While the Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh was commemorating the Universal Health Care Day today Tuesday 14th December, 2021 at the Miatta Conference Hall at Youyi Building Brookfields, he used the opportunity to send a strong message to Sierra Leoneans both home and abroad that Census is not politics.

“Census is not politics but simply development”, he said why* delivering his keynote statement. The VP highlighted the importance of the census both in Krio and English arguing that “census is about data collection to enable government, local institutions, NGO’s and development partners to plan their interventions and support”. He said that the distribution of development opportunities such as energy, water, health care centers and workers depends on the demography of respective localities.

“Get counted and have your share of nurses, clinics, medicines, tap water and light”. The VP later recounted how wrong data was responsible for Sierra Leone to fail the MCC score on Child Immunization. We need to correct the date to get development planning
right.

At the event, the VP catalogued the gains that have been made in the health sector and the continued commitment of the government to build a viable health system governance to deliver affordable health care delivery to citizens.

He said that Government is keen to address the leadership and governance challenges in the health sector including the human resource deficit. According to the VP, so far, the data points to the progressive efforts of government particularly in
primary health care.