Sierra Leone: Pre-Budgetary Preparation - Vulnerable Groups Engage Guma Valley, NACSA for Budgetary Inclusion

Budget Advocacy Network BAN, and vulnerable groups including the King George Home for the Aged and the Network of People living with HIV/AIDS NETHIPS, on Thursday September 1, engaged and presented to Guma Valley Water Company and National Commission for Social Action and presented their burning issues they want to be captured in both institutions' 2023 budget.

Making his presentation, Guma Valley Water Company and the National Commission for Social Commission conference halls respectively, Abu Bakarr Kamara said one of the recommendations to improve on Sierra Leone's scorecard is active engagement with vulnerable and unrepresented communities, directly or through civil organizations representing them.

He said the social protection plays a key role in accelerating progress towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and in leaving no one behind. He said social protection is a key element of national strategies to promote human development, political stability and inclusive growth.

He said paragraph 55 of the budget call circular state that in preparing the budget estimates ministries, departments and agencies are strongly encouraged to ensure the widest participation of all stakeholders including NGOs CSOs and internal budget committees.

He said the Sustainable Development Goals are about the concept of leaving no one behind, noting that the SDG 3, among other indicators, is to ensure healthy life and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.

He further stated that SDG 6 has one of the targets which says by 2030, they should achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.

He said 2023 budget estimate for Guma to include 'reliable and sustainable water supply for the homes of the aged.

He concluded that social protection for persons living with HIV/AIDS through cash transfer to support their nutrition and livelihoods and construction of regional centers for the aged.

In her presentation, the Manager at King George's Home for the Aged, Makalay Mansaray said the George's Home for the Aged facility at Grafton in the Rural District of Freetown was constructed for 48 aged people, but that they currently have 34 aged at the facility.

She presented that the home goes through a lot of castrates during the dry season and that they spend hundreds of million Leones to get water for the facility.

She however, called Guma Valley Water Company to include in their 2023 budget for the provision of water supply to the home.

In their response, Director of Finance at Guma Water Company Lahai Kanu said they will look into their demand and also ensure that they include it in their 2023 budget and called on BAN and other civil society organizations to help them advocate for the release of their budget allocation.

In her presentation at NaCSA Network of People living with HIV/AIDS NETHIPS,said people living with HIV and AIDS are part of the society, thus they need to enjoy the social facilities others are enjoying, noting the medicines those people are taking are heavy thus, they need nutrition to help the going.

She called on NaCSA to include people living with HIV/AIDS in their Social Protection Money Transfer project.

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at NETHIPS, Mohamed Bamba Kallon said majority of people living with HIV/AID especially in the rural area are women and children and many of them are single parents and that is the reason more they need to be included into the NaCSA cash transfer programme.

Director of Programs at NaCSA Regina Sia Saffa said they have programmes that cater for all categories of people including people living with disability and people living with HIV/AIDS.

She said the event was timely, especially now that they are putting their activities together and preparing their 2023 budget and promised that they are going to ensure that they captured it in their budget.

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