ReliefWeb

In Numbers

26 mt of food assistance distributed

No cash-based transfers made

USD 0.6 m six months (July 2020–December 2020) net funding requirement

2,935 people assisted in June 2020

Operational Updates

• WFP Aviation has started humanitarian passenger air services in support of the Government of Sierra Leone including in the fight against COVID-19. Connecting a number of capitals in Africa from the hubs in Accra and Addis Ababa as well as some countries in Asia and Europe, WFP Global Air Passenger Services landed its first flight in Lungi this month aimed at overcoming the lack of commercial capacity and ensuring humanitarian personnel can deploy.

• WFP distributed agricultural tools and vegetable seeds to vulnerable smallholder farmers whose livelihoods have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The project will benefit 1,150 vulnerable farming households (representing 5,750 beneficiaries) in Falaba, Karene, Kambia, Kailahun and Pujehun districts with 40 days Food for asset creation, tools, seeds and training in improved agricultural practices to cultivate 92 hectares of cowpea, pumpkin, okra, maize, groundnut, hot pepper and orange fleshed sweet potato.

• To ensure the continuity of WFP and Ministry of Agriculture’s youth contractor model during the COVID19 outbreak - whereby talented young agriculturalists provide technical guidance in improved agricultural practices to other farmers within their communities – WFP donated a smartphone to each of 27 youth contractors supporting the implementation of livelihood activities in Kenema, Moyamba, Pujehun and Tonkolili districts. Each smartphone is uploaded with a GPS app so that the youth contractors can precisely monitor the development of irrigation systems in their localities, in addition to enhancing their ability to share ideas with one another and report to WFP during COVID-19 when their movement is curtailed.

• WFP, in collaboration with the Directorate of Food and Nutrition, completed a nationwide training of 63 district nutritionists and 16 monitoring and evaluation officers on the management of moderate acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women.