A team of parliamentarians from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) in the United Kingdom is in the country to conduct training for their local counterparts on effective oversight and constitutional review functions.
The three-day training being held at the Parliamentary Committee Room One aims at building the capacity of the law makers to ensure good governance.
The idea of the training emanated from a 2015 visit to the country by a delegation of the CPA. Back then, in consultation with the United Nations Development Programme, the local parliamentary leadership and
other international experts, some programmes of activities geared towards assisting capacity building was reached.
Abdulai Sesay, chairman of the parliamentary committee on Health in Sierra Leone, cited lack of funding in an interview with Politico as a major obstacle to the fulfilment of their responsibilities. This, among other issues, was at the back of his mind as he headed for the workshop.
"The committee needs sufficient funds so that it can monitor health facilities in the country," he told Politico outside the training center.
In spite of these challenges, he said, he was quite hopeful that a lot would be learned from the CPA delegation throughout the three-day training session.
"Major steps will be taken to introduce international best practices in our scrutiny methods," he stated. CPA UK had earlier established a partnership with the Sierra Leone parliament in 2011 following a visit to Westminster by a delegation headed by the late Acting Speaker, Victor Chukuma Johnson. During that visit and in subsequent interactions, the Sierra Leonean MPs indicated the need for training and other forms of support from the UK parliament.
(C) Politico 17/02/16
