The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED) and stakeholders on Monday 25th March 2024 commenced a two-day workshop to validate and rollout the Draft Local Council Development Planning Template at the J&E Resort in Bo City.
The over 70 participants at the event included Chief Administrators and Chairpersons of the 22 Local Councils nationwide as well as staff and officials of the MoPED, State House, the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development and Accountable Governance.
In her keynote address, the Minister of MoPED, Ms. KenyehBarlay dilated on government’s big five game changers including transformation of the public sector architecture underscoring that change of attitude is very important and on behalf of His Excellency the President welcomed all to the very important workshop for effective service delivery noting that LCs have not been coordinating their Development Plans that are also not well-articulated.
She continued that LC Development Plans must aligned with the Mid-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) stressing that the workshop is timely especially since the launch of the MTNDP in January this year, acknowledged LCs critical role in national development for which government would support their Development Plans assuring that her Ministry is exploring ways to generate funds for LCs, maintained that the template is standardized and that its validation and rollout is in line with the Mid-Term National Development Plan.
She also urged participants to make salient inputs during the workshop, commended the consultant, Mr. Pious Bockarie and wished all successful deliberations.
During the first PowerPoint presentation, it was highlighted that the LC system is fragmented, that MoPED had never issued guidelines to LCs, that the Development Plans of LCs should inform their budgets, that devolution of assets and personnel should be followed by finance, that 40% of the national budget is allocated to salaries and 35% to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and 15% to payment of interests respectively.
The Development Secretary, MoPED, Mr. Peter Sam Kparkaenlightened that the template is the guidelines to prepare Local Council Plans that must be aligned to the Mid-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) that was launched in January this year, that the guidelines have been validated by stakeholders, appealed to participants to take it very seriously and expressed thanks and appreciation to the World Bank of its support.
One of the resource persons, Mr. Adams revealed that government has received a World Bank grant of 40 million dollars to implement a three-year project to support Local Councils (LCs).
The representative of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development (MLGCD) underscored that the workshop is to synergize the Development Plans of LCs, recalled that in the past they implemented projects without any reference to policy documents and revealed that the draft template would be tabled in parliament for ratification.
He continued that LC Development Plans would be harmonized in line with the MoPED, informed that UNICEF, the Institute of Governance Reform, JICA and other organizations are supporting LCs and went on to observe that Bo and Koidu City Councils have different templates but that due to various interventions they now have uniform plans asserting that there is synergy in the interventions so as to properly utilize the minimum resources.
The UNICEF representative, Mr. Alimamy Kargbo disclosed that LCs were reintroduced in the country in 2004, underlined that the LC plans and budgets must be child-friendly/responsive, that last year UNICEF supported some LCs, including the Moyamba District Council, to prepare child-responsive budgetsand hoped the template would be acceptable to all to facilitate developments in LCs.
In his presentation on Climate Risks and Mitigation, Dr. Martin Gbondo from the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security at State House affirmed that climate change cuts across all sectors and the entire world, that it is the new elephant in the room, that we have to tackle it as there is a very strong link between climate change and economic development that affects the entire universe.
He further catalogued some of the reasons for climate change like the rampant cutting down of trees, burning of charcoal for firewood and appealed to all to plant trees as well as practice smart climate agriculture.
Some of the topics covered during the two-day workshop included Challenges to Local Councils’ Development Planning, Background Information of the Guideline including Approach and Methods, Legal and Policy Framework for LCs Development Planning, Preparation of StandardizedGuide/Template for Formulation/Revision of LCs Development Plans, Utilization and Enforcement of the Planning Template, Structure of LCs Development Plans and Climate Risks and Mitigation Measures.
Other topics were Case Study for Reviewing a Council Development Plan, Group Presentation and the Plenary Session.
Earlier, the Development Secretary, MoPED, Mr. Peter Sam Kparka introduced the Minister of MoPED, Ms. Kenyeh Barlay.
