Uncategorized

SEND Sierra Leone Launches More Than A Woman Project

November 3, 2021

By Foday Moriba Conteh

As part of their efforts to strengthen women’s participation in Politics and Governance (Phase II), SEND Sierra Leone, with support from Irish Aid, has on Tuesday 2^nd November, 2021 launched the More Than A Woman (MTAW) Project during a well attended and auspicious event held at Mattru Jong, Bonthe District, Southern Province of Sierra Leone.

In his address, the Country Director of SEND Sierra Leone, Joseph Ayamga, disclosed that the entity or Non-Governmental Organization started its programme activities in Bonthe District in February 2019. He continued to intimate that their first-ever intervention in the District was with the Promotion of a Nutrition-Sensitive WASH Self-
Supply Project in the Sherbro Island which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Deutsche Welthungerhilfe.

He noted that SEND Sierra Leone is very happy to launch the Project as part of their continued intervention in Bonthe District of which he said the first project is the ‘More Than a Woman: Strengthening Women’s Participation in Politics and Governance (Phase II) with funds from the Government of Ireland through the Irish Embassy in Sierra Leone with SEND as the implementing partner. Both projects will be implemented in Bonthe, Kailahun, Kenema, and Kono districts and promote advocacy activities at the national level.

He stated that the implementation started from June 2021 to July 2024 with a budget of 1,650,000 Euros and at that time targeting six existing female Members of Parliaments, 30 female Councillors, 34,180 rural women network members and their Executives, five local radio stations including the Nyapui Radio Station in Kenema, support for 500 women aspirants for the 2023 elections, 506 VSLA groups and 250 political parties leaders. “For all actions, we expect to reach 1,900,000 persons in the targeted districts,” she expressed hope.

Manager of the More Than A Woman Project , Brima Mansaray, said it is supported by the Embassy of Ireland in Sierra Leone and is expected to last for three years from June 2021-July 2024 with a total budget of Euro1,650,000 equivalent to (Le18,950,000), adding that their intervention areas include Kenema, Kono, Kailahun and Bonthe District. It was stated the Project will be implementing actions that contribute to the SDG Goals 5 and 16, and the Sierra Leone National Development Plan of 2019-2023 (SLNDP).

Highlighting the project results, he said that it will increase national-level advocacy and networking on women’s participation in decision-making, governance and politics and enhances SEND’s capacity for effective and result-oriented programme delivery.

He concluded by stating that the project will benefit 1,833,305 people from Kailahun, Kenema, Kono, Bonthe and Freetown.

The Programme Advisor-Governance, Department of Foreign Affairs Irish Aid, Josephus Ellie, noted that the Government of Ireland through its Embassy in Freetown has been working with SEND-SL since 2017, mainly in Kailahun, Kono and Kenema, stating that the particular phase provide the opportunity to increase the impact of their work in promoting women’s political participation and continuing strengthening SEND-SL’s technical, financial and managerial capacities.

“This is why the project we are launching today is very important. As has been presented, it will continue to strengthen women’s voices, knowledge, capacity and network, support their economic empowerment, increase national level advocacy and policy engagements, particularly with the Female Parliamentary Caucus and continue to strengthen the organizational capacity of SEND Sierra Leone for effective and efficient delivery,” he pointed out with pride.

In his keynote address, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Jonathan Titus-Williams (Rev.Dr.) described the launch of the project as showcasing the commitment of their development partners and the confidence they have in the New Direction Government led by His Excellency the President Brigadier (retired) Dr Julius Maada Bio.

On behalf of the Government and People of Sierra Leone, he
applauded SEND Sierra Leone and those funding the project.

The Deputy Minister encouraged the beneficiaries to take ownership of the projects maintaining that SEND Sierra Leone only won the bid to implement the project stressing that, however, it belongs to them and therefore they must own it, adding that Government at the local level including the line MDAs & Councils other development partners-NGOs, CSOs, CBOs and other Private sector-local businesses, contractors, companies must come on board when they engage and interact with the projects during their implementation furthering that SEND-Sierra Leone should ensure everybody is on the table to know who is doing what, where and at what time during the lifespan of the project.

“Let me commend SEND Sierra Leone for enduring the rigors of conceiving the project idea and translating that into a bankable project that we all have gathered for and that when the whole world is enduring the economic constraints of COVID-19 and donors are holding back, SEND Sierra Leone has succeeded to bring something for our vulnerable people,” he concluded.