By Alpha Abu
National Council for Civic Education and Development (NaCCED) together with various partner institutions have met at the Freetown City Council Auditorium to review the openness and accessibility of government policies under the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
The discussants deliberated on the government’s National Action Plan level 3 and the pending fourth level of the process.
NaCCED Chairman, Kalilu Totangi in an overview of the OGP said Sierra Leone became a member of the partnership in 2013 and has since completed three National Action Plans. He said such plans were formulated and derived from five key principles based on improved service delivery, creating safer communities, effective management of public resources, increased public integrity, and increased corporate accountability.
He said since becoming the point of contact for OGP in Sierra Leone, NaCCED has developed two national action plans but acknowledged that on one of them not many achievements were realised. But he said on the third national action plan they made eight commitments and forty-six milestones, and was happy to report some progress on that third phase of the national action plan.
He highlighted their achievements in the areas of access to Justice, education, duty waiver, tax exemption, beneficial ownership, access to information, and gender issues.
But Totangi admitted that women are poorly represented in the legislature with only 18 women in a Parliament of 146 members, despite them making up more than fifty percent of Sierra Leone’s population.
“We have seen some commitments on the part of the government to improve that situation”, however, pointed out. He said various initiatives by the government have lessened incidences of Gender Based Violence in the country.
“We have a lot of accolades coming from our international partners about the work that government is doing but us as citizens need to be part of the process so that we can always push the government to do better by its own declaration”, Totangi noted.
He expressed the hope that the gathering of the various stakeholders would serve as a springboard to embark on preparing for National Action Plan 4. He said the plan would address Access to Justice, and the issue of having Open Elections by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone.
Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rahman Swarray who is also OGP Lead Contact in Sierra Leone, in his statement, stressed the government’s commitment to upholding all the tenets of Open Governance, citing recent developments such as the abolition of the death penalty, and repeal of the criminal libel law, all as a manifestation of government’s sincerity.
The Executive Director of Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL), Ibrahim Tommy in his address at the event said the open government partnership not only promotes a healthy partnership between government and civil society but also helps the key actors to account for their stewardship.
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki Sawyerin her welcome address said progress has been made with the open government partnership. She acknowledged the role NaCCED has been playing in that area saying the institution has been working very hard not only in the direct sphere of open government but also in the sphere of curriculum development, bringing civic education to the school curriculum.
She also stated that open government from the citizen’s perspective can be most effective where there is good coordination and collaboration between all players.
Chief Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa was Keynote Speaker, and British High Commission Development official Maureen Spicer and other dignitaries also spoke about good governance and issues bordering on upholding the rule of law.
Sessions were held that addressed various issues such as citizens’ participation and ownership of elections, the role of legislators and other parliamentary actors in getting them effectively engaged in an active role in open parliament, and access to justice reforms.
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