The National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) through the Sierra Leone Community Driven Development Project Phase Two (SLCDDll-Gietrenk), in Partnership with its Value-Chain and Livelihood Development Service Provider, Partners in Relief and Development Sierra Leone (PaRD) has concluded a 9 day Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop on Micro Enterprise Group Formation. The training which was held in Kenema City from 11th – 19th March, 2019, targeted NaCSA field staff and other partners implementing the Livelihood and Small, Medium Enterprise Development component of the Project
In his key note address, while declaring the session open, the NaCSA Senior Director Programmes, Mohamed Rashid Bah disclosed that the GIETRENK project is one of the biggest projects in the Commission, which encompasses all eight policy clusters in the new Medium Term National Development Plan of the New Direction Government. The importance of the training, he noted, is to equip participants with the relevant skills to ensure effective targeting/selection of Micro Enterprise Groups (MEGs). He assured participants that with the current leadership of NaCSA and the overarching policy environment created by the New Direction National Development Plan launched by H.E. President Julius Maada Bio, NaCSA has the appropriate political will and environment to perform in the upcoming years. Senior Director Bah reiterated the need for staff to be committed and attentive throughout the session and encouraged them to demonstrate high level of diligence during the training.
Speaking on the purpose of the training, the Director Field Operations, Sainku Fofanah, disclosed that the training is geared towards giving NaCSA field staff the requisite skills in the formation of Micro Enterprise Groups in communities across the country as well as to engage Stakeholders in community sensitization. Director Fofanah highlighted the key criteria involved in forming MEGs and implored all to take cognizance of these in the training.
In his address, the Resident Minister East, Andrew Fatorma, commended NaCSA, describing it as one of the few institutions in the country working in line with the New Direction Policy of the Government. He specially cited the area of youth capacity building and development in agriculture through the provision of direct support in the form of finance, market information, technology and technical advice to youths to engage in commercial agriculture and agro-processing activities, which are all central to the Government`s recently launched Mid Term Development Plan.

Making the opening remarks, the Chairman Kenema District Council, Mohamed O’level Sesay, registered his appreciation for being part of the event, especially at the opening session of the training. He implored participants to take the training seriously and to replicate it in their various communities. NaCSA, he said, is a credible institution that delivers on its mandate and expectations. He further wished all well in the deliberations.
In his statement, the Honorable Member of Parliament, Mohamed Festus Lansana, of constituency 015 gave a brief overview of the SLCDD project, noting that it is geared towards reducing poverty in Sierra Leone. Hon. Lansana commended NaCSA for complimenting the work of Local Councils with specific reference to Lower Bambara Chiefdom, which he represents in Parliament.
Civil Society members at the occasion expressed satisfaction over the rationale for the training and commended NaCSA for involving them, and encouraged other development agencies to do the same. Civil Society activist, Augustine Sannoh assured NaCSA of their commitment in monitoring as well as in providing follow-up on the various NaCSA projects and activities within the Kenema District.
Women’s Leader Doris Lansana expressed similar sentiments about NaCSA, especially in the area of female representation in its projects. She commended NaCSA and expressed the need for NaCSA management to empower more women.
Forming part of the training were field exercises aimed at sensitizing community stakeholders and potential group members on the targeting criteria and identifying prominent Micro Enterprise Groups along the value chain. The Director of Programmes, Obi Buya-Kamara, distributed certificates of participation to participants, forming the highlight of the event.

As the count down towards the close of the reality TV show begins, the House is becoming tenser and lots of gossiping going on. Often tempers flare up between the housemates as they fight tooth and nail to outsmart each other. Whilst trying to do so, they become agitated and confrontational, often requiring the intervention of the chief (the mystery voice).

This apparent dash for time, further makes the show more and more captivating, with the contestants attempting to act funnily, talk tough and appear sexy in a bid to woo more votes from the public. Exuding strong language, behaving humorously and displaying nudity are all part of the show. To release stress, the Housemates can be seen dancing to Sierra Leonean tunes, singing, cracking jokes and arguing. As it gets hotter, they are all appealing to their fans to vote for them. Even hotter is the activities away from the show. Supporters of various contestants are busy campaigning for votes in favor of their favorite housemates. This is done in the social media and in entertainment centres across the country. Conversations now are dominated by the Reality TV show. Members of the public are counting the days to the ultimate climax.

The live Reality Show, which is aired on AYV entertainment’s Channel 34, is indeed a novelty in this country for which the organizers, AYV Media Empire and Africell, have been widely hailed, as both continue to boost the entertainment industry.
What is uppermost in the minds of each of the Housemates is to ultimately emerge as the winner that will bag the Le100,000,000 that has been set aside as the star prize.

