Five Years Of Food Insecurity In Salone: *2019 – 54% *2020 – 63% *2021 – 74% *2022 – 81% *2023 – 78%

A 2024 World Bank report on Agriculture and Food Global Practice on Sierra Leone states that within a five-year period, food insecurity in the country increased sharply.
Food insecurity throughout the country has risen sharply in the last five years, 54% in 2019, 63% in 2020, 74% in 2021, 81% in 2022 and 78% in 2023.
The report maintained that food insecurity is distributed throughout the country, with the northern and southern areas experiencing the highest proportions.
That the group predominantly affected by food insecurity are those whose livelihood is made directly from agriculture.
“60 percent of Sierra Leoneans involved in the sector are food insecure (WFP 2021). These statistics highlight the fact that the interconnectedness of food security, poverty, and the risks associated with the agriculture sector and existing challenges in the sector contribute to reinforcing livelihood traps,” the report stated.
That overall, 95 percent of households in Sierra Leone spend more than 50 percent of their earnings on food, noting that limited income, rising inflation, and higher food prices all produce conditions whereby a substantial portion of earnings is being used to meet basic needs such as food.
“A 2021 WFP study of 33,760 households found that the most common coping strategy for food price or production strains was to reduce spending on nonfood items (42 percent of the households surveyed), which implies a deprioritization of other important household needs such as savings, education, and health expenses,” the report stated.
The report furthered that although widespread in Freetown, in some districts such as Koinadugu, Falaba, Moyamba, Bombali, and Pujehun, almost all households are food insecure.
The report noted that the above corresponds with district poverty levels and districts with the highest total household expenditure going to food (WFP 2023; UNDP 2023).