By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security, in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Labour Congress and the Sierra Leone Employers’ Federation, has on Friday 28th June 2024 successfully concluded regional stakeholder consultations for the National Social Protection Bill.
This extensive engagement process was aimed at gathering comprehensive input from a wide array of social protection stakeholders to help shape the forthcoming legislation.
Funded by the World Bank, these consultations emphasized inclusive participation to ensure that the new legal framework for social protection in Sierra Leone is robust and representative of all voices.
The proposed bill seeks to establish a Social Protection Authority, which will coordinate interventions from both private and public sectors. This Authority will oversee the Social Protection Bread Basket, a dedicated fund to support social protection activities, from which implementing agencies can request resources for their respective programs.
The consultations spanned all regions of Sierra Leone, concluding in the Western Area. Participants included representatives from various public and private sector entities, reflecting a strong communal endorsement for the initiative.
In his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the two-day exercise in Freetown yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Employment, Labour, and Social Security, Lansana Mohamed Dumbuya, highlighted the ambitious goals set forth by the African Union’s African Strategy on Social Protection. He noted that the Strategy aims to increase social protection coverage from the current average of 17% to 40% by 2025.
“The African Union has urged leaders across the continent to allocate more resources to social protection to meet this target,” he stated.
“To align with these goals, the Government of Sierra Leone, along with its partners, developed the Social Protection Policy in 2018, the Social Protection Strategy for 2022-2026, and the Social Protection Bill in 2022, to harness various social protection interventions,” the Deputy Minister added.
He emphasized the Government’s commitment to building an inclusive social protection system that leaves no one behind.
“This consultative process is a testament to our dedication to creating a comprehensive social protection law that addresses the needs of all Sierra Leoneans,” he concluded.
The consultations represent significant progress towards establishing a comprehensive social protection framework that aims to support and protect all citizens of Sierra Leone.
