By: James Manneh-Kamara
Editor A-Z Multimedia Corporation
Press Attaché at ILEM-Africa
Pathfinder International, USAID’s, Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health conducted a national Private-Public Dialogue and a co-design workshop, facilitated by ILEM-Africa the 26th-27th Oct. 2023. The two-day interactive workshop aimed to “Strengthen Youth Driven-Demand for Family Planning in Sierra Leone”. The workshop was held at Radisson Blu/Mammy Yoko Hotel and brought together key stakeholders from the public sector including representatives from the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, as well as the Ministry of Health. The private sector was well-represented as well with experts from commercial sector pharmaceutical industry, development partners, donors, and youth-led organizations.
Together, this mixed group of participants explore pathways for a meaningful private sector engagement to enhance youth access to family planning services. Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Minister of Information and Civic Education, (Hon. Chernor Bah) did not mince word in drawing attention to the importance of such dialogue on youth-driven demand on family planning, saying that sexual reproductive health and rights must be urgently addressed in Sierra Leone.
Hon. Bah expressed appreciation for the timeliness of the consultative dialogue on youth demand for family planning, sexual health, and rights issues. The Honorable Minister and feminist champion on the full rights of girls said there is a need to cultivate the culture for civic engagement and dialogue to find common ground in addressing issues on family planning for youth, and that “NOW” is the time to translate conversation into action. He applauded President Bio for demonstrating a strong commitment to the empowerment of youth and advancement of women’s rights. He reminded the organizers that such a dialogue hinges on the background of many progressive reforms that have taken place in Sierra Leone. “I happen to believe that conversation on sexual reproductive health and rights should be integral in our civic education conversations,” the Minister opined.
Giving an overview of the dialogue, the Founding Managing Director of ILEM-Africa (Sahr Abraham Grass-Sessay) who doubled as a co-facilitator of the workshop, said that ILEM’s expertise in facilitating public-private dialogue is key in maximizing participants’ perspective to shape policy debate on a theme affecting the wellbeing of the youth of Sierra Leone. He said that the dialogue for Public-Private-Partnership in addressing the youth-driven demand for family planning services will help create an enabling market environment for private sector engagement to support the implementation of government national policy on access to health and family planning services for the youth of Sierra Leone. With young people taking into drugs, the level of negligence in planning for their own lives and families is becoming a daunting task, hence “the need to outlined action points that would facilitate the implementation of a national programme to help young people have access to services for family planning and contribute to having a well-planned and structured society” Grass-Sessay stressed.
The UNFPA Deputy Country Representative in her statement strongly expressed that “strengthening youth-driven demand for family planning cannot be achieved by one organization but requires the collaborative and concerted effort of all stakeholders in Sierra Leone.” And thus encouraged the mix group of participants to contribute to this noble course.
The Program Manager of Frontier Health Markets Engage (FHM Engage) (Sonia Surani) played a pivotal role in the successful conclusion of the two-day dialogue by sharing her experience with ILEM-Africa personnel on the conduct of the 5P exercise with various participants across the country. FHM Engage is a global cooperative agreement project of the United States International Agency for Development (USAID) designed to provide technical assistance (TA,) supporting local actors to improve the ability of health markets to meet supply-side capacity gaps and consumer preferences, contributing to equitable provision of and access to high-quality family planning (FP) and other health services and products in the health systems.
Mrs. Patricia Bah Official closed the successful 2-day workshop and urged the consultant to capture the contribution of participants in defining the next steps to improve youth access to family planning services. The Vote-of Thanks was given by the Country Manager of DKT International’s Country Representative for Sierra Leone who re-echoed the need for the government to work with the private sector to effectively improve the health outcomes of youth in Sierra Leone.
The two-day workshop provided an opportunity for participants to discuss issues related to limited finance to access health services coupled with cultural, social, and religious interpretations, making access to FP and SRH services difficult for youth. From the four co-designing sessions, one key recommendation derived was the need for the inclusion of sex education/like skill-based education in curriculum for the Education Ministry to consider. The aim is to ensure school going youth are well informed about available services, their rights, and the importance of seeking timely FP and SRH services through a competent service provider.
The need for awareness campaigns using social media, community outreach, and peer-led initiatives in local languages to bridge the information gap was emphasized. Such initiatives would facilitate the dissemination of accurate information to vulnerable youth in hard-to-reach communities. The challenge of accessing FP and SRH services through private healthcare service providers remains a barrier for many young individuals, especially those from low-income background. Hence, the need to create synergy between the government and private healthcare providers by adopting youth-friendly pricing structures that would contribute to reducing cost, increasing access rate of youth to sexual and reproductive health services, and improving health care-seeking behavior of youth in Sierra Leone. It was also suggested to set up a scheme for young people to have access to health services. At the end of the Workshop, participants, co-facilitators from ILEM-Africa and Pathfinder took a group photo.
background. Hence, the need to create synergy between the government and private healthcare providers by adopting youth-friendly pricing structures that would contribute to reducing cost, increasing access rate of youth to sexual and reproductive health services, and improving health care-seeking behavior of youth in Sierra Leone. It was also suggested to set up a scheme for young people to have access to health services. At the end of the Workshop, participants, co-facilitators from ILEM-Africa and Pathfinder took a group photo.
