Save the Children leads delegation of development partners in meeting with President Bio on COVID-19

On the 22^nd May 2020, International Partners and donors in Sierra Leone held a virtual meeting with President Bio to give an update on interventions and provide recommendations to strengthen the fight against COVID 19.

The delegation was led by Heather Campbell, Country Director for Save the Children. She highlighted interventions made so far by the 30 International partners and donors currently within the value of 137 and 200 billion Leones (13 to 20m USD) as support to the Emergency Operation Centre and line ministries of health, water & sanitation, education and food security in the fight against COVID-19.

Stressing the significance of awareness raising and community engagement as critical components to the response she said:

“A key aspect of our interventions has focused on raising awareness and engaging community leadership and members because, we believe if communities and their leaders are fully informed they will support the response and as a result adhere to the measures put in place by government.” 

While acknowledging achievements in establishing coordination structures at national and district levels, partners called on government to further strengthen coordination between district and national structures to improve communication, direction and allocation of resources. They informed President Bio that organisations now had focal points at district and national level approved by Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and Emergency Operation Centre to strengthen communication and coordination.

In his presentation, President Bio expressed gratitude to development partners for their support and assured them that his government will continue to value their thoughts and their contribution.

"As a small nation, we are very proactive. Before the virus landed on our shores, we had put in place a lot of arrangements to fight it. It is here now, so we want to slow its spread and stop the transmission as soon as possible. This is why we appreciate our development partners for generously helping us through different means.”