SIERRA LEONE – DISTRICT PROFILE

Population 335574 1 Male 159,9261 Female 175,6481 Ethnic diversity Mende3 Geographical area 4,105 sq. km (1585 sq. miles)3 Language Mende and Krio3 District level poverty rate 54%4 Gini coefficient district 0.4%4 Net primary enrollment by district 60.7%4 Total fertility rate (TFR) 6.3%5 Under 5 mortality rate 99 deaths per 1000 live births6 Life expectancy at birth 46 years 6 Percentage all basic vaccination 73%5 Prevalence of food insecurity 80%8 Prevalence of chronic malnutrition 43.7%8 Agriculture as main livelihood 79.3%5 Livelihoods Mining and Agriculture3

Context: is in the Southern Province and third largest district in the country. It borders the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest, the Republic of Liberia to the southeast, to the northeast, to the north and to the west. The town of Pujehun is the capital of the district. The other major towns are , Zimmi, Gendema, , Bomi and Potoru. Twelve chiefdoms of the district are Mano Sakrim, Soro Gbema, Kpaka, Makpele, Yakemu Kpukumu Krim, Gallines Perri, Malen, Barri, Sowa, Pejeh and Kpanga Kagonde. The population is predominantly Muslim mainly belonging to the Mende ethnic group. Pujehun was destroyed during the country’s civil war, and thirteen years after the end of the war, it still visibly carries the marks of war.

Produced by OCHA https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/sierra-leone Contact: [email protected] Last updated 4 December 2015

SIERRA LEONE – PUJEHUN DISTRICT PROFILE

1 Population distribution : The district population is composed of 19% children 2014 Projected district population by age group & sex1 under 5 years of age, 28% of children aged between 5 and 14 years and 49% Under 5 5 to 14 15-64 65+ Total are in the age group of 15-64 years which is the active workforce. It appears Male 31155 44674 77054 7043 159926 that the number of females is higher compared to the male population across Female 32376 48777 85696 8799 175648 all age groups. The district has one of the lowest population densities in the Total 63531 93451 162750 15842 335574 country. The majority of the population (87%) is living in the rural areas. The average family size is 6.2 persons1.

Livelihood and Economy: Diamond mining is a major economic activity3; a number of internationally owned mining corporations are operating in the district. These companies are the major employers in the district for both skilled and unskilled labor in the mining industry. Mining activities were severely hampered during and even after the district’s EVD outbreak, adversely affecting the livelihoods of those engaged in the mining operations. In recent years, the government has been leasing14 large land areas to foreign investors for the development of commercial plantations of palm oil. The agricultural production3 of root crops is cassava and sweet potato, with cash crops being coffee and cacao. Pujehun is one the country’s poorest and least developed districts.

Education: The Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MEST)9 conducted the census for 9

the 2012-13 school year which shows that there are 305 schools in the district of which 6 are Education by Level, Age & Sex

pre-primary, 273 primary, 21 junior secondary and 5 senior secondary schools. In addition, the 308 Sr. Sec (15-17 yrs) 438 district has 4 Technical Vocational Institutes. Only 17% of these schools are owned by the Jr Sec (12-14 yrs) 2263 Government9 while the majority (83%) are mission, community, or privately owned schools. The 2350 4 23388 net primary enrollment rate is 60.7% According to the student enrolment at different Primary (6-11 yrs) 22825 education levels, there has been a very drastic downtrend (see graph aside)9 in the number of EducationLevel 0 10000 20000 30000 students (both boys and girls) between primary and the junior level of education and this trend Female Male Number of Students persists into the senior secondary schools enrolment compared to the other two levels. 114 (37%)9 of schools (mostly the primary level) have a school feeding programme supported by NGOs.

Food Security: Some 30% of the district population8 are food insecure of which 2% are severe and 28% are moderately food insecure. According to the Emergency Food Security Assessment 2015, Pujehun is the third lowest food insecure district in the country. Food, credit and seeds are three key priority

Produced by OCHA Sierra Leone https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/sierra-leone Contact: [email protected] Last updated 4 December 2015

SIERRA LEONE – PUJEHUN DISTRICT PROFILE

needs identified during the assessment. The Food purchases accounted for the 54% of household expenditure of district residents, which is the least among all the districts.

