Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone enacted the work injury regulatory framework before independence in 1961 and the old age, disability and survivors’ law in the last decade and a half. In 2007, a social assistance programme named the Social Safety Net Programme was introduced to support extremely poor households, with participants encouraged to pay particular attention to maternal and child health. The programme had 13,547 individual participants in 2015 and provides a quarterly cash transfer of US$81.26. In 2010, a Cash for Work programme began operating with the aim of creating employment opportunities in the short term and improving the employability of participants. The programme had 49,993 individual participants receiving between US$3.75 and US$4.69 per day. Social assistance spending was 0.25 percent of GDP in 2011, translating to social assistance expenditure of US$2.13 per poor person per year.