December 20, 2021
By: Aruna Kamara (BO)
The Deputy Minister of Political Affairs, Amara Kallon has reacted to the concerns of disables with visual impairment that they were not catered for but will work to ensuring that they participate in citizens’ portal discussions.
He made this statement to A-Z Newspaper in an interview shortly after the Political Affairs Ministry pre-launch of the Citizens Portal at the J& E Resort Conference Hall in Bo last week Friday.
Mr. Kallon said “for now we do not have provision for the visually impaired people to have their voices heard, but if they can talk they can also access the portal. Somebody can do all the logging for them and record their audio and post it into the portal.”
‘’Those who cannot talk but they can see and type are the only people we are concerned with is the blind. We will work with the blind people to see what could be their recommendations so that they can also participate in the discussion in portal. I appreciate the concerns for the blind and will be given a serious consideration as they are very important people in the country,” he assured.
Mr. Kallon said that Ministry of Political Affairs is trying to establish a citizen portal which will be a platform where citizens can have access to android phones and internet and can connect to engage in full discussion around polices and service delivery. He further added that they are now in the final phase to launch the citizens portal but will need to take it to every part of the country ,so that Sierra Leoneans will add their voices on how they want the portal to operate and the kind of value they want it added to the portal.
“In the consultation with the people , we are targeting interest group, civil society organizations, Ministries, Department and Agencies(MDA’s) and other works of life in the country ,so that their inputs will be taken about the portal, he said, adding that every MDA has a role to play because the portal will be looking at their service delivery,” deputy Minister assures.
Civil Society, the deputy minister said they brought them on board because they have to mobilize the voices of the people, because the platform is for the citizen’s voices to be heard on service delivery.
“It has to do with information gathering and dissemination. We have as part our website and part of the portal, there is lot of information about what the executive, legislature and the judiciary are doing for public consumption,” Mr. Kallon noted
He went on to say that the portal is a platform where the people can discuss around national issues and those analysis of the discussion will be sent to the different MDA’s for actions to be taken and there is a follow up mechanisms on those recommendations made by the citizens on improvement in terms of service delivery.
“As a ministry we are looking for complaints and we will adequately respond to them. There is a complaint platform where citizens across the country will channel their complaints for action to be taken,’’ Mr. Kallon said, noting that we have also an Open Data Kits, which is a statistical app to program questions for people who do not have access to android phones and we will go out on quarterly basis to collect data from the people on the issues discuss in the platform”.
The purpose is to cater for people who cannot read and write as they can also send audio messages and people who want to participate in the discussion and have evidence in the form of audiovisual, can also send it into the portal. We also collect data using tablets.
Mr. Kallon said that the establishment of the citizens portal came out directly from the ministerial retreat recommendation, because we want to open the space for citizens to participate and if citizens do not have platform to participate, it will lead to violence and it will be good when they have a platform to participate into the governance of the state, which is we want for the people of the country.
He pointed out that the people have the right to belong and have the right to discuss issues of national interest as long as it is done with the ambit of the law, adding that “we have done the first phase by establishing the portal and we have to take it to the people for their contribution on the operation of the portal and when we have that we will complete the portal and launch it finally.
He said that the establishment of the portal started in 2020 and in 2019 was the year we did the concept and 2019 ending was presented in the cabinet retreat, and in March this year we got the funding to develop the Portal, noting that sustainability of the portal hinges on the participation of the people and that is why we are moving across the country to engage them to be part of the process.
Civil Society Activists lauded the Ministry of Political Affairs for creating the platform for the citizens to take part in the development of the country.
The Chairperson of the Civil Society Forum in Bo District, Josephine Blackie said that “this is what the citizens want in this country. The voice of the citizens in the governance of the state is key and called for a follow up and the recommendations of the people on service delivery.”