By: Ibrahim K Turay
On 12th March 2020, VIONet held an Interface Meeting with Duty Bearers, Service Providers, and Primary Actors on Sexual Reproductive Health Service at the British Council in Freetown.
The engagement attracted key stakeholders in the Sexual Reproductive Health Division of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and the Secretariat of the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy among others.
In attendance were the President of the Nurses in SL, Deputy Chief Nurse and Midwife, Program Officer, Doctor, Nurses, and Adolescent Pregnant Women and Adolescent Mothers.
The Interface Meeting was facilitated by Mr. Manoh Bizzoco Dumbuya, who also doubles as the Head of Committee, VIONet. The Facilitator called the session to order with an Opening Statement. He welcomed all for attending and gave a brief background of VIONet. He thanked the Management and Staff of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) for Funding and providing Technical Support for the entire Citizens Led Monitoring (CLM) tool from the data collection stage to the Interface meeting. He gave the objective of the engagement. Various Stakeholders group to have a dialogue on the services being monitored and the evidence generated from the scorecard process, he emphasized.
He explained the administered scorecards and respectfully requested all participants to kindly view them to ascertain that mistakes were not made during the data collection phase and to also observe the similarities and differences in them. The Participants were led by two facilitators, Mr. Ibrahim Soro Kamara and Mr. Murray Ceasar Koroma, Programs and Communications Officers, VIONet respectively.
Participants asked questions about the scores and recommendations given. The Facilitator called all Participants to plenary discussions to reflect on observations made. The discussion was detailed as questions were asked by the Facilitator with respect to the similarities and differences the participants noticed on the scorecards. The Facilitator called on the participants to form a group that includes all categories of stakeholder groups to create an action plan to address the issues. After going through the process, an action plan template was filled. Participants were encouraged by the Facilitator to form the Monitoring Committee to monitor actions that were agreed to be taken.
