Cabinet approves various policies |06 July 2018

During a scheduled meeting of the cabinet held on Wednesday and chaired by President Danny Faure, a number of legal and policy memoranda were considered.

These included a review of the Mental Health Act 2006; the Seychelles National Investment Policy; a national framework for the setting up of the Innovation Trust Fund; the transfer of staff, funds and assets of the President’s Village to the National Council for Children (NCC) and the provision of mechanised beds for bed-ridden elderly persons at home.

Margaret Pillay, the deputy Cabinet Secretary for Policy Affairs in the President’s Office, briefed the media on the outcome of the meeting during a session yesterday at State House.

As for the Mental Health 2006 review, Ms Pillay said the main aim is to align it with current and best practices around the world.

“According to the Commonwealth, the current Act is not aligned with the United Nations Convention for the Protection of Rights of People with Disabilities, which is one reason why this act needs to be reviewed.

“Our act, like other acts in many countries around the world, tends to look at protection of society against people with mental health,” she said.

Now that things have changed, Ms Pillay said mentally-affected people also have their rights which need to be protected, preserved and supported, hence the review.

With regard to the Seychelles National Investment Policy, Ms Pillay said with the recent talks on the importance of investments for a country and on the ease of doing business, the government considers it very important to create the environment where people who have the ability can invest.

Concerns and difficulties put forward by businessmen in various intensive consultations between public, private sectors and non-governmental organisations (NGOS) have been listened to and all these are included in the policy.

“Therefore the purpose of the policy is to ensure a stable and guaranteed environment for those who want to invest in the country to feel confident in doing so,” she said.

For the Innovation Trust Fund, Ms Pillay talked about the National Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation (NISTI) which has a role of promoting innovations in the country.

It is this institution which will be at the forefront of such a Fund, something which will be set up by the government through its national budget, to assist people with innovative ideas to build a knowledge-based society.

It will support the development of knowledge through supporting incubation, research and marketing projects to ensure young people with good ideas can have the financial support to develop their ideas.

Other stakeholders are invited to contribute to such a fund, which itself will also organise fund raising activities to supplement it.

As for the transfer of staff, funds and assets of the President’s Village to the National Council for Children (NCC), Ms Pillay said government found it inappropriate for an NGO, which in this case is the Children’s Foundation, to be running such a village.

Ms Pillay explained in 2009 when the government aligned its services so it could concentrate on its core mandate – that is policy-making, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation -- all services were outsourced but some, the President’s Village being one of them, were done temporarily until a proper structure was put in place.

“Now the government has decided the village will fall under the NCC. After examining the NCC law, it was seen that part of it stipulates it can care and provide services for children. So this means it can manage such a village,” she said.

She added that staff will be paid their compensations and are free to decide whether they want to continue under the new management or not.

The Family Affairs strategic plan 2018 is to provide a comprehensive and inclusive plan for all sectors that ministry caters for, be it social services, welfare, drugs and rehabilitation, etc.

During President Danny Faure’s visits in the districts, he saw that many people who were either aged with certain severe health disabilities did not have the proper mechanised beds for their comfort.

Such beds are normally used in hospitals and many carers were getting affected themselves through lifting those bed-ridden people which at times can be very heavy persons. Hence the idea of having proper mechanised hospital beds for such patients.

“The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Family Affairs saw the need for people to get access to those mechanised beds which will help them live a more comfortable life. So Cabinet has approved the programme for both ministries to either provide or facilitate such a service,” said Ms Pillay.