All posts by augustinesesay

At the African Development Bank’s high-level event From Pledges to Plates during the Africa Food Systems Forum 2025 (#AFSF2025) in Dakar, Sierra Leone took center stage as Minister Henry Kpaka joined counterparts from Senegal, Burundi, and Rwanda to reflect on progress since the landmark Dakar 2 summit.
Representing the Government of Sierra Leone, Minister Kpaka delivered a powerful update on how President Julius Maada Bio’s flagship Feed Salone programme is turning bold commitments into tangible results.

His remarks highlighted a growing wave of transformation across the country’s agricultural landscape:
Translating Vision into Action

• Rice self-sufficiency is rising, with strategic investments in local production reducing dependence on imports.
• Livestock and cassava industrialisation are gaining momentum, unlocking new value chains and market opportunities.
• Finance and irrigation infrastructure are being scaled up, laying the groundwork for sustainable, climate-resilient farming.
  Building Resilience, Empowering Communities
  Minister Kpaka emphasized that Sierra Leone is not merely mobilising pledges—it is materialising them into real projects that uplift lives. From rural cooperatives to agribusiness hubs, the Feed Salone initiative is:
• Creating dignified employment for youth and women
• Strengthening food sovereignty
• Enhancing economic resilience in the face of global shocks
  d A Model for Inclusive Growth
  Sierra Leone’s approach stands as a model for how African nations can move from policy to practice. By aligning national priorities with community needs, the country is demonstrating that food systems reform can be both inclusive and impactful.
  As #AFSF2025 continues to spotlight innovation and collaboration across the continent, Sierra Leone’s story is a testament to what’s possible when leadership, investment, and local ingenuity converge.

On the 2nd September, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) held a courtesy meeting at the Ministry’s Conference Room to kick off the supervision mission for the Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (AVDP). The engagement aimed to align the mission’s objectives with the Ministry’s leadership.

The Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) began in 2018 and runs through 2025, funded by IFAD and implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. It supports value chains in rice, cocoa, oil palm, and vegetables, aiming to boost productivity and market access for smallholder farmers.
AVDP operates across 16 districts in Sierra Leone, targeting over 43,000 direct beneficiaries and reaching approximately 260,000 people. The project promotes climate-smart agriculture, strengthens agricultural markets.

Addressing the IFAD mission team, The Acting Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Theresa Tenneh Dick, emphasized how collaboration and joint efforts have strengthened AVDP implementation. She noted that the initiative is being used to bring farmers into Inland Valley Swamps under the Feed Salone program. According to her, IFAD’s support has positioned the Ministry to cultivate rice and vegetables year-round. As the mission begins, she encouraged the team to identify challenges and provide insights that would guide government decisions to maximize the gains from IFAD’s investments.

On her part, Pascaline Barankeba, who is leading the mission, assured the Ministry that a comprehensive feedback report would be provided at the end of the exercise to enhance project performance. She expressed appreciation for the Ministry’s warm welcome and continued leadership in supporting IFAD’s investments.

The mission team is also scheduled to meet with the Ministry of Finance, EPA, and other partners before proceeding to Bo Headquarter for field visits.

Now, more than ever before, tax payers in rich countries are curious to not only know how their tax monies are spent in poor countries, but also to see tangible evidences of development on the ground. This has triggered a renewed interest in effective monitoring and independent evaluation of development interventions.

At the same time, the continuous threat of global recession, has gradually led to reduced donor fundings, with the attendant push for recipient countries to also start contributing towards the cost of interventions as a way of demonstrating ownership of the results. This new thinking has shifted most donor funds towards private sector development, mostly through market-oriented interventions (e.g., strengthening market systems, entrepreneurship development, improving critical trade infrastructure, skills trainings etc.), with the long run objective been to reduce the dependency of poor nations on foreign aid. This is the hard reality now!

To be able to catch up with this triple shift; of the move towards trade, and of recipient countries also contributing towards cost of interventions, and of demonstrating real results on ground; governments in these recipient countries need to position their domestic private sectors to produce more and add value to gain stable access to international markets. This does not come by magic. It requires deliberate actions, including policy shifts, increased investments and mindset change.

Impact Matters is poised to strategically position itself to play a leading role in this new normal within the development world, by making this triple shift beneficial to the recipient countries and also making development results more visible to stakeholders.