Empowering National Council of Paramount Chiefs of Sierra Leone

An UNDEF-funded project in Sierra Leone has empowered the National Council of Paramount Chiefs with a comprehensive five-year strategic plan to be responsive and accountable to the needs and rights of their people as well as contribute to sustained peace, security and development. It is one of several UNDEF projects in the Ebola-stricken country that prevails in the face of the epidemic, along with projects in Liberia and Guinea, the other two nations hit hardest by the deadly virus.  

Sierra Leone's Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Finda Diana Konomanyi-Kabba, officially launched the plan, underscoring the Government’s support for providing strategic focus to the institution of the Chieftaincy. She pledged her ministry’s full commitment to the implementation and monitoring of the strategic areas. Paramount Chief Charles Caulker said the plan would give Paramount Chieftaincy institution direction to achieve its goals.   

The UNDEF-funded project, implemented by the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, works to address unaccountable chieftaincy and low participation of citizens in local governance in Sierra Leone. It strives to enhance local capacity and create democratic space for traditional authorities and chieftaincy, working through a platform for community dialogue with chiefs as well as broad participation and regular feedback on chiefdom governance related issues.