By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Skills Development Fund Secretariat with support from World Bank has on Monday 30th November, 2020 trained beneficiaries of the Skills Development Fund Grant during an event held at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown.
Assignment Manger, Skills Development Fund Secretariat, Peter M. Kaindaneh, said that the Skills Development Fund Secretariat was established by the Government of Sierra Leone to look into the disbursement of funds in relation to skills development projects.
He noted that they had initially called for concept notes and the evaluation of proposals and recommended the successful applicants to the Grant Committee, adding that they had 63 successful candidates of which mostly were Government Technical Institute together with the private sector, made up of small micro enterprises.
Peter M. Kaindaneh further disclosed that the whole project cost 22 Million Dollars but that the grant cost 16 Million Dollars
He said that as an institution they are expecting the successful candidates to be able to train youths on demand led skills disclosing how the project is funded by the Government of Sierra Leone and World Bank.
In her presentation, Grievance Redress Mechanism Specialist, Mariama Khai Fornah stated that the purpose of the GRM is to provide guidelines to address grievances, complaints, concerns, questions emanating from the implementation of the SDF under the SLSDP, adding that it also provides a step-by-step guide on how to receive, address, categorize follow-up, and document grievances.
She added that the goal of this GRM is to create opportunity for formal redress to grievances, complaints and concerns of project stakeholders at all levels, collaborative problems solving and alternative dispute resolution to ensure that the project is successfully implemented.
Underscoring its objectives, Mariama Khai Fornah said that it will ensure that the requirement of the project that has to do with conflict and grievances handling are adhered to, furthering that it will also put in place mechanisms for the monitoring and oversight over the implementation and management of grievance redress including establishing the appropriate reporting mechanisms.
District Monitor Western Area Urban Anti-Corruption Commission, Elizabeth Charles said their mandate is to ensure that the intended project beneficiaries, transparency, accountability and Anti-corruption measures are institutionalized throughout the project.
Independent monitoring ensure adherence to the program rules and procedures, carry out information campaigns on corruption prevention and the grievance redress measures, in-depth community and chiefdom level trainings to promote social accountability, development of a system where complains can be lodged, managed and resolved etc.
