Sierra Leone - Emergency Economic and Fiscal Support Operation

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The Emergency Economic and Fiscal Support Operation to the Republic of Sierra Leone is requesting funding to support the Government of Sierra Leone’s efforts to respond to the challenges posed by the Ebola virus disease epidemic and thereby mitigate the negative economic and fiscal impact of the Ebola virus disease on the implementation of the Agenda for Prosperity. The program development objective is to ensure that (1) the Government’s Ebola Response Plan can be executed through adequate budgeting and (2) transparent use of resources, consistent with strengthening longer-term fiscal management and transparency. This program document also seeks the approval of executive directors to provide the financing of the project from the Crisis Response Window (CRW) entirely on grant terms rather than on Sierra Leone’s standard IDA terms as is prescribed for financing from the CRW. The use of grant financing is appropriate in light of the demonstrable regional and global positive externalities that will flow from mitigating the spread of the deadly virus in the affected countries and reducing the risk of it spreading to at-risk neighboring countries, as well as the rest of the world. The proposed operation is fully consistent with the Agenda for Prosperity and the government’s program. The strategy maintains the main thrust and areas of focus of the second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and includes pillars covering: diversified economic growth; managing natural resources; accelerating human development; international competitiveness; labor and employment; social protection; governance and public sector reform; and gender and women’s empowerment.