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Sierra Leone
Scaling Up Nutrition and Food Systems Coordination Unit
Sierra Leone coordinates nutrition and food systems from the Office of the Vice President, through a dedicated unit that convenes a ministerial steering committee and a multistakeholder platform of more than 200 members.
Institutional set-up and structure
Established in 2014, the Unit sits in the Office of the Vice President and oversees, coordinates and monitors the country's eleven national nutrition coordinating bodies. Coordination is led by the national food systems convener, a Minister of State in that Office, supported by the Unit, a food systems technical working group, and an inter-ministerial food systems committee chaired by the Vice President. Alongside these sits a civil society multistakeholder platform.
Mandate and decision-making power
The Unit leads cross-sector coordination on nutrition and food systems, convenes the ministerial steering committee and technical coordination committee, develops and manages national coordination tools including policies, strategies and data systems, advocates for transformation, mobilises resources and partnerships, and promotes evidence generation. The steering committee represents platform members in national discussions and oversees the platform's governance and coordination. The platform leads advocacy and policy influencing, capacity development, community engagement and emergency response.
These bodies are tasked with the following roles (building blocks):
Agenda setting: advocacy and dialogue; deciding on goals and strategic priorities
Policy formulation and decision making: coordinating policy development
Implementation: coordinating policy and programme delivery; coordinating financial resources and the budget
Monitoring and evaluation: tracking progress, evaluating and reporting
Who is involved
Government: ministries, departments and agencies, including the directorate of food and nutrition
Development partners: United Nations agencies and bilateral partners
Civil society: registered and unregistered organisations, community bodies and media, together numbering over 200 platform members
Academia
Private sector: companies participating through the platform
How it works in practice
A joint annual assessment convenes stakeholders from government, civil society and development partners to review progress and set priorities for the year ahead
Evidence base: policy documents only, 2026. Last updated: September 2026.
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