Sierra Leone’s President Dr Julius Maada Bio has recounted his leadership interventions in the areas of women Employment and Empowerment, reproductive health, and Social cohesion.
Employment and Empowerment
President Bio said during a Virtual Engagement of “Women in Leadership,” in commemoration of International Women’s Day in Freetown on March 11, 2021, that “Our country has its own sets of rigid stereotypes and cultural strictures that have either kept women out of leadership or constrained them on the margins.”
He said that for us to begin to understand how to change this, he believes that we must understand that this gendered configuration where opportunity is unfairly mapped along gender lines must change.
He said that as a Government, they have exceeded their target in the Medium Term National Development Plan of achieving an 18% threshold for women in leadership across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
President Bio said in Parliament, they are proud to welcome two more women parliamentarians from both the All People’s Congress Party and the Sierra Leone People’s Party. “As a Government, we will continue to strive to increase the number of women in leadership by creating more leadership opportunities for women because we recognize the impact of female leadership for changing lives, communities, and the nation,” President Bio said.
The President said that their Government’s policy focuses on education has led to increased enrolments for girls in schools, technical and vocational institutions, and in tertiary institutions.
“Our radical inclusion policy has reversed the ban on pregnant girls in school. Our First Lady’s relentless advocacies against early marriage, rape, and her support for menstruation health have been invaluable,” he said, adding that they have increased investments in school infrastructure, teacher training, and curriculum development. He said that preliminary data shows increased pass rates, and higher retention and completion rates for girls.
President Bio said, “Beyond education and even through COVID-19, my Government has sustained the social safety net support for vulnerable populations and women. We have also supported opportunity for women in the informal business sector with less onerous, low-interest business development MUNAFA microcredit loans. We will significantly expand this scheme in the coming months with more seed capital.”
Reproductive health
President Bio said Sierra Leone’s maternal mortality figures have kept us at the bottom reaches of the Human Development Index.
“Pregnant teenagers constitute the largest cohort that we lose to maternal mortality each year. I look at this issue from a human capital and development perspective. The thousands of young mothers we lose each year means that otherwise vibrant participants in our economy and in our society are needlessly dying,” he said.
The President said that an easy solution would seem to simply reduce teenage pregnancy. “But that is a very complicated issue in itself. Our options seem to be to track the family planning needs of young persons in communities and schools, map our pregnant teenagers and give them access to improved antenatal clinics and obstetric facilities, and to strengthen community healthcare programmes right across the country,” he maintained.
He said that cross-ministerial engagement among the ministries of Gender, Social Welfare, Health, and Basic and Secondary School Education is ongoing, adding that Sexuality Education and Gender Rights is offered at all levels of Basic and Secondary School Education as a core subject. “We are also working on the related issue of stunting which denies our nation a significant proportion of possible participants in our economy especially in a global economy that is knowledge-driven. Integrated management of stunting and acute malnutrition, to our mind, supports the proportion of girls within that group who would otherwise be permanently excluded from the future economy. We have also made other investments in the healthcare sector that specifically target women’s health,” President Bio highlighted.
Social Cohesion
On the final issue of social protection and cohesion, President Bio highlighted their persistent fight against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
He said that they see SGBV both as a social cohesion and human capital development issue, and they therefore amended and toughened the Sexual Offences Act, established a dedicated Sexual Offences Model Court, which accounted for an unprecedented jump in prosecution and conviction rates for SGBV offences.
He said that the First Lady’s campaign against SGBV is resonating with various populations.
President Bio said that, in addition to the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police, we now have a permanent infrastructure to support rape reporting through the 116 lines and the One Stop Centres that provide free survivor-centred services including medical examinations, reporting, psychosocial and legal support, and also access to safe homes.
The president said that their national male involvement strategy is being implemented across the Country by NGOs, and the Ministry of Youth through Youth councils where men and boys as advocates, recognize their responsibilities and duties. “The Ministry of Social Welfare is also piloting a parenting strategy that will be measured and evaluated.”
President Bio said, “My Government has recruited more women in the military and security forces, more women in the public service including as teachers and nurses and supported more women entrepreneurship.”
The president said that, in December last year, he launched the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy (GEWE) and added that the Ministry will host a number of workshops to develop an implementation plan at all levels. “This year, we will continue working on legislating GEWE into an Affirmative Action Bill that will permanently and significantly narrow or eliminate gender disparities in Sierra Leone,” he said,
President Bio said that their work, as a Government, has been recognised by UN Women, Generation Equality, RISE, and more, and Sierra Leone has been invited to serve on the Board of the UN’s Women Peace, Security, and Humanitarian action.
He said that Sierra Leone has been an early adopter of international instruments that serve to narrow gender gaps. We are on the right path and we will continue to do more.
“As I close, I want to encourage more women to volunteer for leadership regardless of political stripe. On our part as a Government, we will continue working to dismantle institutional, structural, and other barriers to women’s empowerment and advancement. I will closely follow the discussions and outcomes of this meeting and see how best they will inform or support our collective and dedicated push as a nation on this question.”
By Sallieu S. Kanu
12/03/2021. ISSUE NO: 8019