The Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs (MGCA) has held a strategic meeting with the leadership of the Family Support Unit (FSU) at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters in Freetown, aimed at strengthening collaboration in addressing child protection concerns nationwide.

The engagement focused on strengthening coordinated responses to child protection concerns and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) across the country. Key discussions and action points included: Enhancing referrals of protection cases for appropriate services in close collaboration with MoGCA.

Deploying volunteer officers to key FSUs in Freetown to support case follow-up and ensure timely liaison with the Ministry for action, Strengthening collaboration and structured information sharing mechanisms in addressing child protection and GBV matters., Initiating plans to review the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Paramount Chiefs, the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police, and Child Welfare stakeholders, and ensuring the regular sharing of comprehensive quarterly data on child protection and GBV cases reported at FSU offices with the MoGCA.

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Furthermore, the MGCA delegation was led by the Acting Director of Children’s Affairs, Daniel Gbao, who underscored the need to enhance referral systems and expand the deployment of social workers to five key FSU stations in the Western Area. He noted that effective representation and timely interventions are critical to safeguarding vulnerable children and survivors of abuse.

He also called for a review of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry and the FSU in 2011, emphasising the importance of updating the framework to reflect current realities and emerging challenges in child protection.

Responding on behalf of the Unit, the Head of FSU expressed appreciation to the Ministry’s delegation for the engagement and reaffirmed the Unit’s commitment to sustained collaboration. He assured the Ministry of FSU’s readiness to provide quarterly data to support national coordination and reporting mechanisms.

The meeting concluded with key resolutions, including the strengthening of joint monitoring mechanisms, the incorporation of agreed action points into the revised MoU, the distribution of the diversion policy to all FSU stations, and enhanced coordination to effectively track diversion cases.

Both institutions reaffirmed their shared commitment to improving child protection services and deepening inter-agency cooperation across Sierra Leone.