Japan highlights support to UN-led projects in Sierra Leone

The Embassy of Japan to Sierra Leone, on 3rd March 2022 at Radisson Blu Hotel showcased its support to bilateral and multilateral projects implemented by UN Agencies in Sierra Leone mainly from 2019-2022.

The objective of the event was to highlight Japan’s Economic and Development Cooperation in Sierra Leone. Over the years, Sierra Leone has benefited significantly from economic and technical cooperation from the Government of Japan. This is being done mainly in the form of grants and technical assistance.

Speaking at the event, His Excellency Ambassador, Mochizuki Hisanobu said the projects were implemented across several policy domains and are expected to complement the national policies of Sierra Leone that seek to make meaningful progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Some of the projects have helped to increase access to health services since the COVID-19 pandemic started. In the areas of agriculture and food security, some of the projects have helped to build the capacity of smallholder farmers and introduced initiatives to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on food security in vulnerable households, strengthen health systems at Points of Entries, and supported energy, education, infrastructure, women empowerment, child protection, gender-based services, and partnership with the private sector ”.

In his statement, the UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Babatunde Ahonsi, said that Japan had demonstrated its commitment to the SDGs not only through domestic efforts but also through development cooperation programmes with a range of countries, including Sierra Leone.

“Japan’s range of programs represents the true spirit of SDG 17 -- Partnerships for the goals.  Somewhat distinct from the others, the overarching SDG 17 has catalytic potential to accelerate all other SDGs” Mr. Ahonsi explained.

“Japan is a key funding partner of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, the four-year, joint development cooperation programme between the UN Country Team and the Government of Sierra Leone,” he said.

“While much of Japan’s support goes directly to individual agencies, some is also channeled through Multi-Partner Trust Funds managed at the global level.  These Trust Funds are vehicles to pool resources from multiple donors towards a specific objective.  They often fund programmes implemented by two or more UN agencies working together in a ‘One UN’ approach to the SDGs, allowing them to realize complementary and symbiotic results” he added.

In his keynote address, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Francis Kai-Kai, commended Japan’s economic and development cooperation in Sierra Leone.

Japan’s cooperation he said, had distinguished itself, especially in the domains of Human Capital Development, Diversifying the Economy and Energy clusters of the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2019 2023.

“Overall Japanese aid has always come in handy in support of the (MTNDP) 2019-2023. We are proud to note that the Government of Japan mainly through its International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been providing project support and non-project grants to Sierra Leone, aligning this support to the country’s development agenda”.

He said that Sierra Leone certainly appreciates the long-standing relationship with Japan and was looking forward to strengthening it further in the upcoming Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) scheduled to hold in the Republic of Tunisia from the 27th-28th August 2022.