Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Conrad Sackey has held consultation with the minister of gender and children affairs and other partners working on sexual and gender based violence to have a common ground of operations in making sure that things work well in the sector.

He called a meeting of partners working on sexual and gender based violence and implored them to set up a Technical Working Group to review and prepare the draft Government of Sierra Leone’s National Referral Protocol on Sexual and Gender Based Violence for signing next month.

This protocol was first developed in 2022 and is yet to be validated and signed. It seeks to provide a comprehensive reporting framework to identify victims of sexual and gender based violence and to further deliver survivor centered-services to victims of sexual and gender based violence.

The minister noted that, the meeting is in response to a recent increase in reported SGBV cases in schools and there is a need for a quick intervention in making sure that, plans and strategies are set to protect the victims and fall heavily on perpetrators.

The meeting also gathered representatives from the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Leh Wi Lan (an international NGo and FCDO funded project), Teaching Service Commission and UNICEF were present at the meeting.