UN Resident Coordinator meets Social Welfare Minister, renews commitment to efforts at empowering the most vulnerable.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator (RC) in Sierra Leone, Mr Babatunde Ahonsi assured the Minister of Social Welfare, Ms Baindu Dansama-Kamara of the UN system’s commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ during a recent courtesy visit.

During their discussions on persons with disability (PWD), Mr Ahonsi related his recent experience in China where he worked as the Country Representative of UNFPA and acting Resident Coordinator. The RC noted that China has taken strides toward disability inclusion, providing services and accessibility for approximately 86 million PWDs. The RC underscored that Sierra Leone could draw useful lessons from China’s holistic approach to disability issues.

Minister Dansama-Kamara likewise related her previous experience working with vulnerable groups in the UK, including with PWDs, which prepared her well for her current role in Sierra Leone. According to her, protection of vulnerable groups should go together with empowerment and mainstreaming. Launching a series of funds to provide for employment start-up kits could be a good entry point. She further noted the importance of comprehensive and disaggregated data on vulnerable populations, something that is currently lacking.

Ms Dansama-Kamara looks forward to tangible results in 2021. Boosting the institutional capacity of the Ministry, she believes, would help in this regard .Furthermore, she appreciated the support received from UN agencies, which she indicated was of high quality and value.

Mr. Ahonsi pledged the UN’s continued partnership and support to the Ministry of Social Welfare, stressing the value of a comprehensive response framework that simultaneously addresses the protection, empowerment and participation needs of the most vulnerable subpopulations including persons with disability, destitute elderly, and street children.