Nutrition and Food Security

Food and nutrition has been at the centre of Ireland's country strategy for Sierra Leone since 2011 and considerable investment has been made in the sector since that time. Ireland is the lead donor in the field of Nutrition and Food security and on request of the government, Ireland is the lead donor for the Scaling Up Nutrition movement in Sierra Leone.

Our assistance includes support to the government's National Nutrition Plan to improve the nutrition and health status of mothers and children through the treatment and prevention of malnutrition, and support in the agriculture sector to improve the nutrition and food security of farmers and their families and to build a national early warning system for food security and nutrition.

Working in support of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, and the Scaling Up Nutrition Secretariat in the Vice-President's Office, Irish Aid partners with UNICEF, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Welthungerhilfe, Helen Keller International and Action Against Hunger.

Irish Aid is also supporting technically and financially the return of UN REACH in Sierra Leone. Under the umbrella of the UN Network, REACH aims at strengthening existing governance structures such as the SUN movement and we are working together to ensure that REACH will enable the development of a mulitisectorial approach to address undernutrition and food insecurity in line with the government's priorities.

Gender

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Ireland is the lead donor on gender, working closely with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs and leading the coordination of development partners in Sierra Leone.

Sexual and gender based violence is a huge concern in Sierra Leone, 56% of women will experience some form of physical violence in her lifetime. Ireland is working to support survivors of sexual and gender based violence through treatment and by building the capacity of local actors to address the issue in both the health and justice system.

Ireland funds the International Rescue Committee (IRC) for the prevention of gender-based violence and supports the country’s only sexual assault response centres in the country. This programme builds the capacity of government health centres to adequately respond to survivors.

Support is also provided to UNDP for promoting women’s access to the justice system for gender-based violence and land rights.

Teenage pregnancy in Sierra Leone is a huge area of concern, with 28% of girls ages 15 – 19 already with their first child or pregnant. The National Strategy for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy (2013 – 2015), launched by H.E. President Koroma in 2013, seeks to address this. Irish Aid support in this area is directly aligned to achieving the goals set out in the National Strategy.

Irish Aid supports Save the Children to implement a project to provide the most vulnerable adolescent girls and boys in Freetown with access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, with an aim to reducing teenage pregnancy among other things. This is carried out in twelve slum communities in the city. Through Save the Children and UNICEF, funding is provided to the National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy to provide a coordination and oversight role of the implementing partners under the Strategy.

In addition to monetary support provided to partners, Ireland provides technical support to a number of gender related fora, including the Forum Against Harmful Practices and the Technical Committee of the National Strategy for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy.

Governance and Human Rights

Ireland works closely with the Government of Sierra Leone and development partners in the area of governance and human rights.

Ireland provides financial and technical support the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone through UNDP and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

Irish Aid also works with local civil society organisations to promote human rights in Sierra Leone, including the Dorothy Springer Trust which trains people with disabilities in IT skills, St. Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired and the CSO Universal Periodic Review Group – Sierra Leone (CUMG-SL).

The Ebola Response

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In 2014, Ireland provided over €18.5 million to the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, directly and through NGOs and UN agencies. Some €10 million was provided for our annual development programmes in our partner countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Direct funding of over €6 million was provided for Ebola treatment facilities in both Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as for contact-tracing, community sensitisation and child nutrition programmes, among other activities. This figure also includes a contribution of €1 million to the UN Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund established by the UN Secretary General in September to ensure coherent involvement by the UN system in the overall response to the Ebola outbreak.

€778,000 was disbursed in December 2014 to support an NGO consortium (World Vision, CRS and CAFOD) in Sierra Leone to improve fleet management of ambulances and vehicles involved in the Ebola response. This is a co-funded programme, also supported by DFID and USAID. Irish Aid acts as the leading donor of this programme and has a key monitoring and coordination role in relation to it. This programme is crucial to the ability of districts to respond to Ebola alerts rapidly.

Ireland also plays a key role in coordinating implementing partners to support food distribution and nutrition support to quarantined households, affected communities, and treatment units through the Food Security and Nutrition Coordination Groups. €660,000 was provided to UNICEF to support the provision of emergency nutrition supplies for children under five.

A small team of Defence Forces personnel was deployed to Sierra Leone in November 2014 to reinforce the capacity of our Embassy in Freetown to respond to the crisis. An additional team of Defence Forces personnel (medical and para-medical) have deployed to Sierra Leone to work alongside UK Armed Forces on the national and district level response.