SDGs & Joint UN project work displayed during Resident Coordinator’s field visit to 4 Districts.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator (RC) in Sierra Leone, Mr. Babatunde Ahonsi, has over two days held town hall engagements with students and bike riders on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and visited UN-supported project sites in Tonkolili, Bombali, Port Loko and Kambia Districts, northern Sierra Leone.

At the Teko Central Veterinary Laboratory, Makeni, where he toured the FAO & USAID supported- facility last Tuesday, Mr Ahonsi, FAO, and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry officials discussed handing over plans of the lab to the Ministry and ensuring that it has a strategic plan for the next five years. They also spoke about the retention of the current staff who have benefited from training and other institutional memory and the challenges faced with sample referrals.

The RC said it was a pleasure to travel to the field and see what "we are able to achieve collectively in the pursuit of the national priorities."

He emphasised the need to strengthen these efforts to do development in a way that benefited the most vulnerable in society and called for addressing global health issues through an integrated health approach.

Mr Ahonsi said that the Teko Lab is an important contribution to the overall development of the country's infrastructure and commended everyone involved with the programme despite the challenges.

The RC also visited a gari-processing factory in Teko where Adamaris Industries Sierra Leone Ltd is working with 120 outgrowers producing high-value flour cassava to reduce dependency on wheat flour for bread production.

ILO is working with the factory as a pilot to improve the production method and ensure that people get decent work. 

At the public education forum on the SDGs with students of the Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology (EBK), Mr Ahonsi urged them to insist that their leaders at all levels of society work toward achieving the Goals by 2030.

"Track what is happening around you, using a sustainable development lens of leaving no one behind," he emphasised.

Day one ended with a visit to the Mafanta Correctional Centre in Magburaka, where UNDP supported the construction of a block for tailoring and carpentry for the inmates. UNDP also equipped the tailoring component with various equipment and other materials to facilitate effective vocational learning.

The income-earning scheme programme is expected to facilitate the successful reintegration of inmates upon the expiration of their prison term and release.

Issues discussed with the Correctional officials also included challenges faced by the inmates to register and open bank accounts, solar power, equipment for the carpentry block, and linkages with the private sector.

On Wednesday, the RC, accompanied by ILO Chief Technical Advisor Manoto Tonderai and UNDP Resident Representative (RR) Pa Lamin Beyai, visited the 5.7 Km long Romarco-Malekuray feeder road in Port Loko.

The Opportunity Salone Programme implemented by ILO with funds from the EU aims to contribute to more decent job creation for young women and persons with disabilities, mainly in rural areas, through inclusive value chain development focused on SMEs and Cooperatives and feeder road maintenance to improve access to urban markets.

At Bamoi Luma in Kambia, the RC and the RR met with borderland community women beneficiaries of a Quick Impact Project to address the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic on their communities supported by UNDP.

The women said UNDP supported them with money to do their business during the height of the pandemic, and now, they can pay school fees for their children and take care of the home and are no longer sexually violated.

At Rokupr, he visited a WFP-supported Homegrown School Feeding Programme at the Holy Cross Primary School and an inland valley farm. WFP is supporting 412 pupils and working with the Munafa- Munafa Farmers group comprising 41 farmers in this pilot.

The 2 -day field trip ended with the RC SDGs’ public awareness with Bike Riders at the Red Cross Hall in Kambia Town.

He called on them to be agents of peace and conflict prevention and avoid violence during the elections in June.

Furthermore, he cautioned them to stay off Kush and marijuana and to ride their bikes cautiously to reduce the rate of accidents on the road. He added that they should always assist persons with disabilities, not be involved in sexual violence, and protect the environment.