President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio met with United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit +2 in Rome, Italy.

It is understood that Bio held “productive bilateral meeting” with the UN Secretary General, Guterres.

“I shared Sierra Leone’s experience as a leading example in using school feeding programmes as a tool for promotion of education, inclusion and economic development,” Bio said.

He added that his government since 2018 has provided food to approximately “800,000 school children” in Sierra Leone with help from WFP, Catholic Relief and Plan International.

Bio said his government provided 80 percent of cost for the project.

The summit will begin on Monday June 24 and end on Wednesday June 26.

The UN Secretary-General will Chair Summary and Statement of Action on the UN Food Systems Summit to convene “a global stocktaking meeting every two years to review progress in implementing the outcomes of this process and its contributions to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. This will be supported by the RBAs, the broader UN System and partners.”

The Summit also aims at understudying the progress made since the previous in 2021. It will also look at the importance of creating a healthy and resilient food systems as accelerators in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).