[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1133, 207], "category": "Text", "text": "with an illiteracy rate of 57%. Youth literacy levels have been increasing in the past 10 years but are yet to be paralleled in terms of skills development, and women and girls lag in such progress made⁸."}, {"bbox": [96, 218, 1133, 378], "category": "Text", "text": "Agriculture is a main contributor to growth, making up 58% of the economy in 2022. It employs 55% of the workforce (largely self-employed) and is driven by subsistence farming with low input and technology usage; however, the country's national resource endowment is under threat from outdated and unsustainable practices, widespread use of slash and burn for land preparation, reliance on fuelwood for cooking and lack of land use planning and forestry protection⁹, which have led to increased deforestation¹⁰ and contribute to make Sierra Leone more vulnerable to climate change impacts."}, {"bbox": [96, 389, 1133, 603], "category": "Text", "text": "Climate change is expected to further impact biodiversity and ecosystems: Sierra Leone is the third most vulnerable nation after Bangladesh and Guinea Bissau to the adverse effects of climate change and one of the least able countries to adapt to climate change, due to capacity and skills gaps.¹¹ The high poverty headcount ratio at national level amplifies the impacts of climate change, especially through deterioration in food security. The National Determined Contribution (NDC) targets a reduction in CO2 emission levels by 25% by 2050, with a transformational shift toward a low-emission development pathway, by targeting priority sectors, implementing REDD+¹² as well as promoting innovation and technology transfer for sustainable breakthroughs in energy, waste management, transport and agriculture."}, {"bbox": [96, 614, 1133, 721], "category": "Text", "text": "Agricultural value chains are largely informal, with players poorly connected with limited access to finance. Enterprises struggle to make ends meet in an unfavourable ecosystem. Supply networks towards the industry are not structured and by-products are largely wasted. The needs of the domestic and cross-border markets into Guinea, Libera and export opportunities beyond are largely unexploited."}, {"bbox": [96, 732, 1133, 1131], "category": "Text", "text": "Sierra Leone's Medium-Term National Development Plan 2024-2030 provides a \"Transformative and Acceleration Agenda for Food Security, Human Capital Development & Job Creation\", prioritizing agricultural transformation to achieve food and nutrition security, adaptation to climate change, youth employment and overall economic growth. The National Sustainable Agricultural Development Plan 2010-2030 serves as Sierra Leone's contribution to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which also prioritizes agricultural productivity. In 2022, in the context of the World Food Forum, the Sustainable Food Systems analysis highlighted the following as threats to the country's food systems: unsustainable production technique and land use practices; exploitation of natural resources; and high food import dependence. Government's current flagship initiative, \"Feed Salone,\" launched in October 2023, aims to boost agricultural productivity, ensuring food security, and fostering inclusive economic growth. With a commitment to allocate 10% of the national budget¹³, Feed Salone will be a central driver of the country's Big 5 Game Changers for accelerated delivery of sustainable development for 2024-2030. It focuses on six pillars: (i) mechanization and irrigation; (ii) seed and input systems; (iii) aggregation, processing, and market linkages; (iv) agricultural finance; (v), ag-tech and climate-smart agriculture; (vi) and empowerment of women in all their diversity and youth. The country suffers from limited data availability, especially post-Ebola and COVID-19."}, {"bbox": [96, 1142, 1133, 1436], "category": "Text", "text": "The EU is a major contributor to Sierra Leone's socio-economic development, including agriculture. The Multi-Indicative Programme 2021-2027 priorities are green economy, human development and governance. The green economy aspect aims to promote a green and resilient economy by providing decent jobs and a sustainable, inclusive green economic transformation, which includes \"Sustainable food systems: developing sustainable, employment-oriented agriculture and fisheries food systems for health and nutrition.\" The human development aspect prioritizes Basic Education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); supports improving the quality literacy and numeracy, skills and qualifications of the population. The EU is committed to join forces with EU Member States under the Team Europe Initiative \"Green Pact with Sierra Leone\", to foster (i) Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for jobs and growth; (ii) Sustainable agriculture and seafood systems for employment, health and nutrition; and (iii) Restoring, managing and protecting terrestrial and marine biodiversity and ecosystems."}, {"bbox": [85, 1476, 1142, 1526], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁸ Sierra Leone scores in the bottom quarter in both the “life cycle of a working woman”, the “Global Gender Gap Index”, and the “Gender Inequality Index”"}, {"bbox": [85, 1526, 956, 1549], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ Forest cover currently stands around 5% (National Forestry Policy, Government of Sierra Leone, 2021)"}, {"bbox": [85, 1549, 1107, 1572], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ FAO and USGS data sources report between 30–42 percent forest cover lost between 1960 and 2010 (FAOSTAT, 2021)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1572, 1113, 1597], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, ranking of 2021: 68 out of 185 on ability to adapt, and 154 out of 192 on readiness"}, {"bbox": [85, 1597, 639, 1621], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation"}, {"bbox": [85, 1621, 715, 1645], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹³ In 2022, Government expenditure to the agricultural sector stood at 2.4%."}, {"bbox": [1035, 1680, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 33"}]