November 16, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
The Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) has on the 15th November 2021, held a consultative workshop at the Hill Valley Hotel on the dissemination and Popularization of the Local Council’s Development Operational Guidelines.
Explaining the overview of the Workshop, the Capacity Building Manager at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development John Brima, said one of the key issues for improving transparency, accountability, sustainability, good governance and local development processes is through the development of local council’s development guidelines. He disclosed that the guideline was developed based on an eight years CDCD project between the Ministry of Local Government and JICA, which was implemented in Kambia and Port Loko Districts through their respective councils.
“Most of the concepts and ideas in the guidelines come from the experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of the pilot project. An extension of the pilot project was introduced in Koinadugu, Bombali, and Tonkolili Districts from July 2017 to May 2018 to contribute to Ebola Recovery”, he said.
John Brima also disclosed that the Guidelines became an integral regulation of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development after it was launched in September 2017 by the Office of the President. He added that the Medium Term National Development Plan of 2019 to 2023 also envisages that Government of Sierra Leone operationalizes the Guidelines in all the twenty-two Local Councils.
To achieve the adequate dissemination on the Popularization of the guidelines, John Brima further stated that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will hold the preparatory workshop for the guidelines dissemination among former counterparts of the CDCD project.
He also noted that the MLGRD and Local Councils will agree on the three approaches in disseminating/implementing the guidelines; activities funded by the ELSD project; development projects/budgets of Local Councils and development projects by donors/NGOs.
As part of the guidelines and dissemination materials/tools that will be used, John Brima continued that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and Local Councils will develop the guidelines dissemination materials/tools in order to better understand the concepts and ideas. He added that Guidelines Advisory Team (GAT0 will be set up through the preparatory workshop, and the responsible councils for each team will also be decided.