Public sector workers in Sierra Leone convened at the Brookfields Hotel for a crucial three days’ workshop organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs with theme ‘We reform to Revamp’. The event aimed to validate a new strategy designed to overhaul the country’s public service architecture, enhancing its effectiveness and responsiveness.
The workshop gathered a diverse group of stakeholders, including government officials, private sector workers, the media, retired civil servants representatives, parliamentarians, local councils, UNDP, UN agencies and civil society organizations. The discussions focused on evaluating the proposed strategy, which aims to address existing inefficiencies and improve service delivery across various government sectors.
The eight thematic pillars are structural alignment and rationalisation of mandates in the public service, human resource management and manpower planning, public sector coordination and management, monitoring evaluation and performance management for effective public service delivery, e-governance, pay and incentive, gender and social inclusion, and communications and citizen’s engagement.
Opening the event, Minister of Public Administration and Political Affairs, Mr. Amara Kallon, underscored the importance of reforming the public service to meet the expectations of citizens. “This strategy represents our commitment to creating a public sector that is not only efficient but also accountable to the people we serve,” he said.
Mr. Kallon reiterated that the public service is the backbone of governance as it is through the desiccation of our civil servants that policies are translated into meaningful action.
Key components of the proposed strategy include streamlining bureaucratic processes, enhancing human resource management, and implementing comprehensive training programs for public employees. Participants were encouraged to provide feedback and suggest improvements to ensure the strategy is both practical and effective.
Public Sector Workers, while expressing support for the initiative, emphasized the need for ongoing dialogue between government officials and public sector workers. “The success of this reform hinges on our collective input and commitment to the process,” noted Alhaji Saidu Kamara, a journalist from the global times newspaper.
The workshop concluded with a consensus on the importance of collaboration and transparency in implementing the strategy. The Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs plans to incorporate the insights gathered during the workshop into a final version of the strategy, which is set to be launched in the November by His Excellency the President Juslius maada Bio.
