Stakeholders Meeting 3-4 nov 2006

To begin the Westminster Project on the right foot, Peace Child Sierra Leone decided to bring together Stakeholders at all levels to outline the goals of the project, and to hear from those concerned—from the constituents and direct beneficiaries to the local leaders and lawmakers—on which issues they thought were most important, and how best to address them. This idea grew to become a Stakeholders Meeting held in Pujehun Town on November 3-4, 2006. In attendance were women and youth leaders, teachers, journalists, councillors, tribal chiefs, MPs, mammy queens, and other community leaders. Prior to the meeting, radio spots were run in both Freetown and Bo publicising the upcoming meeting, and emphasizing that anyone with a concern or stake in the issues being addressed in Pujehun was welcome to attend the meeting. In addition, a radio discussion of the ideas presented in the project was held to give the local constituency a more direct involvement with the proceedings, and to allow for a better flow of information.

The Stakeholders Meeting participants spent the first day learning the different areas of focus for the Westminster project. After a brief introduction to the program and designation of a chairman, presenters with a background in each area gave an address on the following topics: Roles and Responsibilities in a Democracy; Democracy and Citizens’ Rights; Monitoring Democracy: A Role for the Marginalized; Customs vs. Women’s Rights in a Democracy; The Roles and Responsibilities of an MP; and Political Information and Information Biases. After each presentation, the participants were welcomed to make constructive comments on the topic before discussion continued.

The second day of the meeting was focused around more direct involvement by the Stakeholders, who were split into four groups with a relatively even distribution of politicians, rights leaders, and other members of society. Each group was invited to address different topics from the day before, designate areas of concern within each topic, and suggest possible solutions to that problem. Once the groups had finished their collaboration, they each presented their conclusions to the entire body. The other groups were allowed room for comment and disagreement, after which leaders from the four groups came together to refine the resolutions into one broad communique, which, once complete, outlined the agreement of all parties at the meeting that the problems being addressed do exist, and that they will in future work toward facilitating the solutions proffered in the communique. This document, once signed, was also forwarded on to media outlets so that the public could be informed as to the results of the meeting. In addition, the journalists in attendance covered the meeting in the local media, including radio news stories and Freetown newspapers.