Yusuf Keketoma Sandi
Government has approved US$21 million to support 15,000 extreme-poor households in Sierra Leone.
Deputy Minister of Information and Civic Education, Yusuf Keketoma Sandi said the amount will be made available to cover Cash Transfers and Economic Inclusion Support to the extreme-poor households countrywide.
In the Supplementary Appropriation Act 2023, with support from development partners, Government continues to scale up Social Safety Nets to mitigate the impact of the multiple shocks on households.
In addition to the Free Quality School Education Programme, including school feeding and the Free Health Care 7 Initiative, Government is also providing other social safety nets including cash transfers to the poor and vulnerable segments of the population.
Under the Emergency Cash Transfer programme funded by the World Bank, European Union and Government of Sierra Leone during 2020 to 2022, cash transfers were provided to over 46,000 beneficiaries. Government also provided support to about 10,000 persons living with disability during the period.
Productive Social Safety Net and Youth Employment Project funded by the World Bank has also commenced operations.
The Budget said: “Under this project six million dollars (US$6 million) will be provided to promote Productive Labour Intensive Public Works and Life Skills Support for 13,000 youths in rural and urban communities; and the Project will further deliver grants and training on life skills in entrepreneurship and information technology at the estimated cost of US$6 million to 8,000 youths in urban areas, including women and persons with disabilities as part of the Employment and Entrepreneurship Support for Youth.
“The World Bank has also provided US$50 million under its Crisis Response Window to support short to medium-term interventions to cushion the impact of the food crises on our people. This is being implemented as part of the Regional Food Systems Resilience Project to support various interventions to ensure food security.”
