By Foday Moriba Conteh
In the bid to enhance citizen’s engagement and participation in the design and implementation of Government policies, programmes and projects that will impact lives and contribute to sustainable national service delivery in the country, the Ministry of Political and Public Affairs on Tuesday 11th May, 2021 held a stakeholders engagement on the establishment of a Citizens’ Portal at a well-attended event held at the Golden Tulip Essential Hotel at Aberdeen in Freetown.
In his welcome address, the Minister of Political and Public Affairs, Ambassador Foday Yumkella, highlighted that people in many instances believe that the conduct of elections is the wherewithal of a democratic dispensation adding that one of the great American Presidents Abraham Lincoln, described democracy as the practice of a Government of the People, by the People and of the People.
He stated that it is in light of the third aspect of the definition which is, a Government of the people that they are now gathered to discuss with stakeholders on the need to establish a citizens’ portal.
Ambassador Foday Yumkella revealed that recent history has taught them that His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio is indeed a believer and promoter of democratic best practices especially demonstrating that the Government should always work for the well-being of the people.
He pointed out that it is against that backdrop the President’s vision focuses on the promotion of a citizens’ centric participatory governance approach that will serve as a platform through which citizens can interact with the Government in the promotion of peace, social cohesion and sustainable development in the country.
The Minister said that the citizens’ portal will enhance citizens’ engagement and participation in the design and implementation of Government policies, programme and project that will impact their lives and contribute to sustainable national service delivery in the country.
He implored all to give their best to enhance the actualization of an architecture that will promote democracy and governance to a greater enviable level in the country.
Adviser to the President, Ramond D’souza George, commended the Ministry of Political and Public Affairs for the laudable venture in pursuing the establishment of a Citizens’ portal.
He said that he is with the strong conviction that the establishment of a Citizens’ portal will serve as a platform through which citizens can contribute to achieving development outcomes and promote peace and national cohesion in the country that will increase efforts to systematically track and report results drawn from concerns by the public.
Delivering a statement on behalf of the Chief Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa, Dr. Emmanuel Gaima said that His Excellency the President, Julius Maada Bio in his New Direction Manifesto promised the people of Sierra Leone that his Government will ensure that telephony and communications services will be improved to such an extent that they will contribute significantly to the country’s communications development and make such available at affordable cost to all.
He added that the infrastructure they are about to establish under the Ministry of Political and Public Affairs is consistent with the vision of H.E the President maintaining that it is a Government-owned application that will be available on Android and will be used as a tool to promote citizens’ centric participatory governance which will provide a nation-wide window to connect people with Government Organizations at all levels to raise their issues with authorities, complaints’ redresses and suggestions, adding that for the Government, it will help to promote the culture of quantified performance management and make Government entities accountable for their mandated roles and responsibilities.
Dr. Emmanuel Gaima pointed out that like many other Government functions, the establishment of the citizens’ portal will enable their esteemed guests to dilate on different topics such as: Social, Economic, Political, Cultural, Legal and Environmental Programs, among others as a way of enriching the architecture and structure of the Citizen’s Government Portal furthering that Government is committed to ensuring that citizens participate fully in its activities through Digitalization and efficient Electronic Governance system network.
Earlier before statement were made, in his presentation, the Citizens’ Portal Consultant, Alex Nallo, said that citizens’ participation has added value to the development, peace and social cohesion agenda of the Government, furthering that citizens are willing to participate but their ability to do so is limited describing the portal as an important tool in public administration as it offers citizens and Government authorities the opportunity to interact via channels that are complementary to traditional interaction channels such as the phone or mail.
He said that the citizens’ portal has the potential to bring benefits to the country as it presents a simple user-friendly structure and collaboration features, responding to the challenges Government face.
Alex Nallo stated that the purpose of the citizens’ portal is to capture diverse experiences, assess lessons learned and outline methods and entry points to provide a more systematic and results-focused approach for the Government, noting that the portal will include beneficiary feedback, which entails empowering citizens to participate in the development process and integrating citizens voice in development programs as key accelerators to achieve results.
The event was climaxed by plenaries/deliberations and comments from stakeholders present as way of making their inputs.
