Disaster resilience analytics and policy dialogue in Sierra Leone

This brief focuses on the impacts of disasters on poverty and inclusion in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, a large part of the population has been chronically food insecure, at least since the Ebola virus disease epidemic in 2014. Rapid onset events such as the landslide and floods experienced in recent years have had a large detrimental impact on the well-being of the Sierra Leoneans affected. Past floods have had a larger impact on poor households in Sierra Leone than the 2017 event, as the latter was rather localized in space. In January 2020, the food security monitoring survey revealed that while food insecurity was highest in rural districts, Sierra Leone experienced a sharp increase in the number of urban residents living in food insecurity.

Rapid onset events such as the landslide and floods experienced in recent years have had a large detrimental impact on the well-being of the Sierra Leoneans affected. For the most recent landslide and floods of 2017, over 3,000 people lost their homes; but only a third of the households in the affected areas owned their own dwellings (the rest was mostly rented). Past floods have had a larger impact on poor households in Sierra Leone than the 2017 event, as the latter was rather localized in space. In the Western Area, poor households are often more exposed to floods and likely more susceptible to suffer losses from such events.