Outcome SLE_D_1.8

SN Outcome 1 (CF Outcome 1): People in Sierra Leone, especially the most vulnerable, are food and nutrition secure, benefit from effective natural resource management, are resilient to the effects of climate change, and equipped to prevent and respond to disasters.

Rural women smallholder farmers and women-led cooperatives have measurably increased their access to productive resources, climate-resilient technologies, finance, markets, and enabling policies, resulting in improved food security, sustainable livelihoods, and strengthened resilience to climate and environmental shocks. Through UN Women’s support financed primarily through regular resources (Institutional Budget) over 4,643 women were organized into functional cooperatives and strengthened with targeted capacities in agribusiness development, climate-smart agriculture, cooperative governance, and financial literacy, enabling them to manage viable, market-oriented enterprises. Women farmers secured collective access to land, inputs, credit, grants, and markets, including through a digital platform linking cooperatives to buyers and financial service providers, while receiving essential farming and processing equipment that improved productivity, reduced labor intensity, and enabled value addition. In parallel, UN Women supported the development and review of gender-responsive policies related to agriculture, climate resilience, financial inclusion, and disaster risk reduction, creating a more enabling policy environment for women’s economic empowerment. These results were achieved through strong internal collaboration across UN Women technical teams and strategic external partnerships with MDAs particularly the Ministry of Agriculture, private-sector actors, local NGOs, and community-based change agents. The investment of regular resources proved catalytic, leveraging additional funding and grants from development partners to scale climate-smart inputs, expand market linkages, and strengthen cooperative sustainability. Collectively, these interventions enhanced women’s leadership and participation across agricultural value chains, contributed to reduced food insecurity, and advanced a more inclusive, gender-responsive agricultural transformation with lasting community-level impact.