Sierra Leone continues to recover from a decade-long civil war that ended in 2001. The war destroyed most of the country's socioeconomic and physical infrastructure, and caused unprecedented population displacement.

Domestic production of rice, the country’s main staple, currently only meets about 70 percent of the consumption requirements. The remainder needs to be imported at increasingly expensive prices.

Located in West Africa, Sierra Leone ranks last out of the 177 countries listed in the latest United Nations Human Development Index. About 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and is vulnerable to food insecurity, while 26 percent cannot even afford the minimum daily calorific requirements.

Sierra Leone has one of the highest child malnutrition rates as well. Nine percent of children below five years are acutely malnourished and about 40 percent are chronically malnourished, not able to live up to their physical and mental potential.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is helping Sierra Leone fight hunger and poverty. In the following interview with Christa Räder, WFP Country Director for Sierra Leone, we will look at school feeding programs that combat child hunger.

How many children are benefiting from the WFP School Feeding Program within the country?

WFP supports basic education with the main objective of improving school enrollment and stabilizing attendance and completion, particularly for girls in vulnerable communities. WFP provides cereals, pulses, and vegetable oil, which are served in the form of a daily lunch to more than 225,000 school children in over 900 public schools across eight districts in the north, south and east of the country. Additionally, pulses are given as incentive to the families of 5,000 girls in grades four to six in areas that are characterized by high levels of food insecurity and low school completion rates for girls.

Discuss what effect the meals have on the children in terms of school attendance, performance, and nutrition.

In Sierra Leone, boys and girls have to perform considerable amounts of work in their families. Girls are required to help with household chores, while boys are needed on the farm. Thus, the decision to send a child to school is not only a matter of expenses, but also of substantial opportunity costs in terms of the children’s contribution to the household.

The School Feeding Program has been successful in attracting and retaining more children at school; it has also greatly contributed to increasing the children’s attention span and their learning potential. Between 2005 and 2007, the number of children enrolled in school feeding increased 40 percent. The attendance rate of those who are enrolled has also significantly increased – to 97 percent. Children who otherwise may have stayed at home to work, have been given the opportunity to learn. Most of the girls (about 80 percent) who take part in the National Primary School Examinations in WFP-supported schools successfully graduate to secondary schools. WFP School Feeding also encourages high achievement!