The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED) held a pre-consultation technical meeting with various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and the German Embassy to discuss critical areas of development cooperation between Sierra Leone and Germany. The engagement serves as a precursor to the upcoming consultations set for 10th October 2024, aimed at aligning priorities for the next round of intergovernmental negotiations, which will take place in Germany in early 2025.

The meeting, chaired by the Director of the Development Assistance Coordination Office (DACO), Abie Elizabeth Kamara, and the Head of Cooperation of the German Embassy, Johannes Behrens, provided a platform for Germany’s program directors to outline priority areas of German cooperation in Sierra Leone. These include Local Economic Transformation, Health, Energy, Resource Governance, and Environmental Management.

Critical discussions focused on the need for continued German support to the Ministry of Energy, the Environment
, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Germany’s revised development priorities. The German side also agreed to support a secretariat at DACO to strengthen the coordination of German cooperation programs and operationalise the sector working groups envisioned in Sierra Leone’s revised Development Cooperation Framework.

The Director of DACO emphasized the importance of MDAs informing their political heads of the discussions in preparation for the formal invitations to the consultations. These efforts are part of a broader strategy to ensure that both countries fully align their development priorities ahead of the 2025 intergovernmental negotiations.

Source: Sierra Leone News Agency