By Mahmud Tim Kargbo
The latest findings from the World Food Programme (WFP) have delivered one of the most comprehensive and troubling assessments of Sierra Leone’s food security landscape in recent years. The new data not only exposes deepening household vulnerabilities but also casts a long shadow over President Julius Maada Bio’s New Direction and Big Five agenda, raising serious doubts about whether the government has the capacity or the political will to reverse the crisis.
A National Crisis Laid Bare
According to the WFP Food Security Monitoring System Report of February 2024, 82 percent of Sierra Leone’s population are food insecure, with 18 percent of households classified as severely food insecure.
http/ /: www.wfp.org/publications/food-security-monitoring-system-report-wfp-sierra-leone-country-office-february-2024
The report further shows that Global Acute Malnutrition among children rose from 3.1 percent to 5 percent within a year. A companion FSMS report notes that 93 percent of households spend more than half of their income on food and that nearly 28 percent experienced a full day or more without adequate sustenance.
http/ /: www.wfp.org/publications/food-security-monitoring-system-report-wfp-sierra-leone-country-office-september-2023
Price shocks remain severe. Between January 2023 and January 2024, imported rice costs rose by 38 percent while local rice prices climbed by 31 percent. These increases reflect higher fuel prices, rising fertiliser costs, supply chain inefficiencies, and the depreciation of the Leone. Flooding during the 2024 rainy season destroyed approximately 6,950 hectares of farmland, leading to widespread displacement of smallholder farmers.
http/ /: www.wfp.tind.io/nanna/record/131036/files/ELR%203641%20v.2-English.pdf
The WFP Country Strategic Plan evaluation for 2025 (ELR 3641 v.2) confirms that although the organisation’s programmes are well targeted, long term integration with national development structures has remained limited.
http/ /: www.wfp.tind.io/nanna/record/131036/files/ELR%203641%20v.2-English.pdf
Human Impact Behind the Numbers
Travelling through Koinadugu, Kambia, Moyamba, and Kailahun, one repeatedly encounters testimonies that match the WFP data. Farmers describe losing entire harvests to floods and prolonged dry spells. Market traders recount weekly price volatility driven by import reliance. Mothers in both rural and urban settings speak of skipping meals so that children can eat. These narratives, though anonymised, illustrate a shared truth: household resilience has weakened to its lowest point in a decade.
New Direction Promises Versus Present Realities
The Bio administration framed food security as a central pillar of the Big Five framework. However, the WFP findings reveal profound contradictions between government messaging and actual outcomes.
Over dependence on rice imports persists. Sierra Leone still imports roughly 35 percent of the rice it consumes, costing the state around 200 million US dollars annually.
http/ /: www.apnews.com/article/6ba8eb3047b9b43f6ccf55e3b9a78af6
Smallholder support remains thin. Farmers across the country continue to face shortages of improved seeds, agro tools, fertilisers, and accessible market linkages. Many also report inconsistent access to agricultural extension services.
Governance weaknesses persist. The Auditor General’s 2025 report notes that government progress toward national food sufficiency targets remains inadequate. Several districts continue to experience what the report terms a stressed food security phase.
http/ /: www.auditservice.gov.sl/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Performance-Audit-Report-on-Governments-Effort-in-Achieving-Food-Sufficiency-by-2023-and-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-Agriculture.pdf
Policy delivery gaps are widening. Despite apparent alignment between WFP’s Country Strategic Plan and national priorities, the government continues to prioritise emergency messaging and political branding over sustained structural reform.
http/ /: www.wfp.org/publications/evaluation-sierra-leone-wfp-country-strategic-plan-2020-2025
Regional and Historical Context
Sierra Leone is not alone in facing food insecurity. The Sahel and much of West Africa have experienced significant climate shocks, inflationary pressures, and currency depreciation. ECOWAS food security alerts in recent years have highlighted rising humanitarian needs across multiple states.
However, Sierra Leone’s vulnerability is unique in depth and persistence, reflecting unresolved structural weaknesses that date back to the post conflict political settlement. Despite two decades of peacebuilding and donor engagement, agricultural transformation remains incomplete and institutional accountability fragile.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2004 warned that chronic governance failures, corruption, and over centralised decision making were undermining state performance. Those concerns remain strikingly relevant today.
http/ /: www.peaceaccords.nd.edu/implementation/truth-or-reconciliation-mechanism-2004-8
Civil society organisations such as Oxfam have long highlighted structural inequalities in land access, market participation, and resource distribution.
http/ /: www.westafrica.oxfam.org/en/countries/sierra-leone
What the CSP Evaluation Reveals About Structural Failures
The WFP Country Strategic Plan evaluation identifies several key challenges that continue to hinder national food security.
Emergency response has overshadowed development planning. While flexibility has enabled rapid humanitarian support, it has limited the creation of durable national systems for resilience.
School feeding systems require substantial upgrading. The evaluation urges the government to take greater ownership of school meal programmes and ensure robust monitoring.
Maternal and infant nutrition remains under resourced. Interventions targeting the first one thousand days of life have not scaled adequately, contributing to persistent childhood malnutrition.
Gender vulnerabilities remain overlooked. Women smallholder farmers continue to face barriers to land, finance, and climate adaptation tools.
Market integration is weak. The evaluation stresses the importance of purchasing food from smallholders, yet national procurement systems have not meaningfully shifted in this direction.
Macroeconomic Pressures Deepen the Crisis
The Bank of Sierra Leone has reported persistent inflationary pressure in recent years, particularly on imported goods. The Leone’s depreciation has driven up the cost of rice, fertiliser, fuel, and agricultural tools. This economic environment has further undermined household capacity to cope with shocks.
https://www.bsl.gov.sl
International institutions including the IMF and World Bank have warned that fiscal constraints, debt servicing obligations, and global commodity volatility continue to limit Sierra Leone’s ability to stabilise food prices.
https://www.imf.org
https://www.worldbank.org
Political Reactions and National Implications
Opposition parties and several parliamentary committees have called for urgent review of national agricultural strategies in light of the new WFP findings. Independent policy groups including the Institute for Governance Reform have warned that unaddressed food insecurity could aggravate social tensions and undermine public confidence in the state.
https://www.igrsl.org
If the government fails to respond effectively, the political costs could be significant. Food insecurity has historically been a catalyst for unrest in Sierra Leone, as seen during the 2007 and 2022 protests. Without decisive action, the crisis risks evolving into a broader challenge to national stability.
Recommendations
To address the crisis, the Bio administration must prioritise the following actions.
Strengthen support for smallholder farmers by providing timely inputs, extension services, irrigation tools, and storage infrastructure.
Institutionalise and expand the national school feeding programme, ensuring that procurement is linked to local farmers.
Scale up maternal and infant nutrition programmes focused on the first one thousand days.
Mainstream gender and climate resilience across agricultural policies.
Develop a comprehensive national food security database with regular monitoring and evaluation.
Implement the recommendations of the Auditor General and the WFP evaluation to ensure accountability and measurable progress.
The latest WFP reports and the CSP evaluation expose the fragility of Sierra Leone’s food system and challenge the foundations of President Bio’s New Direction. Without sustained structural reforms, food security will remain out of reach for millions. The evidence now available gives citizens, civil society, and international partners clear grounds to demand meaningful change. Whether the government meets this challenge will determine whether the Big Five becomes a milestone in national transformation or a missed opportunity defined by rhetoric rather than results.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author and do not in anyway reflect the opinions or editorial policy of Africa Publicity
