By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has ended a day regional validation of targeted report on health governance and COVID-19 for Kailahun and Kenema districts.
The validation exercise held at the Holy Trinity Parish Hall in Kenema attracted representatives from civil society representatives, local councils, Ministry of Social Welfare, and the security sectors.
Given an overview of the event, the consultant who produced the report, Dr. Rashid Ansumana informed the gathering that “APRM is people-centered on issues relating to governance”.
He said Sierra Leone was among few countries in African selected for good governance issues.
He noted that the APRM assessment targeted health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the validation was to get back to stakeholders about the report based on the last engagement in November 2020.
“The engagement was based on issues expected from the government in COVID-19 era. Things government has put in place that will not affect the lives of citizens socially, health and economic situations,” he said.
He reiterated that the national consultative engagement held captured areas such as leadership and governance, service delivery, human resources, health and financing, medical production and technology and health information. ”These were key analytical framework of the consultation across the districts which all sectors were involved,” Dr. Ansumana said.
The Program Manager APRM, Mohamed Koroma in presenting the overview of the report noted that they want the people to critically analyzed the document before its presented to President Julius Maada Bio.
He added that the document will be submitted by President Bio by February at the APRM summit in Ethiopia.
“This document need to be adopted by the people as national document for the country on the areas stated above,” he said.
Chairperson National Governance Council APRM, Abigail M Renner explained the significances of the APRM report
“In the report are the people’s voices on Key areas such as health and safety of the people during COVID-19 pandemic. We gathered the views of people last year on how they go about with covid period, challenges and successes in managing the pandemic”.
Saying “The report is to ensure how the will progress in development through sounding the concerns of the people. We want the concerns of the people to be accredited before the report is sent to South African where APRM secretariat is based. Government will look at the recommendations of the people and base it with the budget and how to amend some of them,” he said.
She added: “The report captured measures the government instituted to mitigate covid-19 without serious infection rates on the people in the country. This enables local ownership of the fight, inclusiveness, collaboration and to map out a way forward in case of any future pandemic to be handled.”
The Assistant Provincial Secretary East, Amara Conteh described the validation as timely and inclusive.
“This will ensure inclusiveness in governance system by the people in given back to the people to evaluate their inputs in the report,” she said
Augustine Allie Sannoh a civil society activist noted that they were pleased with the report as all the areas highlighted during the consultative engagement were factored in the report.
”we are pleased to say all the areas that were deliberated on last year were recorded in the report by the consultants. The only way now is to see whether there are news areas to improve on or to add to the report before the final one is produced,” he said.
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