The Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Francis KaiKai has held a consultative meeting with Members of the NGO and INGO Community at the Miatta Conference Hall in Freetown on Tuesday 17 September 2019.
Speaking at the ceremony on behalf of the NGO’s was Madam Shellac Sunny-Davies, President of Sierra Leone Association Non-Governmental Organization (SLANGO).
Madam Shellac speaking on behalf of the NGO Family in Sierra Leone said that SLANGO had benefitted from the special working relationship with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and she said she hoped the relationship would continue with more vigor and improved results.
She continued to assure the Minister that National and International NGO’s are committed to the cause of accountability, transparency and empowerment, and they welcome open realistic and just accountability mechanisms that the government of Sierra Leone tends to implement.
She also said she appreciated the extension of time given for the NGO’s and INGO’s for feedback and the opportunity to be involved in the Government’s Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2019-2023 and Service level agreement. She ended her statement by bringing to the attention of the Minister the abuse and embarrassment of member of SLANGO members.
“members of SLANGO has been embarrassed by local council specifically members from the Kailahun and Kenema District Councils, I have had reputable NGO’s like Marie Stoopes they were closed down on a operational day last year, IRC had been dragged to court and even now we have NGO’S who has been threatened to have their offices closed by either the Kailahun and Kenema District councils, this is an issue we would like to be addressed as we have been fighting this issue since 2008 and we would like to end before November 2019 with your leadership”“Negotiation with donors to give more opportunities to enable national NGOs to receive funds and implement development programs, this is one of the best way to ensure sustainability especially since our country is prone to disaster and more often than not, the National NGO’s are always in the front line, so we reopened negotiations with the EU for SLANGO to benefit from the EDFs 11 funds. This is a funding we’ve been running after for the past three years and have not been successful, SLANGO remains underfunded. And the consequence is that we are not able to fulfill our coordination rule as we would like to and our memberships are demanding better services and SLANGO requires more funds to meet these demands”.
“We are looking forward to working with you and to ensure meaningful contribution of the NGO community in Sierra Leone to the overall development of our nation with the necessary support, we will continue to document NGO contribution to the National Economic development of this country on an annual basis”.
The minister in response said the issues raised by Madam Sunny-Davies are things the government takes seriously and they would deliberate on it as a government.
The minister said in order to address issues pertaining to the DCF they would take conversations down to district levels so everyone would have a say in the conversation.
The meeting was to familiarize and engage members of the NGO AND INGO on their continued commitment to implementing the Governments Medium Term National Development Plan (2019-2023).
The meeting was geared towards holding a conversation in addressing the key issues in their commitment to fostering the National Agenda.