The Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone, through the line Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have last week signed a South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) agreement aimed at developing the rice productivity in Sierra Leone.

The new project which has an estimated budget of Five Million United States Dollars ($5m), is expacted to be implemented through a Unilateral Trust Fund (UTF) from Sierra Leone.

The tripartite agreement was signed Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security by Abu Bakarr Karim, and Saeed Abubakar Bancie, FAO Country Representative. Minister Abu Bakarr Karim in statement after the signing of the pact, commended the Government of Vietnam for its commitment to providing technical assistance through FAO South-South Cooperation. Karim emphasized the invaluable role the sister country is set to play in Sierra Leone’s agricultural reform landscape.

The new tripartite project will also support diverse actors to increase the productivity and production of rice through increased access to improved technologies and upscaling of best practices along the rice value chain.

Over the course of a four-year project, Vietnam will provide its expertise in rice-value-chain development to Sierra Leone. Skilled experts and technicians specialized in rice production, irrigation, rice breeding, mechanization, and post-harvest management will be deployed to various national sites, including research stations.

Additionally, capacity-building initiatives such as study tours, field training, and training of trainers will be implemented to empower local stakeholders.

This new tripartite agreement is part of FAO’s strong commitment to broaden its partnership base with diverse groups of countries through South-South and Triangular Cooperation and mobilization.

The countries in the Global South are increasingly recognizing SSTC as one of the most efficient delivery modalities addressing their needs.

Since 1996, FAO has been working at central and decentralized levels, to promote SSTC amongst its Member States as means to reduce poverty and hunger, while promoting sustainable agrifood systems.

The SSTC Guidelines for Action, a key tool to scale up SSTC technical and financial partnerships in support of agrifood systems transformation, is one of the many ways in which FAO is spearheading and mainstreaming SSTC.

FAO’s South-South Cooperation endeavours to facilitate the exchange and transfer of agricultural knowledge and expertise among developing countries. By leveraging proven innovations and best practices from the global South, countries grappling with similar challenges can benefit from these collaborative efforts.

With regards to the development of the rice sector in African countries in particular, FAO has supported, through SSC, major rice-producing countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda to address the challenges facing their rice value chains.

Through country-level capacity-building, regional knowledge exchange events and study tours, FAO has extensively facilitated the sharing of good practices, lessons learned and the dissemination of analysis on rice value chains. In carrying out these functions, FAO has established strong partnerships with institutions such as the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), bringing their expertise to the benefit of target beneficiaries.