WFP | Brief

Reporting period: 01 April – 30 June

Country Director: Gon Myers

COUNTRY STRATEGY

WFP’s regional Emergency Operation (EMOP) focuses on food and nutritional support under three pillars – care,

Brief contain, protect – to support the health response in

| | bringing Sierra Leone to an Ebola free status. The regional Special Operation augments the capacity of the humanitarian response by providing logistics, engineering, air service, coordination, and telecommunications support to enhance the efficiency of the humanitarian response. The Country Programme (CP, currently on hold) focused on school feeding, supplementary feeding for vulnerable populations and livelihood support; targeted support to HIV patients is ongoing.

WFP has been present in Sierra Leone since 1968. Sierra Leone Sierra

OPERATIONS

WFP WFP 6 Months Planned Total Total Total Project Net Funding number requirements received Funded Top 5 Donors Duration Requirements of people (in USD) (in USD) (%) (in USD)*

Japan, Republic of CP 200336 Jan 2013 – Sierra Leone, UK, Country Programme 337,382* 45,388,138 2,343,947 European Dec 2015 35,481,917 78% Sierra Leone (2013- Commission, 2015) Multilateral

EMOP 200761.SL USA, Republic of Support to Sierra Leone,

Populations in Areas Aug 2014 – Canada, 1,473,675 65,499,329** n/a n/a 2,694,772 Affected by the Germany, UN Sept 2015 Ebola Outbreak in CERF , Liberia, and Sierra Leone SO 200773.SL UN Common Logistics Common Funds & Agencies Services for the (excl. CERF), Oct 2014 – Humanitarian n/a 76,557,478** n/a n/a n/a USA, Republic of Community’s Dec 2015 Sierra Leone, Response to the Germany, Ebola outbreak in European West Africa Commission *July – December, **Sierra Leone part of the Regional Ebola Response Project only Summary of WFP assistance

WFP’s Emergency Operation is focused on supporting the health response to stop the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) by meeting the basic food and nutrition needs of affected families and communities in Sierra Leone. WFP provides food assistance to care for patients and their caretakers in treatment centres and to survivors upon discharge, to contain the spread of the virus in hotspot communities and to quarantined households and to protect households and communities in areas most affected by the virus.

Alongside food assistance, WFP’s Special Operation supports the global response of the humanitarian community by facilitating logistics support, infrastructure development, emergency telecommunications, and humanitarian air services across the Ebola affected countries. Storage and transport services are facilitated at Port Loko, Lungi airport, and with Forward Logistics Bases in Makeni, Kenema and Kailahun on standby, and, if needed, can be operationalised within 48 hours.

ETC Logistics Cluster

Sierra Leone Country Page - http://www.wfp.org/countries/sierra-leone

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

ACHIEVEMENTS ISSUES/CHALLENGES  WFP is preparing to roll-out a mobile cash based transfer  The uniqueness of the Ebola crisis and the

programme to provide two months of support to about unpredictability of the spread of the virus has required

3,000 EVD survivors in addition to the in-kind food basket that WFP’s operations be planned and implemented with provided at discharge. This monthly transfer allows the utmost flexibility. While overall transmission has survivors to purchase their preferred foods in local declined significantly, reoccurring hotspots require

Brief markets, giving them more variety in their food choice. continued vigilance and sustained efforts by all

| |  A targeted supplementary feeding programme (TSFP) humanitarian partners. was launched in June following a nationwide malnutrition  Limited partner capacity to operate in emergency screening. Through the TSFP, children aged under 5 settings, especially one of such unprecedented nature, years old, identified with moderate acute malnutrition, has at times limited the timeliness of WFP’s receive Super Cereal Plus (CSB++), a specialised interventions. WFP continues capacity strengthening nutrition product for the treatment of malnutrition. trainings for partners. In light of current challenges,  To support early recovery efforts, WFP provided food priority activities remain providing lifesaving assistance rations to workers who were engaged in a nationwide to patients and quarantined households. school clean-up exercise to ensure children had a safe  Sierra Leone’s rainy season, from June to September, and clean environment to return to with the reopening of may restrict access to many areas. WFP is managing this schools in April. In conjunction with the government’s by pre-positioning its trucks fleet across Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Sierra seed distribution programme, WFP provided food rations and re-enforcing infrastructure, such as digging as a form of seed protection to support farmers plant the drainage systems at logistics bases. seeds instead of eating them.

WFP PARTNERSHIPS WFP works with the Ministry of Health, the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) and District Ebola Response Centres (DERC), UNMEER, other UN agencies, and international and national NGOs in order to ensure timely delivery of food assistance to Ebola treatment centres, discharged patients, quarantined homes and affected communities throughout the country. Key cooperating partners include Plan, Welthungerhilfe, and World Vision which are involved in registering beneficiaries and distributing food assistance in targeted locations. WFP is partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to support the Ebola response through the provision of administrative and logistical services. The project builds on the mutual strengths of the two organizations enabling WHO health responders to focus on their expertise in infection prevention and control, epidemiology, and contact tracing.

Through the Special Operation, WFP is facilitating coordination, information management, air services, and logistics services to humanitarian partners. This includes transport, storage, engineering and construction support, technical assistance, procurement, UNHAS passenger services, and emergency telecommunications support. Coordination takes place through weekly meetings and information is shared via a dedicated webpage (www.logcluster.org).

COUNTRY BACKGROUND

Sierra Leone is a low income country with over 70 percent of the population living below the national poverty line of USD 2 per day. The country ranks 66 out of 76 countries on the 2014 Global Hunger Index and 183 out of 187 countries on the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index.

According to the 2014 Standardized Monitoring Assessment and Relief in Transition survey (SMART), at the national level the acute child malnutrition rate is 13 percent and 30 percent of children under 5 are chronically malnourished. The free health care for pregnant women and nursing mothers and children under 5, introduced two years ago, seems to have created more demand for health care services. The estimated HIV prevalence among adults is 1.5 percent. Net primary school enrolment is between 62 and 69 percent and drop-out rates are high, especially among girls in their early teens. Local production of rice, the main staple crop, remains inadequate to satisfy national requirements. The country, therefore, relies on commercial imports, with 80 percent rice imported each year. The poorest segments of the population lack the purchasing power to access sufficient food.

In May 2014, the Government, through the Ministry of Health and Sanitation declared an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Sierra Leone following the laboratory confirmation of a suspected case from . This outbreak appears to be a spill over from the outbreak in Guinea and Liberia since March 2014. In Sierra Leone

the disease has claimed over 3,500 lives, while more than 13,000 cases reported (WHO, 1 July 2015).

Sierra Leone Country Page - http://www.wfp.org/countries/sierra-leone