Sierra Leone
Nutrition for Growth (N4G) commitment
Reported progress
Assessment
Increase the government’s financial allocation to nutrition and food security and create a specific budget line for nutrition in budgets for the Ministries of Health and Sanitation, Agriculture, and other relevant ministries.
The government of Sierra Leone has made progress in terms of increasing its financial expenditure in nutrition-related activities. From 2019 to 2020, the total amount that the government spent on nutrition rose by 39 percent when measured in actual terms. From 2019 to 2020, the rise in nutrition expenditures was 92 percent when measured in nominal terms. The government of Sierra Leone has made very minor expenditure on nutrition specific; yet, the country's progress toward reaching its commitment to N4G has not been sufficient, particularly in tackling the problems of stunting and wasting. The commitment of N4G is to reduce the prevalence of stunting from 25.7 percent to 11 percent.
UN agencies, development partners, and INGO budgeted Le 77.77 billion ($7.83 million) The total amount spent was Le 69.30 billion ($6.98 million)
It is also stated that, while UN agencies, development partners, and INGOs spent more on nutrition-specific interventions, the government spent more on nutrition sensitive activities and programs.
At least half of the individual commitment components are assessed to be on course
1. Reducing the prevalence of stunting from 25.7% to 11.7% in under-2 children.
2. Reducing wasting from 6.9% to 2.0%.
3. Increasing exclusive breastfeeding from 32% to 70%.
The World Health Assembly (WHA) sets six Global Nutrition Targets to be reached by 2025. Two of them are in the Sustainable Development Goals (stunting and wasting). Current trends suggest that the world won't meet all six global nutrition goals. To reach the 2025 goals, stunting, wasting, anemia, overweight, and exclusive breastfeeding must improve. According to the SMART 2021 Survey, the prevalence of stunting among children under the age of five years is at 26.2%, Wasting is 5.2% underweight 11%,overweight is 2%. Exclusive Breastfeeding for children less than six months was reported to be 53.0% (SMART 2021). Although the 70% target was not reached, there has been an improvement considering the baseline of 32% to 53% from the most recent national survey and early initiation is 89, minimum dietary diversity is 23 %, and minimum meal frequency is 33%. However, the government of Sierra Leone and development partners should engage in Development Projects High-impact nutrition-specific interventions should be scaled up, coupled with a multi-sectoral approach to enhance nutrition outcomes in agriculture, education, social protection, and all other relevant sectors. The Global Investment Framework for Nutrition predicts that scaling up nutrition-specific interventions to fulfill global nutrition objectives will cost an extra $7 billion yearly (Shekar, Kakietek, Dayton Eberwein, et al. 2017 ; Shekar, Kakietek, D'Alimonte, et al. 2017 ). In the most ambitious scenario, governments and other sources would provide the remaining $4 billion each year, while Development Partners would need to increase contributions by $3 billion yearly.
At least half of the individual commitment components are assessed to be off course
1. Finalize and endorse 5-year Nutrition and Food Security costed plan by July 2013.
2. Prioritize fundraising to ensure successful implementation of the Nutrition and Food Security costed plan.
3. Establish legal frameworks and enforce the Code for the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes and food fortification.
1. The National nutrition information strategy was in the developing process by The Directorate of Food and Nutrition and Partners. Access to timely, quality and reliable nutrition-related data are essential to support planning, management and decision-making. A robust nutrition information system designed to continuously collect and interpret quality and reliable data on food, health, nutrition, and economic performance timely is needed to guide decisions on improving the nutrition situation of the population. The lack of a consolidated view on how the different pieces of nutrition-related information together provide a coherent picture of the causes and outcomes of the nutrition problem is globally recognized as a barrier to evidence-based decision-making in nutrition.
2. In 2021, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General will convene a Food Systems Summit as part of the UN Decade of Action. The summit reflects the increased recognition that in delivering greater quantities of more affordable food, food system developments have worked against a number of societal objectives including improved health and nutrition, reduced poverty, improved ecosystem services and social inclusion. The National Food Systems Summit Dialogues Report for Sierra Leone was developed the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Secretariat and Partners. The President of Sierra Leone submitted his country’s commitments and the National Food Systems Synthesis Report at the UNGA last year.
3. The Ministry of Agriculture in the Food and Nutrition Security area is implementing nutrition sensitive divisional activities through the national Agriculture Strategic plan 2023 which aims at doubling production in four value chains: rice, livestock, cash crops and forestry, by employing ambitious and innovative ideas and investment in large scale irrigation, mechanization and technology, input supply systems, institutional reforms, data systems, etc. These reforms will promote linkages between large-scale investment in agriculture and smallholder farmers, with the prime objective of enabling the latter to graduate from subsistence-level agriculture.
4. Additional policies have also been developed and approved as a driver to food and nutrition security such as Cashew policy, Cocoa policy, Coffee policy and the Gender in Agriculture policy.
Scale up community support networks for nutrition and food security.
The National Agricultural Transformation 2023 will drive to achieve economic diversification, food and nutritional security, and increase our nation’s forest cover which has been cumulatively lost to steady deforestation.
The rolling out of the Ministry's new policy shift initiative focusing on private sector development is a strategy to achieve food and nutrition security. The policy shifts gears towards;- Agricultural Mechanization
- Strengthening input delivery, through electronic Input Voucher system
- Agro processing and value addition and marketing and enhancing access to cridit facilities.
Additional policies have also been developed and approved as a driver to food and nutrition security such as Cashew policy, Cocoa policy, Coffee policy and the Gender in Agriculture policy.
At least half of the individual commitment components are assessed to be on course