Sierra Leone - Social Action Support Project (SASP)

The present intervention concerns the Social Action Support Project (SASP). It aims to mitigate the risk of renewed conflict and contribute to sustained poverty reduction. The project responds to the acute need for poverty reduction in Sierra Leone and is the result of a concerted effort between the Government and its partners. The SASP is a multi-sector project using a social fund approach to support the country in its effort to reconstruct its basic infrastructures and alleviate poverty; it will particularly aim to improve infrastructure in the education, health, sanitation, environment, agriculture, public infrastructure especially in rural areas, water, and micro-enterprise sectors. The project comprises three components: (i) A support to public works component using labor-intensive techniques to help generate livelihoods for waraffected rural and urban youth (including ex-combatants), and vulnerable groups (e.g., female headed households and the handicapped), (ii) Support to micro-finance capacity-building component targeting primarily women and the handicapped, and (iii) Support to Project Management and institutional capacity-building.