Sierra Leone News

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation launched a partnership for safe medicines initiative on 17 January 2012. The initiative is aimed at ensuring quality, effica-cy and safety of all medicines and promotion of rational use of medicines among healthcare providers and patients.

Directorate of Drug and Medical Supplies in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation held a technical stakeholders consensus meeting from 11-12 January 2012 to further deliberate on the draft National Medicines Policy, National Essential Medicines Lists, Standard Treatment Guidelines, and National Formulary. Updating of the Na-tional Medicines Policy and its component documents and their sub-sequent implementation seek to strengthen pharmaceutical care de-livery in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in partnership with its stakeholders organized a two-day retreat from December 15 to 16, 2011. The retreat brought together key stakeholders under MoHS leadership to review and agree on key policy areas of focus in the medium-term as provided for by the country compact.

Government of Sierra Leone and Health partners on 19 December 2011 signed the Country Compact which was witnessed by His Excellency the President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma. In His statement, the President thanked the health sector for their commitment to work in a more coordinated manner to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

Sierra Leone commemorated World AIDS Day 2011 on 1 December on a theme “Getting to zero new infection by 2015” with the campaign slogan, „Believe it! Do it!. The Day is commemorated every year to heighten awareness, promote the existing available services, advocate for positive attitudes towards people living with the disease as well as to reflect and renew commitments on the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) completed a three day training workshop for the National Rapid Response Team members in Freetown from December 6-8, 2011. The training is part of MOHS’s efforts to strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) programme in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation held a stakeholders meeting to finalize a draft Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan for the health sector. The plan is being developed by the ministry in collaboration with its health development partners to measure progress towards achieving objectives of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP).

In this Issue

1. National Health Sector review
2. Independent Monitoring of National Immunization Days
3. WHO supports Blue Trunk Library in Sierra Leone

The National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP) of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation 2010 – 2015 serves as a guide in strengthening the health system in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) with technical and financial support of WHO and other partners on Thursday 27 October 2011 commenced a two day stakeholders meeting to validate Integrated National Waste Management Policy (INWMP) and Integrated National Waste Management Strategic Plan (INWMSP) for Sierra Leone developed as part of the implementation of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan 2010-2015 and government’s “Agenda for Change”.

With completion of the country compact, the Ministry of Health and Sani-tation (MoHS) initiated a process to develop the first Joint Programme of Work and Funding (JPWF), a three-year shared health sector plan. The plan provides a comprehensive framework for aligning interventions to sector priorities and links the long-term policies and development strate-gies as defined in the National Health Sector Strategic Plan with the An-nual Operational Plan (AoP).