Remarks of Ambassador Peter Versteeg, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Repuplic of Sierra Leone, on the occasion of the official inauguration of the pediatric ward of the Kenema government hospital

Your Excellency the President, Your Worship the Mayor of Kenema, Honourable Minister of Health and Sanitation, Honourable Resident Minister East, UNICEF Representative, development partners and stakeholders, representatives of the media, distinguished guests.

It is an honour for me to be here with you, on behalf of the European Union, at the inauguration of this rehabilitated paediatric ward in the Kenema Government Hospital.

This event represents an important milestone in addressing one of the major development challenges confronting Sierra Leone. Maternal and infant mortality rates remain among the highest in the region. Today, one in eight children dies before reaching the age of five in Sierra Leone and the risk for mothers of dying around the time of childbirth is twice as high as in the rest of Western Africa.

In 2013, the European Union decided to support the efforts of the Government of Sierra Leone in achieving the two Millennium Development Goals of:

• reducing the number of mothers who die around the time of childbirth, and

• reducing the number of children who die before they reach the age of five.

Through an EU funded large-scale health programme amounting to €23 million, the EU, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and UNICEF as our implementing partner have been working together to improve access to health particularly for young children and mothers around the time of birth. The programme works towards:

• Increased accessibility and use of essential health care services by mothers and children

• Better quality of health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS services in PHUs and district hospitals

• Achieving better capacity of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to plan, manage and monitor the work in the health sector

With EU support, UNICEF has helped to train doctors, nurses and health clinic assistants across the country, in areas such as obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and radiology. Staff at health facilities has also been trained to better manage medical drugs and supplies.

The programme has supplied health clinics with essential medicines and other material, such as therapeutic food to prevent and fight malnutrition. The School of Community Health Sciences in Makeni has benefitted from teaching equipment, curriculum development and vehicles for student transportation.

The achievements are impressive: More than 1 million doses of polio vaccine provided as well as more than 150,000 doses of measles vaccine. Overall, 1.25 million women and 676,000 children are direct beneficiaries of the programme.

Of course, to receive and treat patients or keep medical equipment and drugs in proper conditions you need adequate buildings and infrastructure. Today's inauguration of this paediatric ward therefore marks the finalisation of a critical component of our support: the construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of key infrastructure across the country including 3 paediatric wards like this one here in Kenema, but also medical stores, staff quarters and maternity wings in hospitals.

Let me finish by paying tribute to and thanking our partners at UNICEF and in the Government of Sierra Leone and everyone who has worked hard to make sure that the EU health programme makes a difference. This has been a significant challenge given that the Ebola virus outbreak heavily affected project activities for many months.

Post-Ebola, the consolidation of the health sector is a leading priority in the efforts led by the Government of Sierra Leone under H.E. President Koroma and the EU stands together with other development partners in supporting this commitment.  Thank you.