Iceland opens its Development Cooperation Mission in Freetown

Today marks a new chapter in the collaboration between Iceland and Sierra Leone with the official opening of Iceland’s Mission in Freetown. The mission will strengthen further Iceland’s partnership with Sierra Leone and will have a main focus on development cooperation. 

A reception celebrating the formal opening was held in Freetown last night where number of people attended including government representatives from Sierra Leone, UN agencies and the diplomatic community. 

Sierra Leone is now Iceland’s third bilateral partner country for international development cooperation. With other partner countries being Malawi and Uganda. 

“The formal opening of our Mission in Sierra Leone is an important step concluding years of preparation. The mission’s focus will be on development cooperation initiatives and Sierra Leone joins Malawi and Uganda as Iceland’s third bilateral partner country. Iceland strives to be a reliable partner and looks forward to deepening the partnership with Sierra Leone,” said Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland. 

The Mission opening marks the end of a long process that started in 2020, but various factors have delayed Iceland’s intentions for opening an Embassy, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership between the two nations began with development initiatives focused on fisheries cooperation in 2018 through the World Bank. This soon extended to enhancing livelihoods in fishing communities by improving access to basic services such as water and sanitation. Now over 60,000 people have already gained access to clean water and improved sanitation through collaboration with the Government of Sierra Leone, UNICEF and implementing partners. In addition to UNICEF, Iceland also has partnerships with other UN agencies. 

The main focus in Icelandic bilateral development cooperation is to enhance livelihoods in the partner countries by supporting the development plans and efforts of national authorities to reduce poverty and improve socio-economic living standards. Iceland‘s development cooperation in Sierra Leone is carried out according to Iceland‘s current bilateral development cooperation strategy which is in line with Iceland‘s policy for international development cooperation which emphasizes a human rights based approach to development cooperation, enhancement of social infrastructure and gender equality.    

In the coming months, Iceland will have further discussions with the Government of Sierra Leone, development partners and other stakeholders on Iceland’s Country Partnership Strategy for Sierra Leone and how we can best contribute to the country’s Medium Term National Development Plan.