The Office of Chief of Staff in partnership with the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) Thursday 22nd January 2015 held the second session of the social protection inter-agency forum at the credentials hall, State House, Freetown.
The forum, according to a State House report, brought together professional heads from ministries, departments and agencies, who discussed the way forward to rollout the social protection strategy.
State House Chief of Staff Mr Saidu Conton Sesay (centre in photo), who chaired the forum called on participants including ministers to volunteer to be part of the drafting of the Social Protection Bill so that it can be tabled before the House of Parliament for ratification.
On the unveiling of the strategy, Mr Sesay disclosed that the technical launching of the policy was planned for the entire programme, just among the technical experts, adding that plans are underway to better market the social protection strategy. He explained that the forum was being held to ensure that the targeted beneficiaries have tools to work with.
The acting Director of Social Protection Secretariat NaCSA, Mohamed Rashid Bah in a power point presentation dilated extensively on systems building ranging from the development of the management information systems and registry, common targeting tools, effective payment scheme, grievance redress mechanisms, which according to him is now operational.
Mr. Bah said the tools have also been developed and were tested in recent "Cash for Work" roll out processes which is highly inclusive, participatory, community led and user friendly, with community structures fully involved for the validation as a means of checks and balances. He added that they will be hiring staff to reach out to targeted beneficiaries.
Speaker after speaker suggested the adaption of a firm action point for social protection through MDAs and the private sector, while endorsements were collectively made for MDAs to put in place mechanisms to adapt and mainstream common targeting tools, in the identification of beneficiaries for their existing social protection interventions.
It was endorsed that social protection focal persons whose names have been submitted to the secretariat by their various MDAs should be responsible for the management of their respective management information systems, whilst the Social Protection Secretariat is being charged with the responsibility to organize training for focal persons in MDAs on the use of the registry.
The forum also endorsed that the secretariat put modalities in place to ensure that the country’s privacy laws are not violated in sharing beneficiary information.
The Inter Agency Forum accepted the proposal to se upt desk top computers and accessories as part of the investment plan in Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, for social and psychological support.
This should also be replicated in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security to track data on seed distribution and in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to capture the old data and finally Statistics Sierra Leone offices for PTM uploads.
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