The National Food Assistance Agency (NFAA) is set, in the coming week, to undertake a Sample Size Needs Assessment in three counties of Liberia as part of government’s broader vision to address the food needs of citizens in underserved food-insecure communities of the country.
Scheduled to take place in Grand Bassa, Bong and Lofa counties from 10 to 14 November 2025, the exercise will witness stakeholders mapping, including local food producers and their businesses, as well as the current conditions of food storage facilities in the selected counties to guide the agency in the rollout of its food assistance programs across the country.
According to the terms of reference (TOR) released on the weekend from the Program and Planning Unit of NFAA, the assessment aims to gather data on targeted primary public schools, disability centers, vulnerable centers, agencies, and other institutions involved with food distributions and storage. With such data collected, the TOR disclosed, the agency would be in a better position to track evidence-based information on existing realities surrounding regional food hubs to ease difficulties during food distributions to citizens in the leeward counties.
Announcing plans for the assessment to the public during the week, NFAA Director-General Borkai A.M. Sirleaf said the conduct of the exercise aligns perfectly with government’s development agenda which seeks to ensure that every citizen is treated alike in spite of one’s geographical location. DG Sirleaf is of the view that undertaking the assessment will provide adequate and reliable information to ensure the implementation of the forward logistics basis established during the EBOLA crises to determine the vulnerable segments of the nation’s population, especially in the rural parts of the country.
To successfully achieve the plans, Hon. Sirleaf further disclosed that while in the counties, his team, in collaboration with the General Services Agency (GSA), will work with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Health to gather relevant data. “We are very keen on doing this because we don’t just want to enter a county and drop the food”, he pointed out, stressing the need to meaningfully impact the local population with government’s food assistance efforts.
