Government holds two-day confab on the Wan Fambul National Framework
The Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Development and Economic Planning; Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development under the supervision of the Office of the Vice President and its partners opens a 2-day workshop in Freetown to define a focused effort in the next 6 months to put in place the structures, systems and processes that support the roll out of the Wan Fambul National Framework.
The retreat, from the 16th to 17th June 2020 at the Home Suite Hotel in Freetown, supported by Fambul Tok and Catalyst for Peace focused on two-fold objectives to define a Strategic Visioning and develop an operational plan for the rollout of the People’s Planning Process (PPP) over the medium to long term; and develop a fund-raising strategy for the solicitation of funding towards the operationalization of the national rollout process.
The minister of Development Francis Kai Kai in opening the forum hailed the WANF as a model for national development and said:
“I am especially happy that we are today starting to effectively implement the post-2019 UN General Assembly’s agreed actions on taking forward the roll-out of the Wan Fambul Framework across the 16 districts and 190 chiefdoms of Sierra Leone. The relevance of this model had convinced the Government of Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio to capture it in the Sierra Leone’s Medium Term National Development Plan (2019-2023), under Cluster Four, “Governance and Accountability for Results”.
He thanked Fambul Tok and the Catalyst for Peace, including other his colleague Minister’s for the process in becoming a reality.
In her statement, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Melrose Kargbo, said the WFNF was deeply linked to the residual Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendation around peace building and national transformation. She said Government remained committed to the process and would support and facilitate the institutionalization of the framework.
John Caulker, the Executive Director of Fambul Tok, said that the framework would facilitate an inclusive, community-centered, rural sustainable development leading to resilient and cohesive communities across Sierra Leone. He said the framework would address the critical issues of National Development, through a People’s Planning Process.
Libby Hoffman, the President for the Catalyst for Peace, in her statement, through a Zoom video link, explained the global significance of the role Fambul Tok played, noting peace should be built from the inside out and creating the space for those impacted by the violence to lead in the building of peace. She said this would help the world learn from their stories.
The retreat was followed by a Technical session on governance establishments, which includes the steering, technical committees and Dr. Emmanuel Gaima, the Governance Adviser to President, moderated secretariat.
The planning workshop brought together 16 key practitioners in the fields of Governance and development as well as representatives of Government and practitioners who piloted this initiative. The facilitators, including Dr. Sheka Bangura, Director of Planning, Research and Policy, MoPED, Momoh Turay, Technical Adviser to the MoPED, and Patrick Zombo took them through the process of establishing the WFNF, WFNF Secretariat, Steering Committee, Review post-2019 UNGA conclusion/action on WFNF, Rollout, engagement of 16 district councils with a view to incorporating the WFF; and developing fundraising strategy for the WFNF rollout.
