• © UNESCO/J. Caro Gardiner
• Pupils of Bombali school.

Sierra Leone joined UNESCO on March 28, 1962. The country is covered by the UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal.

Sierra Leone is one of the 35 countries implementing the UNESCO Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), a 10-year initiative aimed at achieving the goals of the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012).

The country also participates in the 10-year UNESCO's Teacher Training Initiative for sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) which will assist the continent’s 46 sub-Saharan countries in restructuring national teacher policies and teacher education.