Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has held discussions with the leadership of the Sierra Leone Labour Congress to discuss a range of issues, including government interventions to support the social sectors and help reduce poverty within the country.
Vice President Juldeh said: “I met with the leadership team of the Sierra Leone Labour Congress this afternoon to discuss a range of issues, including government interventions to support the social sectors and help reduce poverty within the country.
“I urged the team to encourage Sierra Leoneans to participate in His Excellency Julius Maada Bio’s FEED SALONE initiative to boost agricultural productivity, ensure food security and inclusive economic growth. We agreed to establish a social dialogue framework as a platform for sustained engagement with the government.
“Government investments in education, health, public transport and food production are designed specifically to improve the wellbeing of our people. For example, the establishment of the National Social Protection Agency is a vehicle to address extreme vulnerabilities. We have also reviewed the minimum wage and harmonising public sector wages”.
In another development, Vice President Juldeh has said Government of Sierra Leone plans to invest additional human and financial resources to the health sector in the next couple of years to reduce infant mortality in the country.
He made the disclosure while referencing Ministry of Health and Sanitation recently launched campaign on reduction of infant mortality rate in the country, stressing that building strategic relationship with the private sector to expand and achieve the reduction in infant mortality is vital.
The Vice President was speaking during the launched of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machine in the Conference Hall of the Hospital in Freetown.
He explained about the improvement made in the health sector in the last five years, amidst the numerous problems inherited in the health sector when the present Government assumed office in 2018, adding that those numerous problems cannot be solved by any Government within ten years period. He highlighted the recruitment of over six thousand volunteer nurses with pin codes, with additional recruitment of other healthcare workers as one of the steps undertaken by the present Government to improve the health sector.
He alluded increase in Government investments in the health sector through increased budgetary allocation, drastic reduction in maternal deaths, support and building the capacity of Peripheral Health Units (PHUs) and tertiary institutions to the work and leadership of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
