WACSOF Sierra Leone, holds meeting on Peace & Security
By: Vidal Boltman

June 22, 2006 – (Awareness Times) The West Africa Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) Sierra Leone Chapter, held a meeting last Friday, 16th June, 2006 to discuss the way forward for national peace and security under the theme, "Discussing Important National Issues: The 2007 Elections, Peace and Security in West Africa and the PRSP" at the Defenders Hall of the Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE).

In his welcome address the Chairman of WACSOF Charles Mambu, said that WACSOF which is a Chapter of the West Africa Civil Society is interacting with stakeholders with the objective of promoting peace & security within West African countries, and their obligation is to report to their head office in Abuja.

Delivering her opening address, the Chairperson for the occasion, Mrs. Elleen Hanciles, who happens to be the Coordinator of FAWE and also the former Coordinator of WACSOF-SL gave a brief history of WACSOF.She said that the idea of creating WACSOF was based on the need to create dialogue between regional civil society organizations and the ECOWAS Secretariat.

Speaking on the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), Jeannette Eno, the Director of ENCISS, said ENCISS is a process and the PRSP itself is a framework document which has been presented to the World Bank highlighting how Sierra Leone intends to fight against poverty. She said that civil societies have an integral role to play in the process of fighting poverty in Sierra Leone.

About the 2007 Presidential and General Elections process, Ms Miatta French, who is in charge of Training at the National Electoral Commission, called on civil societies to encourage people to participate in the electoral process. She said that NEC cannot do it alone as they presently have 82 staff which, according to her is not enough to conduct the elections. She also called on WACSOF to monitor the process actively and expressed her Commission’s reliance on the civil society for information so as to ensure a smooth, free and fair conduct of the elections. The programme was climaxed by an interactive questions and answer session.

From: http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20052822.shtml