11-11-2020 | di COOPI

Sierra Leone. COOPI facilitates the Food and Nutrition Summit 2020

Last September, COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale organized “The Food and Nutrition Summit 2020” in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) and Ministry of Health & Sanitation (MoHS) in 4 operating districts of “Fostering Smallholder Agriculture in Sierra Leone” project which is funded by European Union to raise nutrition related awareness, share learnings and experiences among stakeholders and farmers. At least 600 farmers and extension workers from NGOs, governments, lead farmers and administrators from the District Councils were present in the 4 events.

This Food and Nutrition Summit with the theme “Knowing Barriers and Building Healthy Nations Together” was organized in the North & North West districts to demonstrate Linking Agriculture Natural Resources Management and Nutrition (LANN) approach developed by COOPI and to promote local recipes and a balance diet. During the seminar, COOPI showed local upgraded balanced recipes and food ingredients that are ignored traditionally promoting 20 local recipes, 5 baby food items and the success of LANN achievements was shared among the participants in the seminar.

LANN approach focuses on improving nutrition by making use of locally available resources from agriculture and the wild with assumption that opportunities for improved dietary diversity do exist in the current resources available. LANN beneficiaries have successfully came out of food insecurity and have created a solid evidence of the effectiveness of the approach, therefore the summit served as a platform to share learnings on nutritional value of food menu and cost, share learnings, experience on LANN roll out in different communities in the north.

The European Union funded project has implemented LANN interventions in 40 communities from 4 northern districts of Sierra Leone in supporting rural vulnerable women to achieve food and nutrition security through capacity building and access to natural resources and by equipping with entrepreneurial skills.