By Mabinty M. Kamara
Some 6.2 million people in Sierra Leone face moderate or severe food insecurity, data attributed to the United Nations reveals.
The revelation was made on Thursday by officials from the UN country, during a session that brought together lawmakers and food and agriculture stakeholders.
Nyabenyi Tito Tipo, the Country Representative of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), noted in a statement that food insecurity is increasing in the West Africa region, exacerbated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. She singled out Sierra Leone among the countries of concern.
“In West Africa, it is estimated that 56 million people were under nourished in September 2019, while 197.7 million suffered from severe or moderate food insecurity during the same year,” she said, adding: “17.7 million children under the age of 5 are stunted, while 4.8 million are affected by wasting.
Mrs Tipo, who was reading a speech prepared for the UN Resident Coordinator, was speaking during the opening ceremony of a capacity building programme for Sierra Leonean parliamentarians on gender and food security issues in the country.
“In Sierra Leone, 2 million persons are under nourished, which represents 26% of the population, while 6.2 million suffer from severe or moderate food insecurity,” she disclosed.
The training program was designed for three days: two days training plus a day’s long high level dialogue on Parliamentary Action on Gender and Food Security.
According to officials, this initiative is important in that it builds on FAOs long standing work with parliamentarians since 2009. They said this is based on the strong legislative, budgetary and oversight role of the lawmakers.
The session, which brought together representatives of different committees of Parliamentarians and Civil Society Organizations, was held at the Golden Tulip Essential Kimbima in Freetown.
The training is also said to be part of a larger project titled: “Establishment of Parliamentary Alliances on Food Security and Nutrition”, which is implemented at continental, regional and national levels.
However, this specific project: “strengthening of Parliamentarians’ Capacities”, is managed by Women in Law & Development in Africa (WILDAF) at the regional level, with the Advocacy Movement Network (AMNet) as the country representative for Sierra Leone. It is supported by the FAO, OXFAM, ECOWAS and IISD.
Hawa Samai, Executive Director of AMNet, noted that as a female led national non-governmental organization, they believe that advocacy approach is sustainable due to collective action of groups or individuals to improve the policy environment.
“It is against this backdrop that the gender empowerment has been a key objective in our organizational strategy. Under this indicator, we have been working on increasing women’s diverse access to investment and entrepreneurial education, facilitating women’s access to financial and non-financial resources and championing mentorship training for women,” she said.
The training was concluded with a dialogue session on issues such as protecting and promoting women’s Land Rights in the face of COVID-19 and beyond, gender and Investment in Agriculture and food Security for achieving zero hunger, among others.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