Health: Among the 74 health facilities, there is one government hospital, 13 Community Health Centers (CHC), 15 Community Health Posts (CHP) and 45 Maternal and Child Health Posts (MCHP). Like many other districts in the country, the only hospital12 in Pujehun is for a population of over 335,000 and one bed for 4,433 persons. Nearly 73% of children5 aged between 12-23 months have completed a full course of vaccinations against the most common diseases (BCG, DPT, Polio and Measles). The overall HIV prevalence rate5 is 0.8%, the rate is higher (1.5%) among women compared to a negligible rate .01% among men.

Water and Sanitation: (WASH): The sources of drinking water13 for over 42% of residents are from rivers and streams, 29% of residents use un-medicated wells, 9% use un-protected wells and only 14% of district residents have access to piped supplies (public). According to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEWR), there are only 451 water points which implies that there are 750 persons per water source. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MEST)9 conducted a census for the 2012-13 school year which indicated that 54% (167) of schools have a safe drinking water source (pipe and borehole) inside the school premises while wells and streams are the main sources of water for the other schools. There are 186 (60%) of schools with toilet facilities within the compound.

Ebola Emergency: Pujehun was the first district which became EVD transmission free. As of 7 November 2015, when the country was declared free from EVD transmission, the district had already reached 343 days without a reported case of Ebola.

Operational Organization at the District level:

Sector Organizations Cash Grant WFP, Finn Church Aid Education ACEPT, FTC, MOPADA, MEST, MOPADA, PACE, Save the Children, Street Child, UNICEF, World Vision International Food Security FAO, Finn Church Aid, Welthungerhilfe, WFP, World Vision International Health WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, MoHS, WASH HELP, SCI, PACE, Health Education Department, ISLAG, CHRISTAG, MoHS, SMAC

Produced by OCHA Sierra Leone https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/sierra-leone Contact: [email protected] Last updated 4 December 2015

SIERRA LEONE – PUJEHUN DISTRICT PROFILE

REFERENCES:

1 Projected population figures for 2014 from the Republic of Sierra Leone Population and Housing Census 2004, Statistics Sierra Leone, Published in November 2006. 2 SLIS Map Code 02 16 Nov 2006. 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Loko_District, 4 A poverty profile for Sierra Leona, the World Bank and Statistics Sierra Leone, June 2013 (Calculations based on Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey 2011). 5 Sierra Leone Demographic and Health Survey (SLDHS) 2013, published in July 2014. The survey was carried out by Statistics Sierra Leone and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and supported by WHO, UNDP, WFP, UNFPA, FAO, UNICEF,UK Aid, ICF International, KfW Development Bank and the World Bank 6 http://sierraleone.opendataforafrica.org 7 The state of Food Security and Nutrition in Sierra Leone 2011. The study was undertaken by the WFP in partnership with relevant ministries of the GoSL, UNICEF and funded by ECHO. 8 Emergency Food Security Assessment Sierra Leone 2015, Data collected in March April and report published in June 2015. The assessment was a joint effort by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security and WFP, FAO, ACF, World Vision, ACDI/VOCA, Save the Children and CARE. 9 Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MEST) conducted school census for the year 2012-2013 10 The Coping Strategy Index (CSI) is a WFP indicator that measures the frequency and severity of the coping strategies households employ when faced with food shortages. 11 Survey of availability of modern contraceptives and essential life-saving maternal and reproductive health medicines in service delivery points in Sierra Leone, Volume -2, February 2011 12 Statistics Serra Leone 2013 13 The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEWR) conducted comprehensive 14 http://standardtimespress.org **Definition: The Gini coefficient is often used to measure income inequality, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality

Produced by OCHA Sierra Leone https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/sierra-leone Contact: [email protected] Last updated 4 December 2015