Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MOICE) has continued to lead the way in facilitating civic engagements. The ministry successfully held a town hall on Tuesday which focused on the future Peace and Security.
The event brought together a diverse panel from different sectors of society; government officials, opposition, religious leaders, civil society and activists. The theme of the conversation was “What we can do to facilitate the culture of peace in Sierra Leone?”
The town hall which was supported by UN Foundation and Purposeful ties in to a global conversation on peace, which Sierra Leone has been very instrumental in leading. The event also marked a spectacular month for the country, with its Presidency of the UN Security Council.
Minister of Information and Civic Education, Chernor Bah opened the conversation saying that: “What we want to do today is to situate where we are now, know our responsibilities and move forward.” A remark that set the proper tone for the three hour long conversation.
The Information Minister specifically singled out praise for President Julius Maada Bio and how well he had led, which has made it easy for him to initiate and facilitate crucial national conversations on key issues like peace.
Keynote Speaker at the town hall, Chief Minister, Dr David Sengeh singled out the ministry for how much it has accomplished with facilitating crucial conversation like these.
Speaking on the theme of the town hall, the Chief Minister said: “Our critical workforce are young people and women, if they don’t have peace we will not live in peace.”
Executive Director of Fambul Tok, John Caulker praised the initiative and urged the ministry to take it deeper in to communities.
“I am happy for this initiative, we should take conversations like these in to communities, chiefdom and so many other lower levels.”
Different audience members whiles giving their reaction praised how events like these are opening the civic space and fostering a culture of engagement. An attendee said: “I am so happy for this, this is the first time I am seeing all these stakeholders gathered in one room having a crucial conversation like this. This will go a long way to foster the culture of peace.”
“We have normalized dialogue and civic participation, which is the bedrock of peaceful co-existence,” Chief Minister said during his remarks.
The Information Minister said, the ministry’s new role which is civic education is to foster engagement and dialogue about roles and responsibilities of citizens.
©Ministry of Information and Civic Education
