpha Abu
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has told the Harvard University Ministerial Forum that the ongoing covid-19 pandemic has shown the fundamental importance of good governance and effective government leadership around the world.
The President was delivering a keynote statement at the illustrious institution on the theme “Leading in Government to make difference,” an event that was witnessed by the university’s senior academic staff and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf an alumni of Harvard. He said the work of governance is more complicated now because they as leaders were not only saving lives and protecting livelihoods, but were also planning to recover and build back better.
“Economies have had to re-allocate resources away from human capital development and development infrastructure to stemming successive waves of COVID-19”, the President noted.
He spoke about the 4.3 deaths from the virus and how nations like the United States, India, Brazil, Italy, South Africa and the UK have gone through graphic traumatic experiences due to the ravages of the pandemic. He spoke about the disruption covid-19 has caused to countries around the world with developing nations in particular bearing the brunt of the socio-economic devastations of the disease.
President Bio said he felt honoured to be invited to the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Programme at such a moment.
On the wider context of good governance, the president highlighted the unstable nature of various governance structures in countries around the world with the reintroduction of despotic system of governance that has seen abuse of the constitution to create “new leadership mandates”.
He spoke about the government’s immense contribution to Human Capital Development and the Free Quality Education initiative.
“But Human Capital Development investments do not happen in a vacuum. Taking care of the whole human being involves policies that reflect empathy, compassion, respect, protection and promotion of rights, fairness, and justice. These key imperatives have informed the majority of our policies,” he said.
He added: “Some of them have involved going against cultural perceptions and traditional beliefs. Some of them have contested entrenched positions held by religious and traditional authorities. In each case, the data was compelling. In each case, the promotion, protection, and development of the whole human being were paramount,” Bio pointed out.
He also told his audience about government’s introduction of the Sexual Model Offences Court to address the incidences of rape including the presence of One-Stop Centres for Rape at various regional hospitals, and Sexual Offences Model Courts with dedicated judges to fast track the prosecution and trial of cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. He said his administration was now developing a “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment policy to address the age-old problem of inequality of access to opportunities, resources, and fundamental rights.”
He also gave an insightful presentation of his government’s interventions in other sectors. This was President Bio’s second invitation to Harvard since he assumed office in 2018.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (24/09/21)
