By Politico Staff Writer
The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MOPED) has concluded its latest leg of an ongoing tour of the nation as part of efforts to decentralize ownership of the country’s Medium-Term National Development Plan.
The latest tour, according to a report from the Strategic Communications Unit in the Ministry of Information and Communication, took the entourage to Kenema and Kailahun, where the high profile government delegation urged the people to strive to own the plan.
Giving an overview of the engagement at the Kailahun District Council Hall, the Deputy Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Robert Chakanda, recalled that when the Bio administration took office in 2018, President Julius Maada Bio instructed the Ministry to put together a national development plan which they did within the shortest possible time.
He said that while putting the plan together, they consulted documents such as the New Direction Manifesto, the PRSP, as well as experts, Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora, prison inmates, communities, and many other category of people. Dr Chakanda said they decided as a ministry to travel across the country to hold stakeholders consultations in chiefdoms and district headquarters towns for the people to also make their inputs regarding what they would want in the plan in terms of their felt needs. Each district, he said, is expected to choose their development priority among the things they had highlighted during the consultation.
"The government cannot implement all the issues raised in Kailahun but will work hard to implement the immediate needs of the people,"' he said.
In his statement, Paramount Chief Mohamed Sama Kailondo Banya expressed thanks and appreciation to the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development for giving them the opportunity to participate in its development. He assured of the cooperation and support of his colleague Paramount Chiefs towards successful implementation of projects in the district.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Mamadi Gobeh-Kamara, noted that information and communication were central to the Medium-Term Development Plan, hence the engagement with the people.
The success of the plan, according to her, is highly dependent on how effective they are able to provide for communities with the necessary infrastructure/facilities to increase their space and inclusion in the general financial and economic transaction to maximize their livelihood and welfare.
The Deputy Minister catalogued some of the programs her ministry has undertaken over the past two years, including numerous engagements with mobile phone companies to increase network penetration, improving decentralized ownership of the Medium-Term National Development Plan, repeal of the 1965 Public Order Act, etc.
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, said that education was linked to every facet of development in the country and therefore it should be given the utmost priority needed.
He said they now have data for almost all what they are doing in the ministry because of technology and proper planning. He acknowledged that to achieve quality is not a day's job but a process that can be successful within a period of time.
Dr Sengeh noted that the ministry had succeeded in taking education to the four corners of the country, signifying how far the government had gone to make education a priority.
He then stressed the importance of the Medium-Term National Development Plan, saying that it would enable the Ministry of Education to have a feel of what the people want and what their priorities are.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Francis Kaikai, revealed that Kailahun was the eighth district they had engaged on the Medium-Term National Development Plan. He disclosed that the implementation process had already started along with the consultation process in order to avoid delay. He maintained that it is the role of government officials to talk to their people about the activities of government and how far they have gone in ensuring that they cater for everyone across the country.
Minister Kaikai appealed to the people of Kailahun to own the Development Plan as their working document, noting that it has nothing to do with politics as its implementation lies squarely on the shoulders of all Sierra Leoneans and the government.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
