Water and sanitation coverage in Sierra Leone is estimated at 58% and 13% respectively of the country’s 7 million inhabitants. Urban water supply coverage is estimated at 74% and urban sanitation coverage at 23%. The densely populated capital city, Freetown, is part of the urban WASH sub-sector. The poor water and sanitation services in the city exacerbate the negative effects of the dense settlement. Women and children bear the overwhelming burden of collecting water in water-starved communities in the city. 

The city has less than 4 km of sewers, which discharge directly into the seas without any form of treatment. The poor water and situation is further aggravated by the intense encroachment into and widespread degradation of the Western Area Protected Forest, which forms the watershed and the only water lifeline for the capital city. 

The Bank has been actively engaged in the water sector in Sierra Leone for over a decade and has accumulated significant experience in the environment.

The target countries of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Togo and Zambia are regions experiencing high deforestation, poor agriculture yield and increasing poverty exacerbated by climate change. Across all four countries, climate variability and change has become a major threat to sustainable development. 

As part of efforts to address these challenges, the four countries are implementing national projects to establish Staple Crops Processing Zones: initiatives designed to concentrate agro-processing activities within areas of high agricultural potential to boost productivity and integrate production, processing and marketing of selected commodities. These initiatives are purposely built shared facilities, to enable agricultural producers, processors, aggregators and distributors to operate in the same vicinity to reduce transaction costs and share business development services for increased productivity and competitiveness.

Developing adequate infrastructure (energy, water, roads, ICT) in rural areas of high agricultural potential should attract investments from private agro-industrialists/entrepreneurs to contribute to the economic and social development of rural areas.

The Sahel, which lies between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, is one of the largest semi-arid/arid sub-regions globally. As such, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change and other uncertainties. The impacts of climate change may have critical socio-economic consequences for the Sahel, including poor agricultural yields, increased frequency of natural disasters. Already, the number of people in the Sahel suffering from chronic food and nutrition insecurity, poverty and vulnerability to the effects of climate change is rising steadily. 

A lasting solution to food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel requires building resilience to climate change, long-term agricultural sector financing and developing trade and regional integration. Sustained, longer-term investments in household resilience can significantly reduce the cost of emergency assistance, ultimately breaking the cycle of recurring famine. This is the most cost-effective intervention option which meets the basic needs and preserves the dignity of the populations of the Sahel. This idea is central to the Programme to Build Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2RS)