Dr. Martha has over 12 years’ experience in Food and Nutrition Research for Development at the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI). She is currently the Officer In-Charge of Magbosie Land and Water Agricultural Research Centre, one of the constituent Centres of SLARI. She is also the Head of the Post-harvest Engineering, Food and Nutrition Sciences thematic area: where she trained nutrition instructors, processors, farmers, teachers and extension officers on value addition, food diversity, nutrition and health. She has a wealth of knowledge in food product development, food and nutrition analyses, food safety and quality control. She is passionate about reducing hunger and malnutrition thereby enhancing the nutritional status of the population especially resource poor farmers, women and children through research for development.
Dr. Martha’s current research are focused on dietary assessment, food quality and safety, processing and value addition and utilization of local/indigenous foods, climate change and clean cooking, healthy diet consumption. She is also an Associate Lecturer in the Institute of Food Technology, Nutrition and Consumer Studies, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Njala University, Sierra Leone.
She is the country Lead for the Generation of Databases for Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey and also for the Acceleration of Soybean Value Chain for improved Income, Nutrition, Health in Sierra Leone under the promotion of innovations and Technologies by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) . Prior to now, she coordinated a grant on Soil and Water Management Practices for improving Sustainable Agricultural Productivity and Food Security in Moyamba District” funded by he Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grant Programme through UNOPS grant to MLWERC/SLARI. She also lead the National Advocacy Effort on Resource Mobilization towards the conducting the first Joint Sierra Leone Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey.
Dr. Martha is playing key roles towards the transformation of sustainable agrifood systems initiative in Sierra Leone. She facilitated Food Security, Nutrition and Health Thematic area of the FAO/EU Sustainable Food Systems Initiatives coordinated by the Office of the Honorable, Vice President as a National Facilitator. She is currently collaborating with Agrinatura under the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Intelligence (SASI) Science – Policy Interface (SPI); A collaborative Initiative between the European Union, FAO, AGRINATURA, Governments, and Agrifood system actors to work on work stream 3 of the initiative: Ensure that the Food Salone Strategy contribute to healthy diet consumption in Sierra Leone. She also provided technical advice on WFP Nutrition specific and sensitive programs in Sierra Leone Country Office as a Nutrition Consultant. Specifically, she worked on targeted supplementary feeding for addressing moderate acute malnutrition in children and pregnant and lactating women during the COVID-19 pandemic, Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) school menu development, nutrition sensitive agriculture training to Farmer Based Organizations and promotion of the production and consumption of local complementary foods by children 6-24 months among others.
She has experienced in supporting nutrition-related national processes and policies, through her coordinating role of the Academia and Research Network of Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) movement at country specific level.
She has worked in diverse International academic and research establishments like International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as post-graduate fellow, Virgin Tech and Cornell University at the United States Department of Agriculture Research Services (USDA_ARs), Ithaca New York as Norman Borlaug LEAP Fellow, where she conducted nutrients and bioavailability research on consumed local food in Sierra Leone. She is also a member of the Post Harvest Taskforce of AfricaRice.
She has showcased her research works in series of conferences and publications in peer-review journals, book chapters, book of abstracts and technical reports.
Publications
Georgiana Allie, Sallu Karteh , Martha Shirley Epiphaneia Williams-Ngegba, Millicent Jinnah Sandy, and Dominic Musa Ibrahim-Sayo (2025): Nutritional quality and sensory profile of “oleleh”produced from cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and soybean (Glycine max) Composite. Journal of Underutilized Legumes. Vol. 7 (1): 48 – 56. https://sulegumes.org/e-ISSN: 2705-3776
Williams-Ngegba MSE, Onabanjo OO, Anthony NM, Alamu EO, Maziya-Dixon B and Oguntona EB (2024) Variations in micronutrient concentrations and retentions in fufu made from yellow-fleshed cassava as a function of genotype and processing methods. Front. Nutr. 11:1295609. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1295609.
Anthony, N. M., Afolabi, W. A., Williams, M. S. E., Mayiza-Dixon, B., & Babatunde, O. E. (2020). Appraisal and composition of some traditional complementary foods for infant nutrition in Sierra Leone. International Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 4(1), 73-79 .https://hdl.handle.net/10568/109881.
Book Chapters
Williams, M. S. E., Sawi, M. K., Anthony, N. M., & Sowe, S. (2015). Evaluation of sensory quality characteristics of muffins developed from sweetpotato flours. In Potato and sweetpotato in Africa: transforming the value chains for food and nutrition security (pp. 602-607). Wallingford UK: CABI.
Book of Abstracts
Williams M. S.E, Anthony N.M, Samba J, Fomba S. N, Sawi M, Nyamawa A.(2014) Development and Sensory Quality Characteristics Of Potato Based Products. Book of Abstracts of the 19th Triennial Conference of the European Association for Potato Research (EAPR) Brussels
N. Anthony 1, M.S.E Williams, S.N Fomba, J. Samba, M.K. Sawi (2014) Development and Sensory Evaluation of “Akara” from Potato Flour: Book of Abstracts of the 19th Triennial Conference of the European Association for Potato Research (EAPR) Brussels
N.M Anthony and M S. E. Williams, (2013). Development And Sensory Evaluation of Akara from Sweetpotato Flours (A Local, Cheap, Sierra Leonean Snacks Book of Abstracts of the 12TH ISTRC Triennial Symposium in Accra, Ghana
M. S. E. Williams and N.M. Anthony (2013). Assessment of the Organoleptic Qualities of Composite Cassava – Cowpea “Gbodor. Book of Abstracts of the 12TH ISTRC Triennial Symposium in Accra, Ghana
Williams M.S.E, Sawi M.K, Anthony N.M, Sowe S, Evaluation of Sensory Quality Characteristics of Muffins developed from Sweet Potato Flours. Book of Abstracts of the 9th APA Triennial Conference in Naivasha, KENYA
Technical Reports/Research Brief
Retention and bioavailability of beta-carotene, iron and zinc in fufu produced from bio-fortified cassava roots grown in Sierra Leone. Norman Borlaug Leadership Enhancement Agriculture Program end of fellowship
Agriculture and Nutrition Mapping Report for Sierra Leone: Identifying stakeholders for Collaboration Key interventions for scaling-up, and new areas of Research (January- December 2012).
Dissertations
Williams M.S.E. (2018): Retention and bioavailability of beta-carotene, iron and zinc in fufu produced from yellow-fleshed cassava roots grown in Sierra Leone; A dissertation submitted to the department of nutrition and Dietetics, college of food science and human ecology, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy in nutrition and dietetic
Williams M.S.E (2011): Impact of smallholder commercial vegetable production on the Nutritional status of Local Producers in Koinadugu District, Northern Sierra Leone; A dissertation submitted to the institute of home sciences, school of agriculture, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of Master of Science in nutrition and dietetics
Williams M.S.E (2010): Elevation of Sensory Quality Characteristics of Muffins Derived from Sweet Potato Flours; A dissertation submitted to the institute of home sciences, school of agriculture, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of Bachelor of Science with honors in nutrition and dietetics
