The World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Japan have reaffirmed their partnership to support food security and education in Sierra Leone with the signing of the 2025 Kennedy Round (KR) Food Assistance Grant. The ceremony, held at Country Lodge Hotel in Freetown, formalized a grant of JPY 200 million (approximately USD 1.3 million) to be implemented over two years in PujehunDistrict.
The new programme, titled “Improving educational outcomes and food systems resilience through school feeding in Pujehun,” aims to provide reliable school meals to over27,000 primary and pre-primary schoolchildren across the district’s most food-insecure chiefdoms. The grant will finance the procurement and delivery of school meals, including locally sourced rice, and support activities to strengthen food system resilience.
Speaking at the ceremony, Aminata Tall, WFP Representative and Country Director a.i., thanked Japan for its continued generosity. She said that the Kenney Round Grant is more than a donation. “It’s a powerful act of solidarity with Sierra Leone children,” she said. Aminata said that school meals are no longer just about feeding schoolchildren, but they are aboutgrowing local economies, supporting food sovereignty, advancing the FeedSalone Strategy in a way that links national policy to household incomes. “We are grateful for this new support which arrives at a time of economic pressures for many families,” she added.
Japan’s sustained support has been crucial to WFP’s school feeding initiatives in Sierra Leone. In 2024, a similar KR grant enabled meals for nearly 28,800 pupils in the same district. Over the past decade, Japan has contributed USD 37 million to WFP Sierra Leone, making it the largest donor to the country’s school feeding portfolio.
“This new grant reaffirms our shared commitment to pursuing inclusive education for the children of Sierra Leone,” H.E.Ambassador Yoshimoto Hiroshi of Japan to Sierra Leone stated. He expressed that Japan believes in empowering countries to lead their own development, adding that in line with this belief, Japan is pleased to provide food assistance that supports the government’s vision of increasing enrolment and retention rates by ensuring children receive timely and adequate nutritious meals to meet their basic food and nutrition requirements.
The event also marked the closure of a previous project that provided school meals to children in Kambia and Pujehundistricts during the 2022/23 academic year, valued at USD 1.61 million.
Hon. Conrad Sackey, Minister of Basic Senior and Secondary Education, welcomed the signing of another new grant which he said would directly support over 27,000 primary and pre-primary learners in Pujehun district, ensuring that no childchoices between hunger and hope. He said that the programme resonated with the government’s big five gamechangers especially the human capital development.
This latest KR grant underscores the ongoing commitment of Japan and WFP to improving educational outcomes and strengthening food systems for Sierra Leone’s most vulnerable children.
