New Head of UKaid arrives in Freetown
Mary Hunt takes up post as New Head of UKaid in Sierra Leone
Mary Hunt (third from the left) new Head of UKaid Sierra Leone, at the mudslide site to discuss UK support
I am delighted to be taking up the position as Head of UKaid Sierra Leone. I spent the last 2 years as Head of UKaid South Sudan and feel extremely lucky that my career has brought me here to Freetown.
I was pleased to meet President Koroma when I arrived, to discuss the UK’s enduring partnership with Sierra Leone. We had a good discussion about the progress made on the recovery from Ebola and the importance of free, fair, and credible elections in March 2018, and a continued high ambition for development for the benefit of the Sierra Leonean people.
I arrive at a moment of transition for the country; I hope to continue our strong partnership through my time here. We are drawing to the end of the Presidential Recovery Programme, which the UK supported to the tune of £240 million. This support was based on a shared understanding that Sierra Leone needed lasting change that benefited ordinary people. This new approach to development in Sierra Leone learned the lessons from the successful fight against Ebola and raised the ambition on scale and speed of development.
Over the recovery period UKaid has funded many of the Presidential Recovery Priorities and supported the Presidential Delivery Team to lead and coordinate across government. UK support included delivery of 393 new classrooms, 50 health centres with solar energy (and many more with new water and sanitation facilities), 284 new water points, 3 new laboratories and 2.4m anti-malarial bed nets. Other investments have been in people – training over 4,000 community health workers and health staff; equipping over 40,000 teachers with new lesson plans and training. Other UK assistance has been helping government to implement important systemic changes such as operationalising the corruption-reporting mechanism Pay No Bribe, supporting the Ministry of Health to establish a new robust system to supply essential medicines, and assisting the government to tackle the inaccuracies in the health and education payroll.
Over the coming years I am looking forward to leading UK Aid’s great work with partners and government. We need yet another rise in the level of ambition. We want to support the Government of Sierra Leone to build prosperity and create jobs and growth that leaves no one behind. We also want to support the Government to maintain the focus on empowering women and people with disabilities to ensure all in Sierra Leone feel the positive effects of development. I will also continue to ensure every pound of UK money in Sierra Leone is well spent and has the maximum development impact.
I was extremely saddened by the recent mudslide and floods and the immense impact they have had on people’s lives. I am proud that the UK has been able to work with the Government of Sierra Leone to support the response and help those most affected. The UK Government committed £5 million which is being used to:
Provide clean water and sanitation to over 9,000 people who lost their homes or whose water source was contaminated by the floods. This is through UNICEF and an NGO group led by Oxfam;
Provide essential medicines to 5,000 people as well as food and psychosocial protection services for 1,500 children through UNICEF;
Provide food to 4,000 people and clothes to 5,000 people through the UK NGO Street Child;
Implement a cholera prevention plan (surveillance, testing and staff training) and; provide routine healthcare and mental health services through WHO;
Clear waterways to avert further floods; and renovate buildings for temporary shelter through UNOPS in partnership with the British company Dawnus; and
Provide humanitarian cash transfers to over 1,900 families and orphaned children to enable them to rent homes, pay school fees and re-establish their livelihoods.
During my recent visit to the Old School camp I was pleased to see how UKaid was supporting the Government of Sierra Leone’s response. The UK government will continue to stand with the Government and people of Sierra Leone as we respond to this emergency.
I congratulate the Government on what has been achieved so far on wider development in partnership with the UK I look forward to continuing and building this great partnership with a focus on delivering programmes at pace, engaging districts, chiefs and communities, and building accountability and transparency.