Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is a small but densely populated country on the North Atlantic coast of West Africa, ranked 181 out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index. Poverty levels are high, with 53 percent of the population living below the income poverty line (US$1.25 per day). Since the signing of the peace agreement in 2002, the country has been recovering from a 11-year war that destroyed the national infrastructure and basic social services.
An outbreak of Ebola in 2014 claimed the lives of 4,000 people and had a severe impact on the economy. GDP growth, which had peaked at almost 21 percent in 2013 thanks to strong mining exports, slowed down in 2014 due to the Ebola outbreak and a fall in global iron ore prices.
What the World Food Programme is doing in Sierra Leone
-
Maternal and child nutrition
WFP is phasing out moderate acute malnutrition treatment for children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. This continues to be provided through supplementary feeding in Government health facilities in the four districts with the highest rates of Global Acute Malnutrition. WFP complements the efforts of the Government, UNICEF and other partners to address stunting, focusing on the first 1,000 days by providing a nutrient-dense complementary food, to children under 2 in two districts.
-
Food by prescription for people living with HIV and TB
Although WFP has phased out direct nutrition support to people living with HIV and Tuberculosis (TB), it has been advocating with the National Social Protection agency for inclusion of eligible beneficiaries in their social protection schemes. As part of capacity strengthening, WFP provides Ministry of Health and Sanitation staff – both at national and health facility level – with a training package on nutrition and immuno-compromised diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB.
-
Smallholder and agriculture market support
Through linking farmers to WFP local procurement opportunities and private-sector buyers, WFP and its partners support smallholder farmers in selling their surplus crops at competitive prices, thus bolstering their income, reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience. WFP also supports farmers to build capacities in post-harvest management and value addition, including milling, parboiling, packaging and appropriate storage to minimize post-harvest losses and achieve quality, high-value outputs.
-
Resilience building
WFP strengthens the livelihoods of food insecure communities that are vulnerable to shocks by implementing food assistance for assets (FFA) programmes that create productive assets, promote the production of nutritionally diverse foods, diversify livelihood strategies and rehabilitate degraded ecologies. WFP prioritizes the targeting of assets that are communally managed to ensure that food and nutritional benefits accrued benefit the community as a whole. For these activities, WFP works in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF).
-
Capacity strengthening
Building on the infrastructure and logistics capacity established during the Ebola outbreak, WFP continues to provide national institutions with training and technical assistance in the areas of disaster planning, supply chain systems, geo-spatial mapping, nutrition-sensitive programming and food security monitoring and analysis. WFP also maintains a logistics base to store essential humanitarian and preparedness assets and support WFP–led national disaster response training programmes. For these activities, WFP partners with the Office of National Security, MAF and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
-
School feeding
WFP is supporting the integrated school feeding programme providing over 300,000 primary school children with fortified food in two of the most food insecure districts of the country – Pujehun and Kambia – as well as seven additional districts (Bonthe, Bombali, Kailahun, Karene, Kenema and Port Loko) being funded by the Government of Sierra Leone. The programme will attempt to link local farmers to school feeding supply chains to provide a market opportunity to increase household income and support rural development.
-
COVID-19 response
WFP is supporting the most affected populations, including people in treatment centres, quarantined homes and self-isolation, and scaling up activities to combat malnutrition in collaboration with UNICEF.
To support the the humanitarian response, WFP has been providing services such as management of in-country staging areas, warehouses and transport capacities for medicine, water and sanitation, food and non-food supplies; engineering support; and coordination of WFP COVID-19 air services pending resumption of commercial flights.
In focus
Sierra Leone news releases
Go to pagePartners 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:Find out more about the state of food security in Sierra Leone
Visit the food security analysis pageOperations in Sierra Leone
Contacts
Freetown
69B Smart Farm, off Wilkinson Road, PO Box 1011, Freetown, The Republic of Sierra Leone
Phone: (+232) 76 980 235
Fax: