FUNCTION

The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children‟s Affairs is responsible for ensuring the provision of services to the socially marginalized, disadvantaged and the less privileged, particularly children (whether in homes or “street” children and those affected by the war or in conflict with the law), women, the aged, the physically disabled and all who need welfare attention.

The Ministry strives to promote and advocate for the needs and rights of these groups, mainly in the area of resource mobilisation and allocation without gender discrimination and to ascertain policies and any necessary law reforms that enhance the effective work of the Ministry.

The current dispensation of the decentralization drive has occasioned a slight change in this mission statement. The Ministry‟s role shall be focused on the responsibility of coordination, monitoring and evaluation, policy formulation and development, alongside mentoring the new District Councils to assume their roles in the delivery of services in the not too distant future. This means that the Ministry still has to perform its traditional role at the local level until such time that the District Councils are strong enough to take charge of their new roles. This is expected to last for not less than three fiscal years.

Goals and Objectives:

• Assess, evaluate and address the welfare situation generally in the country in so far as it affects vulnerable groups
• Register, trace, reunify and reintegrate unaccompanied children and children associated with the fighting forces with their families and communities
• Ensure the rights of children in accordance with Government‟s current policies based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC)
• Assist and reconcile feuding families and with special reference to the protection and welfare of their children
• Monitor and coordinate the activities of all voluntary/community-based organizations and non-governmental organisations
  in this sector for effective welfare services to the people
• Promote consensus on the conceptual framework that guides the identification of gender disparity in society and analyse the causes on the basis of current national policy on gender mainstreaming
• Raise awareness and recognition of gender disparity in all sectors of society using electronics and print media, as well as interpersonal communication channels
• Train development planners and policy makers to use gender analysis tools to develop and orientate pictorial projects, programmes and policies in the public sectors
• Establish a resource base for the collection, analysis and dissemination of information and statistical data on gender specific indicators for various ages and socio-economic categories, with a view to impact on policy formulation and programming in related ministries
• Advocate for the allocation of adequate technical, financial and organisational resources within the line ministries in order to re-orientate human development policies and programmes of managers, educators, health workers other and decision makers, in so far as they affect the closing of the gender gap
• Mobilise additional resources through UN agencies, embassies and foreign government establishments (i.e. British Council and the Commonwealth Secretariat), NGOs, the private sector and other civic groups to support programmes on gender, women, children, the disabled and the aged
• Advocate for the integration of women into the development process at all levels through programmes and policies
• Work closely in collaboration with all ministries, establishments and with all national advocacy and welfare groups (i.e. the Women‟s Forum, the Network of Women Ministers and Parliamentarians, the 50/50 Group, Sierra Leone Union of Disability Issues (SLUDI), Friendship Society of the Elderly and the Retired and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE))
• Facilitate the work of the Child Protection Committee (CPC), National Commission for War Affected Children (NACWAC), the Children‟s Forum Network (CFN) and the Women‟s Helpline
• Formulate policies as guidelines to meet these objectives

Please note that the above information was submitted by the former Minister in June 2007.

(Source: Sierra Leone Information System, DACO Encyclopedia 2007)

The current update (current structure and others) to be posted soon.