According to the organizers of the show, what is at the center of organizing the Reality TV Show is youth empowerment, providing a platform to showcase young people’s talents and at the same time give them the opportunity to acquire new skills like learning how to cook, socialize, how to play certain games, build confidence, how to comport themselves publicly and to speak fluently. They have been benefitting from interactions with officials of certain corporate entities, like Rokel Commercial Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, Life By Design, who have been explaining to them how their institutions operate. They are also given motivational lectures.
It is yet not known whether the way the Housemates are catered for falls under empowerment because they are offered good food and drinks nurturing them well. It is factual that the Housemates are really enjoying sumptuous food,
AYV, under its charismatic Chief Executive Officer, Ambassador Anthony Navo, has been at the very forefront of empowering young people and making them very productive and relevant in society. He has been doing so passionately and he is held in high esteem for championing that cause.
A good aspect of the Reality TV Show is that it has exposed all the participants and as viewers continue to follow it, there is the likelihood that in the future some of them will become Brand Ambassadors, artists or role models. As the Reality TV Show is climaxing, it is undoubtable that it will continue to be very enticing and lively.

As it takes one year in power, the Sierra Leone People’s Party Government has found out, and to their utter chagrin, that being in opposition criticizing the government of the day left and right on every issue is not the same as being on the receiving end of that criticism – much of it unfair at that.
It can be recalled that when the SLPP was in opposition, their propagandists spoke derogatorily of the then APC government having sold the country to the Chinese in exchange for a pittance. Now it is very interesting to read and hear the things that are being said by APC propagandists on SLPP’s involvement with the Chinese.
Truth of the matter is, the SLPP has far more on its plate than it can chew; in terms of managing an economy that is deeply in the red and nowhere near bouncing back to life; controlling and if possible, reducing inflation and consumer prices that keep escalating every now and then causing the poor, who still make up the majority of the population, unimaginable stress and sleepless nights, particularly those that are unemployed and have many mouths besides theirs to feed daily.
On both sides, the government and anti-government propagandists are very busy informing and misinforming the poor people, depending from which side of the political divide they are seated and speaking from.
However, the truth of the matter is that it does not matter to the people, who is speaking the truth or who is bombarding them with sugar coated vibes. What matters to them is that the cost of living is driving them crazy to the point that they are now chanting: “De gron dry-o!!!”
For Sierra Leoneans who have all kinds of graphic metaphors and similes to describe their deplorable existence, de phrase: “De gron dry” needs no explanation.
To the APC propagandists who pray every minute, every second that life here would get worst than they had it in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and other poor developing countries characterized by decades of dictatorship, mismanagement and corruption, the appeal is, please cool down.
Since this government came to power, there is a lot that is happening positively on the governance and public financial management fronts that augur well for a well managed economy that will eventually translate into prosperity for the state and its people.
In helping to build the Mama Salone that we all envision, if we all truly love this our beautiful country, the advice is to practice constructive criticism.
That is, where we honestly believe that the government is doing well by way of improving on performance and delivery that benefits the people, let us be magnanimous to say so.
At the same time, without any fear, we should feel free to genuinely criticize where we see lapses and excesses without resorting to “mammy kurs” and hate speeches reek with tribalism and regionalism.
The message here is that we can criticize the government and its officials without being offensive and odious to others; then the criticism will be taken in good faith and acted upon by whoever it is addressed to.
To the government propagandists…You are very easy to lose your temper and take off your shirts, vest and blouses to fight.
You cannot fight fire with fire; you only make matters worse. APC and the opposition in general have the right to criticize your government; it is your duty to take such criticism in good faith and to engage the opposition constructively, civilly with a sense of humor.
That said, Sierra Leoneans, we are all in the same boat. If any of us pray that now that we are in the middle of the sea with a storm blowing over us and only a few life belts available, that the boat capsizes, which of us do we think will be saved?
As such, we should not pray that the “Pa-o-pa” government fails; for if it fails the failure will affect all of us in diverse ways.
At the same time, the Pa-o-pa government and its people should stop seeing those of us who do not belong to their party or did not vote for them in 2018 as enemy aliens that they should seek to suppress and destroy at all cost.
Rather, we want to see Pa-o-pa and Torkpoi in words and deeds genuinely living their mantra of “ONE COUNTRY, ONE PEOPLE”.
How long will, as Bob Marley said, fools continue to die for want of wisdom?
As ONE COUNTRY, ONE PEOPLE, tell me what 7 million of us thinking, working and pulling in the same direction cannot achieve that countries like Botswana, Rwanda, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia have?

