By: Audrey Raymonda John
The Civil Society Movement Against Tuberculosis (CISMAT-SL) recently held a one-day workshop focused on the framework for community engagement in Pandemic Preparedness and Response (PPR), One Health, and Primary Health Care (PHC) in Sierra Leone. The workshop, which aimed to build capacity and foster collaboration, took place on September 29, 2025, at the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone Conference Room on Kingharman Road in Freetown, with participants from across the country.
Reverend Paul Bangura, Director of CISMAT-SL, addressed the participants, highlighting Sierra Leone’s ongoing public health challenges. He noted that the country is grappling with the legacy of the Ebola outbreak, the impact of COVID-19, and the recent surge in mpox, which saw nearly 4,500 confirmed cases in the first half of 2025. Reverend Bangura emphasized that these crises have exposed deep vulnerabilities in Sierra Leone’s health system, underscoring critical gaps in pandemic preparedness and response (PPR).
He pointed out that while the government, through the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Agency, has mounted coordinated interventions, the voices of affected populations, including last-mile communities and civil society, remain marginalized in decision-making processes. Additionally, the integration of equity, human rights, and gender dynamics into PPR frameworks is insufficient.
Reverend Bangura argued that addressing these gaps is essential for effective pandemic preparedness and response. He stressed the importance of incorporating these elements into the One Health framework, which links human, animal, and environmental health. This approach, he explained, is both feasible and cost-effective, offering opportunities to enhance health service utilization, strengthen community trust, and improve the resilience of the health system.
He further emphasized that addressing these issues requires consolidating civil society engagement, embedding human rights and gender-responsive approaches, promoting equity and the inclusion of last-mile communities, strengthening governance, accountability, and coordination mechanisms.
Josephine A. Koroma, a representative from the TB Programme, spoke about the workshop’s potential to co-develop key tools, such as an Operational Manual to guide ethical, effective civil society engagement and Representation Guidelines to ensure diverse voices are included in health decision-making. She also emphasized the importance of monitoring tools to assess inclusivity, impact, and accountability across health programs.
Dr. Sulaiman Lakoh, Director of the District Health and Primary Care (DDPC) from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, highlighted the crucial role of communities in health service delivery. He stressed that without active community involvement, there would be no effective delivery of services. Dr. Lakoh referenced the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978, in which the Sierra Leone government committed to working closely with communities in healthcare. He noted that this was followed by several global declarations emphasizing the importance of community collaboration in health systems.
Other contributors to the workshop included Lyntton Tucker, CCM Coordinator, and several other key speakers, who shared valuable insights into strengthening public health systems and engaging communities more effectively.
The workshop also focused on building the capacity of participants in areas such as physical rejuvenation, nutritional refueling, social connection, and the consolidation of prioritized inputs for community health initiatives.
This workshop served as a platform for fostering collaboration between civil society organizations, health authorities, and other stakeholders, aiming to ensure more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable health outcomes for Sierra Leone.