In addressing one of the meetings, Head of Delegation, Hon. Ibrahim R. Bundu, whilst calling on the EU “to support GoSL to combat diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and laser fever which were left unattended when Ebola struck, noted among other things that the GoSL had put measures in place like epidemiology and public health surveillance, infectious control systems, contact tracings, communications, laboratory testing, rapid isolation and treatment of patients, to adequately prevent and manage future epidemics in Sierra Leone”. He also said that “in countries where epidemics are experienced, the greatest burden of these diseases is on rural population, particularly women because of pervasive poverty, high illiteracy, limited access to safe drinking water, sanitation, poor feeding, and overcrowding”.
The Committee on Social Affairs and the Environment of which the Delegation is a Member, and Members of the ACP Bureau (Sierra Leone is a Member) also met, second week in June. The 42nd Session of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly climaxed its meetings in Namibia.
Key topics that were debated in these meetings include, the future of the ACP-EU partnership such as post Cotonou, migration between ACP and EU Member States, a continental free trade area for Africa, improving participatory governance through decentralization, rape and violence against women and children in armed conflicts, and the impact of the drop in the price of oil and other strategic commodities in ACP economies.