The newly appointed Solicitor General of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Mohamed Lamin Tarawalley, has subscribed to the Oath of Office before His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio in accordance with the Constitution during a ceremony held at State House.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Mr. Tarawalley said he was thankful to President Bio for the honour and privilege to be appointed Solicitor General of Sierra Leone, adding that he was aware of the challenges, but vowed not to betray the President’s trust. He noted that the New Direction Government had made tremendous strides in revamping and restoring trust in the legal system of the country.

“Good laws and good legal system are part of the development and growth of any nation and I commend your government on that. It is my pleasure to work in tandem with the Attorney General to build, develop and improve the justice department, otherwise known as the Law Officers’ Department, which is the largest government law firm. If our laws must be respected, we must respect them and to me this is doable,” he said.

In his brief response, President Bio congratulated Lawyer Tarawalley on his new role, saying that he had been meticulously chosen and therefore so much was expected of him because the country was lagging behind and that a lot of work was required to catch up with the rest of the world.

“We are beginning to find our place in society and we should continue on that part. That is why I want to encourage everyone to put their hands on deck, because this is not something we can do alone. Now is the time to work and there are very good signs that we are on the right track. Therefore, as you join us, I want to implore you to continue to work very hard. On my part, I promise to provide the quality leadership necessary to change the bad reputation of the country,” he said.

According to the National Publicity Secretariat of the main opposition All Peoples Congress party, the Party Chairman and Leader, former President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, officially resumed work at the party office on Friday March 29,2019, one year after the March 2018 elections.

The Chairman and Leader, former President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, held productive engagements with various organs of the party, diaspora representatives, the Monitoring Committee charged with the responsibility to Monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the Nine man Committee and displaced members and supporters from Kailahun,Kenema,Bo,Moyamba and some parts of Kono.

Chairman and Leader, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, informed party stalwarts that the one year grace period is over and that he will publicly begin to Comment on national and party issues.

The Africa region is losing over $2.4 trillion annually due to its high disease burden, new estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals. In a report released on Thursday, the UN health agency said this amount is equivalent to US$630 million years of healthy life lost in 2015 due to the diseases afflicting the population across its 47 member states.
Five countries – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania – accounted for almost 50 percent of the total years lost in healthy life accrued in the region, according to the report.
The report which was launched during the second WHO Africa Health Forum which ended on Friday in Cape Verde also confirmed a long held view of some global health experts that Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) have overtaken infectious diseases as the largest drain on productivity.
NCDs are now said to account for 37 percent of the disease burden, against 36 percent of communicable diseases.
Some communicable and parasitic diseases, maternal, neonatal and nutrition-related conditions, as well as injuries, also contributed to the lost healthy years, according to the report.
According to WHO, $796 billion or 47 percent of the loss in productivity value could be avoided in 2030 if the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to health, like as SDG 3 on good health and wellbeing and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation, are met.
The report also draws attention to the need for increase in spending in the WHO region.
As a target of SDG 3, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) would require countries in the WHO African Region to spend, on average, at least $ 271 per capita per year on health, or 7.5 percent of the region’s gross domestic product, it said.
The UHC calls for countries of the world to provide healthcare and financial protection to all of their citizens, regardless of status.
And healthcare spending is key to achieving this.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, lamented the trend of low spending in the region.
Writing in the foreword of the report titled: ‘A Heavy Burden: The Productivity Cost of Illness in Africa,’ she said:
“Four years into the implementation of countries’ efforts towards achieving UHC, current average expenditure on health in the Region falls short of this expectation.”
According to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates, attaining the 17 Sustainable Development Goals will require spending ranging from $ 1.5 trillion to $2.5 trillion per year until 2030, or up to $ 37.5 trillion.
Low-income countries will need an additional $ 671 billion ($76 per capita on average) until 2030 to attain the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
To achieve the health-related SDG targets, countries must invest adequately in the development of resilient national and local health systems to effectively, affordably and efficiently deliver the integrated packages of proven cost-effective interventions contained in relevant programmatic global strategies and plans to target populations in need.
The African Union (AU) has a healthcare spending target called the Abuja Declaration, which requires member countries to spend at least 15 percent of their Gross Domestic Product on health.
According to the 2018 WHO Global Health Expenditure Database, only 35 out of 55 AU member states, representing 64 percent, have seen an increase in domestic investments in health, but not enough to meet the AU target.
The database shows that only 2 out of the 55 AU member states meet the 15 percent target.
This latest report comes amidst growing concern over public health challenges facing particularly fragile health systems across the region, like Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea which are still trying to recover from the 2014-2016 deadly Ebola epidemic that exposed the weakness of their health systems.
Two years after West Africa Ebola epidemic, the Democratic Republic of Congo is currently battling what has been described as the second largest outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic disease in the world.
This month’s cyclone in Mozambique, which has also led to a cholera outbreak there, is sure to pile more pressure on healthcare system in the region.
The findings of the study on disease burden suggest that health systems strengthening should focus on rich as well as poor countries and on all ages as well as on the specific disease categories, says WHO.
“This report illustrates how achievement of the critical health SDG targets, including universal health coverage, would contribute to poverty eradication efforts on a large scale, reduce disparities in lifespan, tackle social exclusion and promote political stability and economic development in the WHO African Region,” states Grace Kabaniha, Health Economist in the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

