Bilateral meeting with H.E. Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone

Rome - The FAO Director-General met today at FAO headquarters with ​​H.E. Julius Maada Bio, President​ of Sierra Leone.

The Director-General welcomed the President to FAO headquarters and conveyed his appreciation for the support extended to FAO by Sierra Leone throughout the years.  

The President thanked the Director-General for the warm welcome and appreciated FAO’s support to the country in achieving food security, recognizing FAO's positive impact on agrifood systems transformation and informed that Sierra Leone was working tirelessly to improve its food production through various actions. The President highlighted however that they continued to rely on the support of partners such as FAO to attain food security and self-sufficiency.  

Ini particular, the President requested support for marketing and food processing stating that post-harvest loss remained a huge challenge and required technical support through infrastructure development to mitigate losses. The President further appreciated the South-South Cooperation programme and in this regard requested assistance to strengthen relations with countries such as China and Viet Nam. He further solicited assistance with climate smart agriculture projects as the country was adversely affected by climate change.

The President also requested FAO’s support in areas such as the digitization of farmers’ markets to link them directly with consumers, and for the development of the aquaculture sector to grow the economy and for youth employment. The President informed that agricultural transformation programmes relied on the private sector and there was a need to mitigate risk particularly for small farmers and to attract investors to unlock capital for expansion. 

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO's commitment to provide all the technical support required, including through the FAO Investment Centre to promote its investment programmes and projects and to attract investors. He further invited Sierra Leone to join the One Country One Priority Product Initiative as it was an important tool to achieve objectives. He also referred to the Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum during the World Food Forum highlighting it provided an important platform to attract potential investors.