Sierra Leone’s Information and Civic Education Minister, Chernor Bah, participated at the Global Citizen NOW Climate session, on Thursday 21st September,2023.

Speaking onstage at the session, Bah highlighted the effects of the Climate crisis on girls’ education.

Highlighting such crisis, he linked President Bio’s speech at the UN which was about how the world is unfair and how the system is skewed against poor countries, relating it to what girls face.

He said girls are already living in crisis and that the climate crisis added to the reality of their situation, just makes the problems even worse.

He gave an instance where girls in poor countries are forced to use their bodies as credit cards to get access to basic things that they need to survive and thrive.

He said despite all these problems compounding every day in his country, the governments have never relent in their strides to improve access to education. He said a lot of initiatives have been mounted to tackle these problems.

Highlighting some of the initiatives that have made significant impact in improving access to education, he mentioned President Bio’s flagship program, the Free Quality Education. According to him, 22% of the government’s annual budget is spent on education.

Another is the adoption of radical inclusion, which allows not only pregnant girls to school but removed barriers for girls with disabilities.