With the inauguration of an ultramodern laboratory at Lakka in Western Freetown last week, officials say will revolutionize diagnostics and treatment capacity of the bacterial disease in the country. This lab will accelerate the country’s response to Tuberculosis (TB), hospital sources said.

The lab facility, located at the country’s main infectious disease treatment center at Lakkah in the west end of Freetown, is categorized as a Level 3 Bio-Safe laboratory, and it is equipped with a Digital X-Ray machine which can diagnose the bacterial disease within 24 hours.
TB is a highly infectious disease which generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Its most common symptoms are chronic cough and fever.
But sometimes victims do not show symptoms.
The disease is airborne and can be contracted via coughs and sneezes by infected people.
The disease is referred to as the sickness of the poor, because it mostly affects poor people living in squalid conditions.
TB is also ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the 10th cause of death worldwide.
About 100 million people are affected with the disease annually, 10 percent of which are pediatric cases.
Sierra Leone has an estimated 23, 000 cases of TB, according to WHO figures, ranking it as one of the countries with the highest TB burden in the world.
Countries with more than 10,000 people with TB per year are considered high burden.
But the good news is that TB is a preventable and curable disease and in Sierra Leone a lot of people are being put on treatment.
According to the ministry’s figures, 17, 169 people were put on treatment last year and officials say there has been 90 percent treatment success.
Dr. Lynda Foray, Program Manager, National Leprosy and TB Control Program, lamented the lack of adequate human resources, which has hindered the country’s ability to, among others, conduct contact tracing, as well as stigma and discrimination of TB patients, as challenges to control the disease in the country.
A major issue for Sierra Leone is Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR) TB, which is currently estimated to be between 400 and 660 cases.
The new lab facility, according to officials, places the country in a better position to address MDR and other challenges.
It notably makes it the first country in the Mano River Union (MRU) and the second in the larger West Africa Sub-region after Benin, to have installed such an advanced technology in the treatment of TB.
The Civil Society Movement Against Tuberculosis, welcomed Tuesday’s development.
It’s Executive Director, Abdullai Abubacar Sesay, observed that not only is the facility providing advance technology which is needed to alleviate the suffering of TB patients, it has also made it easier for them in terms of providing free service.
While laboratory services for TB patients are charged in many other countries, in Sierra Leone it has been made free for us, said Mr Sesay.
“We are extremely happy and grateful to the Ministry of Health for having this lab because we know treating MDR TB is not an easy thing to do. So the lab will help diagnose people with TB faster now,” he said.

Reports of a road accident involving 3 members of Parliament who are among the delegation on a visit to Rwanda, was confirmed by Sierra Leone’s Parliament last Thursday. According to a statement from the office of the Clark of Parliament, the said incident which occurred in the morning hours of the day, involved Saa Emmerson Lamina, the head of the opposition Coalition For Change party in the House, Dickson Rogers of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party and Hassan Priest Sesay of the main opposition All Peoples Congress. It also stated that all three men were responding to treatment.
Sheku Turay, Head of Department, Public Relations at the Parliament of Sierra Leone, confirmed the news.
He told this medium that the three MPs were part of a contingent of eight lawmakers currently on an official visit to Rwanda, namely: the Speaker of the House, Dr Abass Bundu, the head of the opposition bench, Hon. Chernor Maju Bah and a Paramount Chief MP from Moyamba District, Mrs Haja Fatmata Bintu Koroma Meama-Kajue.
The three MPs were said to be in a different car when the accident happened.
The Sierra Leonean delegation is in Rwanda on a five-day study tour of its parliament.
Reports in the local media in Kigali quoted Speaker Bundu as saying that they were interested in learning Rwanda’s experience in empowering women in decision-making, among others.
Rwanda and Sierra Leone share a common experience in terms of civil unrest.
While Sierra Leone underwent a brutal eleven-year civil war, Rwanda’s war culminated in the genocide of 1994 that claimed about one million lives. But the Southern African country has long moved on in terms of development at all levels, compared to the rest of the continent.
The Sierra Leonean delegation was scheduled to visit the Rwandan Genocide Memorial, among various other landmarks in the country, with a view to sharing best practices.