By Kemo Cham
Despite persistence in corruption in the health sector, access to healthcare services is increasing steadily, the latest survey by a UK-funded project in Sierra Leone has revealed.
The Citizens’ Perception Survey (CPS) on Service Delivery, conducted under the Strengthening Accountability, Building Inclusion (SABI) programme, showed that 88 percent of respondents were satisfied with the services they received at health facilities in 2019, representing a marked improvement from 79 percent in 2018 and 61 percent in 2017.
The findings also notably revealed increased uptake of healthcare services among pregnant women and growing confidence among the general service users in terms of access to drugs and attitude of healthcare workers.
Nine out of 10 people among those surveyed said they were satisfied with how health workers talked to them, while about 97 percent of pregnant women reportedly went for antenatal clinic.
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation hailed the result, with officials noting that it indicated that the government’s policies were working.
“This scorecard makes us happy and will give us courage to work more and to increase satisfaction,” said Dr Francis Smart, Director of Policy Planning and Information at the Health Ministry.
SABI is a four-year citizen-led accountability programme which is delivered by a consortium of leading international and local organizations.
The CPS recounts the experiences of the beneficiaries of public services, notably in the three sectors covered by the project: Health, education and social protection.
The results of the 2019 report were presented at the annual National Service Summit (NSS) convened on Wednesday January 29 in Freetown. The two-day event held at the Family Kingdom in Aberdeen brought together over 100 delegates, representing government, partner organizations, and the service users themselves. They came from communities in which the SABI project operates across the country.
Dr Amara Jambai, chairperson of the occasion, described it as a stocktaking and said it was important for the government to know how it was faring in terms of service provision to its people to be able to serve them better. Dr Jambai praised the funders and implementers of the SABI project for their role in serving as partners in development.
The SABI project is funded through the UK’s international development arm – the Department For International Development (DFID). With operations nationwide in every district of the country, the programme makes use of grassroots civil society organizations which report based on solid data.
The SABI consortium works to ensure service delivery and accountability by bringing together community people and local authorities to discuss issues affecting their livelihoods in the three sectors. Headed by the international charity, Christian Aid, the consortium’s goal is to ensure accountability by creating awareness among the citizens and increase the demand for service delivery.
The health NGO, Focus 1000, is one of the leading implementing partners of the project, working with organizations such as Restless Development, SEND Sierra Leone, Social Development Direct, and Sierra Leone Social Aid Volunteers.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, Chief Executive Officer of Focus 1000, said SABI empowered the masses to help their government provide them the services they are entitled to.
Jalloh noted that the CPS also serves as a feedback from the people to the service providers.
Markus Weimer, Governance Adviser at DFID, told the delegates that SABI was the centerpiece of the agency’s programme on accountability, noting that it helped to improve accountability in service delivery to the citizens of Sierra Leone.
“SABI aims to work with government in a collaborative and cooperative way to celebrate the successes, but also not to shy away from the challenges that exist and to work together to ensure that the impact of government policies … benefit the people,” said Weimer.
The 2020 NSS featured presentations from government and local representatives. Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Moinina David Sengeh, was the keynote speaker at the event. He called on the people to take advantage of the project to force duty bearers to serve them in line with their mandates.
Dr Sengeh said if the government’s flagship programme of Free Quality Education would succeed, everyone, including parents, had a major role to play, both by engaging their children and the school authorities, as well as the government.
Sengeh, who is also the Chief Innovation Officer of the government, spoke in detail about the role of science and innovation in national development.
Presentations were done on the outcome of the survey on the other two sectors – education and social protection. And representatives from the relevant ministries had the opportunity to outline what the government was doing to respond to the outstanding challenges.
On the down side, some 53 percent of respondents said they didn’t use healthcare services. Older people in particular were unhappy with the healthcare service provision. People, sixty-five years and above, said they bought drugs they shouldn’t buy. The disabled community too recounted going through difficulties to access healthcare.
The health ministry said in spite of the negative reports, there were so much good stories revealed by the survey that it served as a moral booster for them to do more.
“We have a lot of good stories in the report for the health sector. However, we do not want to shy away from bad news. We want to take responsibilities, to improve on them. Example, many people still not using services. And we believe this is why there is still deaths,” said Dr Smart.
“We want to appeal to the community people that we all have responsibility for our health,” he added.
