UN Resident Coordinator's opening remarks at the Q4 Ministerial DEPAC meeting.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen:

I am happy to welcome you all to the first post-election Ministerial DEPAC meeting. As we are all aware, the first and second quarters of 2023 were dedicated to preparing for and conducting the June 2023 elections.  Hence, normal DEPAC meetings were not held. However, during the break we were able to work with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development to organise the first DEPAC stocktake, which gave us the opportunity to evaluate the extent to which various MDAs and stakeholders have acted on the recommendations made in the four DEPAC meetings held in 2022.

I am happy to report on behalf of my co-chair and the DEPAC working group members that 70 per cent of the recommendations from the 2022 DEPAC meetings have been implemented. This is certainly a step in the right direction, as our collective efforts in organizing these meetings are paying off.

Honourable Ministers, partners, and colleagues, the theme of today’s DEPAC Ministerial Dialogue is very timely, given that the country is on the verge of developing its next medium-term national development plan. After in-depth consultations among DEPAC working group members (UN RCO, EU, FCDO, and World Bank) and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, it was resolved that the theme for this Ministerial DEPAC meeting is ‘Towards a Transformational Medium-Term National Development Plan’ (2024-2028).

This theme has been deemed appropriate to give stakeholders an appreciation of what the country’s next development plan would want to achieve in the next five years (2024-2028). So, it is my hope that this gathering will generously come up with ideas, suggestions, and inputs for ensuring that the next MTNDP is of a higher quality than the current one. It must be a plan that can be effectively delivered to produce transformative development outcomes for Sierra Leone as we approach the 2030 deadline for achieving the SDGs. 

I am aware of the tremendous efforts made in the implementation of the current development plan. However, given that Sierra Leone like most low-income countries is significantly off track on most of the SDGs, it just can no longer be business as usual in our implementation of development programmes. Indeed, the recently concluded Global SDGs Summit in New York issued a clarion call for a renewed momentum to stop the reversal of progress and accelerate SDG attainment. For Sierra Leone, this certainly demands the development and implementation of a well-articulated national development plan that is inclusive and forward-looking. In this regard, the UN will continue to support national institutions and the people of Sierra Leone in their efforts to recover from the prevailing economic crisis and return to the path of sustainable economic development, that leaves no one behind.

On our part as the UNCT, we are currently developing a full-blown Common Country Analysis (CCA) that will provide evidence and insights to inform our next Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. The CCA is one of the core responsibilities of the UN development system at the country level and our forthcoming CCA will be reinforced by a Leave No Behind study. The latter will help us to ascertain the actual situation of the most vulnerable subpopulations and communities in Sierra Leone. I therefore want to use this medium to call on our national counterparts, especially our partner-MDAs to fully support these efforts.   

I thank you for your attention and wish us all fruitful deliberations.