Building data-driven agricultural policy in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, agriculture employs over 65% of the rural population and represents a cornerstone of food security and economic development. Yet, the sector remains vulnerable due to low productivity, limited access to inputs and services, and structural challenges around policy implementation.

To address these challenges, the Government of Sierra Leone launched its flagship policy plan for agriculture and food security, Feed Salone in 2023. Despite its efforts, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security still lacks the data infrastructure and technical capacity needed to inform, monitor, and evaluate the effectiveness of these policies.

As of 2023, 39% of Sierra Leone’s population was classified as poor (World Bank, 2023), and the country faces recurrent food insecurity and rising agricultural imports. The Planning, Evaluation, Monitoring, and Statistics Division (PEMSD) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security manages a decentralized M&E system but suffers from important limitations, particularly in rural areas, where field staff lack training in computer tools like Excel or STATA. This limits the Ministry’s ability to make timely, evidence-based decisions.

This project, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with IDinsight, a global research and advisory nonprofit, proposes to build a comprehensive data system and foster a culture of evidence-informed policymaking within the Ministry.

This project deploys an integrated solution combining technology, capacity-building and embedded policy support. The project will first build a comprehensive digital data system for Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, integrating existing survey tools with GPS tracking, automated checks, and real-time dashboards. This platform will streamline how agricultural data is collected, validated, and analyzed across the country.

To better inform policy, the project will also pilot new data collection modules on livestock health, trade dynamics, and crop yields. These will feed into strategic decisions such as input subsidy targeting, veterinary planning, and price stabilization. An embedded policy advisory team will support the Ministry in turning this data into action, drawing on both the new system and global evidence to answer priority policy questions.

Finally, the project will test tools like "Ask-a-Metric,", an IA data analyst developed by IDinsight. It is a natural language interface designed to answer questions from your database -fostering a broader shift toward evidence-based decision-making across the Ministry.

FID’s funding will support:

• The development and deployment of the digital M&E system
• Training workshops and one-on-one coaching for Ministry staff
• The collection of new primary data in areas identified during the initial scoping phase
• The implementation of a learning agenda to measure system uptake and policy impact

This pilot phase will strengthen the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and lay the foundation for more effective and inclusive agricultural policies.

Key expected outcomes include:

• A functioning, Ministry-owned digital monitoring system used for real-time agricultural data tracking.
• Improved staff capabilities in data management, analysis, and visualization.
• Evidence-informed policy decisions on issues like input distribution, trade flows, and livestock services.
• A sustainable model for using administrative and survey data to drive agricultural policy.
• Lessons learned on how to institutionalize data-driven policymaking in low-capacity settings In the long term, this innovation could help increase productivity, improve farmers’ incomes, and strengthen climate resilience, contributing to the full realization of the Feed Salone strategy.