Minister of State in the office of the Vice President, FrancessPiagieAlgalie has led a team and presented the synthesis report of the food systems to His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio, noting that they have worked collaboratively with different partners to ensure the recommendations are solid enough to help in the food production and sustainability.

United Nations Resident Coordinator, Dr. BabatundeAhonsi, expressed gratitude to the President for his robust leadership in ensuring that Sierra Leone participated in the dialogue process through the office of the Vice President, as the focal point.

He furthered that the main idea was to transform the food systems processes, adding that the dialogue was consultative, and the report contained recommendations if fully implemented would help the food systems and transform food acceleration processes.

Speaking on behalf of donor partners, the Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Claire Buckley, said they were pleased to be part of the process as they had invested a lot of funds, especially for the food security summit in New York this September, adding that their keen areas of interest had been children and gender issues and, most importantly, food security.

Presenting the report to President Bio, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Abubakar Karim, said food production had been interrupted mainly because of national disasters and that the report was timely. He said the country had been in need of multisectoral policy in a bid to transform food systems.

He thanked all donors and the United Nations for their support towards the process and assured them of implementing the recommendations.

Addressing the meeting, President Julius Maada Bio thanked the team for working intensively and collaboratively to ensure they put out a detailed report.

“The report is timely because to want to produce and to secure the produce are very important,” he stated.

He expressed delight at the support from donors who participated and ensured the process was consultative, adding that his government’s main initiative was human capital development, and that food security was an integral part of the initiative.

He stated that the country had the necessary conditions but needed the systems in place that would help the process and so he was excited to receive the report.