By Fasalie Kamara
Director of the ECOWAS Youth Centre and Development in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou says the regional economic bloc is sending volunteers to help in Sierra Leone’s health and education sectors.
Francis Chuks was speaking at the opening of induction training at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown. He said the country identified health and education as its main priorities.
Among the health workers will be four medical doctors and fourteen nurses, while education volunteers numbered 20 among them teachers of French, English and the sciences.
Chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo, admitted to the “inadequate human resource” problem in the health sector.
He said “the ratio is one medical doctor to 25,000 people and one nurse to 15,000 people in Sierra Leone”, noting that the arrival of the heath volunteers, especially gynaecologists and paediatricians, would help improve the human resource base in the country.
Deputy minister of education, Osmond Hanciles, said “Anglophone countries are the greatest losers in ECOWAS,” arguing that most diplomats in French-speaking West Africa understood English but very few Anglophone diplomats or ministers could speak French.
He said that was why the government had prioritised French in the education sector.
Speaking on behalf of the African Development Bank, Robert Pepreh, said that about a third of Africa’s population was made up of youth with 70% of them unemployed.
He said that although ECOWAS recorded 5.6 GDP growth, youth unemployment remained a serious challenge. To help improve the youth unemployment, Mr Pepreh said, “in 2004 AfDB signed an agreement with ECOWAS to support peace and development project”, noting that the ECOWAS volunteers’ programme was a key component for people aged between 18 and 35.
He said that some 160 volunteers were selected to the pilot phase in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone, at an estimated cost of US$5.3 million of which AfDB donated US$3 million.
UNDP representative, Isaiah Akum, registered their support to providing the volunteers with office space, procurement of equipment and recruitment of administrative support staff.
(C) Politico 10/10/13
