Nkechi Olalere – special adviser to Sierra Leone’s Minister of Health and Sanitation
Nkechi Olalere provides health financing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) of Sierra Leone, and to the secretariat of the Social Health Insurance (SLeSHI).Policy and capacity building
She also advises on a range of matters, including policy formulation, capacity building, domestic resource mobilization and utilization, donor coordination, infrastructure development and public-private partnerships.
In addition, Nkechi supports capacity building of staff in MOHS units in policy related to universal health coverage (UHC) and health financing. For example, she helped set up and develop an implementation plan for SLeSHI that included a UHC road map. Nkechi also supports the implementation of the Medium-Term National Development Plan, the Health Sector Strategic Plan, the Health Financing Strategy, and the UHC Road Map.Domestic Resource Mobilization and Utilization
Nkechi is supporting advocacy for the National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP) and UHC Road Map among stakeholders such as the Ministry of Finance and the parliament. She facilitates discussions on Sierra Leone’s health financing strategy and innovative ways of mobilizing revenue through means such as the debt to health programme (debt swap).
She also helps to assess the adequacy and efficiency of resource allocations using resource mapping and expenditure tracking (RMET) analysis and to share results timely with decision makers in the MOHS.Facilitation of donor coordination and knowledge exchange
Nkechi coordinates development partners working with the MOHS through the Health Financing Technical Working Group and the Health Summit Aide Memoire committees. Improved coordination helps generate more consistent data for RMET and improves the allocation of donor resources. This reduces duplication of activities and fragmentation of resources.
Nkechi engages in two-way knowledge exchanges with the Sustainable Health Financing Accelerator global network, offering her technical expertise and sharing experiences from other countries with stakeholders in Sierra Leone.
