By Fatmata Katta
Delegates representing the four Mano River Union (MRU) countries—Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire—endorsed the sub-regional body’s five-year (2020–2025) Strategic Plan and Action Plan after a two-day deliberation to critically review both documents Feb. 4–5 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The MRU is a core regional partner of WA BiCC. Its five-year Strategic Plan process started in February 2019, starting with an inception workshop during which an MoU was signed between the MRU and WA BiCC. The second workshop was held in June 2019, where the objectives of the new strategic plan were developed with support of development partners. On October 2019, the third workshop was held and the technical validation of both the revised strategy and action plan was conducted by the MRU Secretariat staff and some invited government partners.
The endorsed regional body’s strategic plan is in line with its mandate to promote peace, food security, and economic development of its Member States. The documents also reflects the Secretariat’s commitment to ensuring stability and accelerating the economic growth of its four member countries.
The event’s opening remarks were made by Dr. Adewale Adeleke, WA BiCC’s Senior Policy Specialist, and the Secretary General of the MRU, Ambassador Medina Wesseh.
Dr. Adeleke commended the institution for a job well done for being able to put together a document that can be easily sold to any partner, as it considers the national interests of the four Member States.
“WA BiCC saw the importance of the review process because it was seen as a building block for the MRU, looking at the institutional role in the sub-region and the fact that the four member countries host a large part of the remaining Upper Guinea Forest,” Adeleke said. He stressed that WA BiCC would continue to work with MRU in implementing the Strategic Plan and Action Plan with the support of Member States, taking into account the role of partnership in the development process.
Ambassador Wesseh expressed appreciation to all member states, which made it possible for their representatives to be present for the validation of the strategic plan. She equally expressed thanks for the financial support of USAID through WA BiCC, and consultant Laurie Manderino, for the skills and experience that she brought to the review process.
“The new strategic plan will give to the MRU Secretariat specific targets to be achieved within the period 2020 to 2025, and implementation of the key activities of the five different programs in the plan is vital in setting the framework for sustainable development among the four Member States, taking into consideration the daunting challenges within the sub-region,” Wesseh said. She also said that the validation of the plan by delegates will make work at the Secretariat more “predictable, effective and efficient.”
She ended by calling for additional support from WA BiCC, especially the immediate implementation of the roadmap on monitoring and evaluation and communications and resource mobilization strategies, which she said breathes air and life into the Strategic Plan and Action Plan.