Sierra Leone is a small but densely populated country on the North Atlantic coast of West Africa.

The economic effects of the war in Ukraine crisis have worsened food and nutrition security, alongside economic decline and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in an already food-deficit country. Spikes in petrol prices have driven up food, transport and other costs. This has in turn reduced people’s purchasing power and increased widespread poverty.

Despite an improvement in levels of stunting (impaired development due to malnutrition), over a quarter of children are still affected. –undermining long-term human productivity and Sierra Leone’s economic prospects.

Agriculture is the backbone of Sierra Leone’s economy. However, it is dominated by smallholders practising subsistence farming, with traditional methods and limited use of improved seeds and fertilizers. It is also fragmented and characterized by declining yields, due in part to an increasingly unpredictable climate.

The climate emergency increases the risk of droughts and floods, and any increase in sea levels affects the water supply and thereby the country’s agriculture. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) supports the Government through a range of activities. We use food, cash, nutrition assistance and capacity strengthening, empowering young women and smallholder farmers in particular. Increased national preparedness for climate-related shocks is among WFP’s priorities, along with school meals and food-security analysis and monitoring.

What the World Food Programme is doing in Sierra Leone

Emergency response
WFP works with the Ministry of Social Welfare and the National Disaster Management Agency to ensure that crisis-affected people can meet their food and nutritional needs and are supported in recovering from shocks. The primary objective of this activity is to save lives and protect livelihoods. To mitigate the impact of high food prices on the most vulnerable people, WFP provide cash transfers to cover the needs of people who regularly go without enough nutritious food.
Home-grown school feeding
In support of the Government’s efforts to attract and retain children in schools, WFP provides daily hot meals to over 300,000 pupils in the most food-insecure chiefdoms. For some schools, WFP obtains part of this food from local smallholder farmer groups, as it gradually scales up the home-grown school feeding programme in line with national policy. More children are being served fresh vegetables each day, and farmers have a reliable market for their crops. WFP also trains cooks to prepare safer, tastier and more nutritious food.
Malnutrition prevention
WFP works to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable populations, including children aged 6-23 months, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and adolescent girls, aligning with the Government’s 2025 national targets. This activity integrates nutrition interventions with asset creation and livelihood initiatives, emphasizing institutional capacity building and strengthening the capabilities of mother support groups. In 2023, WFP piloted a pioneering approach to increase local production of affordable, enriched complementary food for children aged 6-23 months. Four women groups were equipped and trained to hygienically produce nutrient-rich, local, complementary food, targeting infants living in the immediate catchment area of the production site.
Promoting local nutritious foods
WFP works with the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute to promote diet diversity and access to healthy local foods for infants. Following trials, WFP and the institute have introduced four standardized and enriched local complementary foods. These include tubers rich in pro-vitamin A, such as orange-fleshed sweet potato and yellow cassava. WFP supports communities in cultivating and storing them safely.
Supporting smallholder farmers
WFP assists 140 groups – comprising over 8,000 smallholder farmers across seven districts – to cultivate, process and market rice and nutritious vegetables. The groups cultivate inland valley swamps, which ensures year-round cultivation. WFP supports the farmers with irrigation projects. They are also trained in climate-smart agricultural methods, post-harvest crop management, group marketing and how to successfully run village savings and loans schemes. The farmer groups supply the home-grown school feeding programme.

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Partners and donors

Achieving Zero Hunger is the work of many. Our work in Sierra Leone is made possible by the support and collaboration of our partners and donors, including:
Ministry of Agriculure and Forestry Ministry of Health and Sanitation Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Office of National Security Statistics Sierra Leone

Operations in Sierra Leone

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Contacts

Office

6A Renner Drive Off Wilkinson Road P. O. Box 1011
Freetown
Sierra Leone

Phone
+232 (0) 88 225 914
Email
WFP.Freetown@wfp.org
For media inquiries
francis.boima@wfp.org
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