The International Labor Organization (ILO) in collaboration with the European Union and the Government of Sierra Leone on Monday May 30, 2022, held its first Technical Advisory Committee meeting for the Opportunity Salone Project at the Radisson Blu hotel in Freetown.
The event brought together local actors of the Technical Committee and during which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDA).
The Job and growth programme aimed at addressing the investment in education and employment problem through support to improve investment in climate change, upgrade human capital, and create job for the workforce with low qualification.
The Opportunity Salone Project is designed to increase employment of women, youth and persons with disabilities by using a market-driven approach to creating sustainable, inclusive and economically viable supply chains.
The Country Director of ILO for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Vanessa Phala said that during the course of the meeting they would be taking stock of the accomplishments of the Project and its terms of reference, adding that they would also implement critical based interventions to identify critical value chain.
She added that they had also done a survey in market places to form a synergy in understanding the needs and requirements of the markets adding that the signing of the MoU with SMEDA and other partners would effectively help in collaboration.
Phala also mentioned that they would consider the objectives of the Project to leave no one behind especially those that had been identified in the Project. Her furthered that they would ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), are included in a bid to create a synergy during ground interventions.
He furthered that they would discuss knowledge management relating to data collection and best practices that would inform durable interventions that would possibly result to the expansion of the Project to other districts.
Head of Corporation at EU, Gerald Hatler applauded the commitment and involvement of local actors which he said would help to ensure that Opportunity Salone contribute to addressIing strategic priorities expressed in the country’s Medium Term National Development Plan supporting development in particularly education, skills and competitive economy, with well-developed infrastructure.
He added that it will also support the transformational process envisaged in the National Agricultural Transformation Plan with specific focus on value chain development and access to market to enable smallholder farmers to emerge from subsistence
“Opportunity Salone is expected to create and sustain 4,000 jobs in the short and long run through the maintenance of 200 km of feeder roads along the four-value chain developed,” Hatler said.
Hatler cited that Agriculture is a key sector for Sierra Leone’s economy, contributing to more than 60% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and currently employs nearly two third of the country’s population.
“Agricultural transformation is a priority in Sierra Leone’s policy agenda to meet the challenges of food and nutrition insecurity, climate change, youth employment and overall economic growth. The EU is committed to pursuing its efforts to support in those strides,” he said.
A representative of the Ministry of Labour, Abubakarr Sillah said that the projects would enhance the opportunity to create jobs for young people in the targeted sector and added to the fact that Sierra Leone is an agricultural economy but that irregular migration has caused a decline.
He alluded that ILO has been supporting the Labour ministry with technical support by training its staffs in technical areas such as labor administration, adding that ILO wants to create employment but there are no decent employment laws.
“The Ministry of Labour and Social partners should be the monitors of the project to ensure that it is implemented effectively and efficiently, and that all the priorities and objectives are met. Without support to social partners it could be a challenge for us to ensure that the objectives of the project are achieved,” Sillah said.
By George M.O. Williams