Sierra Leone Workshop on Strengthening Resilience in Food Systems Transformation

As part of the Global Panel’s project Strengthening Resilience in the Transformation of Food Systems, the President together with its partners conducted a two-day National Stakeholders’ Workshop in Freetown on September 12 and 13. It brought together diverse stakeholders from the agriculture, food systems and nutrition sectors to gather evidence and build consensus for a new vision for food system resilience in Sierra Leone.  

Chairman of PI-CREF Hon. Dr Kandeh Yumkella welcomed the participants and thanked His Excellency the Vice President, Dr. Mohammed Juldeh Jalloh and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka for participating noting that the presence of the Vice President and senior government officials underscored the importance President Julius Maada Bio places on building resilience in food systems across the country.  

Dr Yumkella emphasised the importance of diverse actions in building climate resilience into national food systems. He expressed his confidence in the collaboration that PI-CREF has enjoyed with the Ministry of Agriculture and how together they will lay the foundation for robust actions across food systems to ensure that no one is left behind. Dr Yumkella observed that Sierra Leone is right on track in building collaborations across ministries and with partners locally,  regionally and across the world, and that there was consensus amongst senior government officials on the need for a systematic and sustained intervention to build effective and resilient food systems.  

Dr. Patrick Kormawa, Director, Climate-Smart Agriculture at PI-CREF said that the workshop was pivotal for collecting evidence and consensus on the tenets of a new vision for food system resilience in Sierra Leone.  The objectives were to review the state of resilience of food systems, identify the priorities and threats to food systems transformation, propose policies and programmatic interventions and prioritize interventions and investment needs.  

In expressing gratitude to PI-CREF for organising the workshop, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka stressed that all these efforts were part of His Excellency’s vision in achieving the Feed Salone dream to enable Sierra Leone to use agriculture to transform the country’s food systems but also to transform the country. 

Dr. Mohammed Juldeh Jalloh, Sierra Leone’s Vice President saw the workshop as significant and timely for the Government as there was a critical need to transform food systems in Sierra Leone due to the country’s heavy reliance on very high levels of food imports which gravely affect the cost of living and food security.  Transforming food systems was a priority for President Bio’s Government which has increased budget allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture from 2% to 7%.  

The President has also created the PI-CREF Secretariat to leverage additional support  The Irish Ambassador, and representatives from UNICEF, FAO, WFP, World Bank, and NaCSA expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to engage in a collaborative dialogue to realise a resilient food system as part of the  Government’s Feed Salone priorities.