Sierra Leone – the first country to complete data collection in the sixth round of MICS – hosted a Data Interpretation and Report Compilation workshop in Freetown during 16-22 November 2017. The extensive participation of the government in the workshop underscored its importance to the development of Sierra Leone and the learning of UNICEF globally, as the first country in the world to carry out the sixth round of MICS. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone with technical and financial support from UNICEF.
In Sierra Leone, this long-awaited data will form the baselines for nearly half of the country’s survey-based SDG indicators. It will also track progress on the many indicators not measured since the country’s last MICS in 2010. MICS 2017 will provide a right footing for better resource allocation, development trajectory and economic growth towards the achievements of its objective to become a middle-income economy by 2035.
At the end of the six days of intensive hands-on work for key stakeholders, final draft tabulations of all indicators and findings of the survey were produced. The full Survey Findings Report is now being finalised and will be launched in the first quarter of 2018 by the Government of Sierra Leone. The launch of all findings and release of anonymised data is scheduled within 6 months following the end of fieldwork, adhering to one of the major goals of the sixth round of MICS.
The workshop was officially launched on 16th November by Mr. F. B. L. Mansaray, the Honorable Minister of State for Finance, in the presence of Mrs. Rahman, Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Sullay Kamara, Chairman of the Statistics Board, Dr. Hamid El-Bashir, the Representative of UNICEF in Sierra Leone and Dr. Attila Hancioglu, the Global MICS Coordinator.