Sierra Leone Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Francis Kai-Kai, has on 7th February, 2023 said the United Nations Sierra Leone 2022 Common Country Analysis (CCA) report provides vital development insights creating an opportunity for government and partners to accelerate the delivery of public services to the people of Sierra Leone, as the General Elections are due in the coming months.
He made these statements while delivering his opening statement as Co-Chair at UN Sierra Leone’s 2022 Common Country Analysis validation report program, which brought together development partners, MDAs and CSOs representatives, at the Country Lodge Hotel, in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
He underscored that the CCA Reports remain critical documents in informing the United Nations country development strategies, such as the Organization’s Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCFs); being major partnership documents to the GoSL, as they serve as critical instruments for mobilizing external assistance to support the implementation of the National Development Plan.
“ The Report adequately captures a range of pertinent development areas for Sierra Leone, including the macroeconomic and poverty situation of the country; status of implementation of key Sustainable Development Goals covering health, education, gender, water, decent work and peace and security; cross-border, regional and sub-region contexts; partnerships and financing landscape of the country; and risks management” Said Dr. Kai-Kai
The Minister alluded that, these critical areas continues to preoccupy the implementation processes, stated, that would be central in the next National Development Plan to which the next UNSDCF will be strongly aligned, as much as the current National Plan and the UN Framework have been.
Dr. Kai-Kai said the data contained in the draft report will be useful in the preparation of the 2022 Annual Progress Report (APR) on the MTNDP that is ongoing, setting the stage for containing bottlenecks in preparation for the successor national plan (2024-2028), whiles calling on partners to play their parts in ensuring that delivery of public services enhanced.
On his part, Babatunde Alonso, UN Resident Coordinator, said the program was an opportunity to validate progress and identify gaps in the UN 2022 Common Country Analysis (CCA), a document, which he said, provides the UN’s impartial, independent, and collective analysis of the key challenges and opportunities the country faces in pursuit of sustainable development.
He said the UN will be undertaking the development of a full-blown CCA later this year to inform their next UNSDCF, as the current one reaches its penultimate year of implementation (UNSDCF 2020-2024).
He further stated that the 2022 CCA Update recorded relative progress across the thematic areas: ranging from political and institutional analysis, macroeconomics, social exclusion and the Leave No One behind principle.
“The document highlights Government’s efforts to mitigate impact of the COVID-19 and Russia/Ukraine war on livelihoods. However, whilst these efforts are noteworthy, the gaps and challenges reported remain a serious concern. If Sierra Leone is to make further progress on the achievement of the SDGs, it will require our collective efforts as Government, development partners, COs, NGOs, Media, academia, private sector, etc” said Ahonsi.
He ended by applauding the government and people of Sierra Leone for passing into law the Gender and Woman’s Empowerment Act 2022, described move as remarkable towards achieving the SDGs.
Discussions and presentations were held on the following topics;
National vision and progress towards 2030: Agenda Commitments under International standards and norms; Political and Institutional Analysis; Macroeconomic Overview; Environmental and climate change/Cross-boundary and regional perspectives; Social Exclusion Analysis and Leave No One Behind principle.
