37th CFS Plenary Session, 17-22 October 2011, Rome
The CFS is the United Nations' forum for reviewing policies concerning world food. It is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition.
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FREETOWN, October 20, 2010 – In Sierra Leone’s Koinadugu district, farmers will be able to store their crops and sell them at a better price, thanks to better facilities and support from the World Bank. Many of them still suffer the impacts of the country’s 11-year war and are disabled, widowed or unemployed. The International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest, is bringing new opportunities to the hardest hit areas of Sierra Leone.
Koinadugu in the north is the largest and one of the poorest districts. Two IDA-funded projects, the Rural and Private Sector Development Project and the Cash for Work component of the Youth Employment Project, are reviving the district’s farmers and helping those impacted by the war.
Press Release No. 10/348
September 21, 2010
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Sierra Leone during September 8-21, 2010 to conduct discussions for the 2010 Article IV consultation and for the first review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), approved by the IMF Executive Board in June 2010. The mission met with His Excellency, President Ernest Bai Koroma; Minister of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED), Dr. Samura Kamara; Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Mr. Alpha Kanu; Minister of Trade, Mr. David Carew; the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Mr. Sheku Sesay; other senior officials of the government and the central bank, representatives of the business community, civil society organizations, and development partners.
June 23, 2010—In Rwanda, one of the world’s most densely populated landlocked countries, farmers face an uphill battle – literally – to get the best they can from the soil.
Land in Rwanda is scarce. But the major problem confronting those who work the land is that almost 90% of arable land is on hillsides. Torrential rain on more than half of the slopes causes erosion and subsequent flooding and silting in the valleys beneath. Erosion costs the country 1.4 million tons of fertile soil each year.
Press Release No. 10/228
June 4, 2010 - The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved the sixth review of Sierra Leone’s performance under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement. The approval will enable a final disbursement of SDR 7 million (about US$10.2 million), bringing total disbursements under the program to SDR 51.88 million (US$75.8 million). In completing the review, the Executive Board granted a waiver for the non-observance of the quantitative performance criterion on the domestic primary fiscal balance of the central government.
27 April 2010 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Sierra Leonean Government have embarked today on a new initiative to provide free health care for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five across the West African nation.
Sierra Leone, which ranked 180 out of 182 countries in the 2009 Human Development Index (HDI), has been facing serious challenges in the delivery of and access to health-care services, UNICEF’s Christiane Berthiaume told reporters in Geneva.
In 2008, the under-five mortality rate was 140 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality ratio was 857 per 100,000 live births.
The lifetime risk of a woman dying from complications of pregnancy and childbirth was one in eight, Ms. Berthiaume added.
Press Release No.10/109
March 24, 2010 -- An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Mr. Jan Mikkelsen visited Sierra Leone during March 10-24, 2010 to conduct discussions on the sixth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, and a new ECF-supported program. The mission met with Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr. Samura Kamara, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Mr. Alpha Kanu, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. David Carew, the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Mr. Sheku Sesay, other senior officials of the government and the central bank, representatives of the business community, civil society organizations, and development partners.
At the end of the mission, Mr Mikkelsen issued the following statement in Freetown:
9 March 2010 – Some 5,000 West African farmers are reaping the rewards from a United Nations scheme aimed at helping them export produce to the growing organic food market in the industrialized world.
The $2.4 million UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) project has helped farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone to meet the necessary certification and adapt to the required methods to grow and sell organic products, according to a FAO news release issued today.
FAO noted that the organic and fair trade market in developed countries is expected to grow by about five to 10 per cent per year over the next three years, offering new opportunities for smallholder farmers in poor countries.
Press Release No. 09/465
December 17, 2009
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the fifth review of Sierra Leone’s economic performance under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. Completion of the review, on December 16, 2009, will enable the immediate disbursement of SDR 12.185 million (US$19.3 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 44.88 million (about US$71 million).
The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis
