By the Advocacy and Communications Unit.

Ten children from all fourteen districts of the country have been trained to engage their various local councils and advocate for a Child Friendly Budgeting.
The training comprised of child friendly budgeting, child participation, child-led advocacy and monitoring and evaluation components and was aimed at strengthening the capacity of the children to cautiously advocate to government for increased resources in the national budget that can adequately address the growing needs of children in Sierra Leone.

After the trainings, the children embarked on some monitoring and evaluation exercises in their communities and engaged their peers to identify issues they think should be prioritized in the budgets of the various local councils.
These identified issues have been presented by the children to their various local councils and they include issues of Health, education, improved water and sanitation conditions in schools, social welfare issues including protection from all forms of abuse and the provision of recreational facilities as “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” they said.

On the education aspect the children asked that more schools be built in the districts with spacious classrooms, they also asked for the rehabilitation of existing schools with enough learning and teaching materials.
Regarding health, the children asked that First aid kits be provided in schools, more health centers constructed in chiefdoms with trained medical personnel and the provision of enough medicines and free medical facilities for children above 6 years.

Responding to the concerns raised by the children, personnel of the various councils welcomed the initiative for children to be trained to advocate for a child friendly budgeting. However, they noted that they work with what has been allocated to them for the year and if more monies should be put in to children’s issues more advocacy should be done at national level.

Furthermore, they proffered some recommendations including that the government should prioritize the issues of children as primary concerns and give total support to all sectors of education, health and protection for the children, that Government should reinforce the monitoring processes to ensure the appropriate utilization of allocated funds for the children and that stakeholders should involve children in the planning, implementation and further empower them in monitoring all activities designed for children in the districts. They also recommended that a committee of committed children be set up to monitor and undertake the above mentioned responsibilities.

It was also recommended that stakeholders of the various city and district councils should also play active roles in the process from their own revenues/ funds generated. It was also strongly recommended that children should be taught not only their rights but also their responsibilities to their parents/care-givers, community stakeholders and teachers/ school authorities.
In conclusion, the children also promised to play an active role in monitoring all the activities that will be implemented for them and to also embark on awareness raising to their peers on the responsibilities of children.
After these engagements with the various local councils, two children from each district will then be brought to Freetown to witness the Bilateral budget discussions organized by the Government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) from the 4th to the 18th October 2016 at the Miatta Conference Center Brookfields to make their own contributions to the national budget process.