The Department of Programs, Research and Partnership (DePReP) of the Parliament of Sierra Leone has ended a day capacity building training for over twenty staff members, at the Committee Room One, Parliament Building at Tower Hill in Freetown.
The purpose of the training is to conduct nationwide research among constituents about their Members of Parliament, to bring an outcome that would engender an informed decision.
According to the Director of DePREP, Gilbert Nhabbay, the training is intended to keep in line with their Strategic Plan which predicates on improving the oversight and capacity building of their researchers, in order to meet the desire result in service delivering.
He said most parliamentary researchers used secondary sources, but they want to apply primary research, to get an authentic source of information.
“We decided to do this to know how best tit would strengthen our capacity and how we can scale up research to another level” he maintained.
The Director said they are preparing their enumerators (staff members) to go into the selected constituencies and investigate the knowledge level of the constituents about their Members of Parliament.
He said the research is very unique and technological in terms of data collection and tools. The Director said they are targeting one thousand two hundred and fifty households and twenty-five selected constituencies across the country.
According to him, they are using cluster sampling and he expected that, the research would come out with very clear recommendations that would inform policy or decision making and change the perceptions of constituents about their MPs.
He also added that, the work would address the critical issues on the development of the community.
