SIERRA LEONE: Financial Assessments for the Districts of Tonkolili, Koinadugu, and Bombali.

Still recovering from seven years of brutal conflict, Sierra Leone managed two full-fledged, peaceful, and credible elections for President, Parliament, and local councils. This helped improve governance through increased decentralization of development programs and services; however services were not adequate. For example, while the central government agreed to provide financial transfers for devolved functions to enable service delivery at an acceptable standard, the transfers have often fallen short of the budgeted amounts and have been late. Compounding this problem, administrative roles are not well defined. Some ministries and agencies, most notably those responsible for education and roads, have not devolved functions as and when required. Strengthening the capacity of the local councils to plan, manage, and deliver services is crucial for improving human development outcomes. To address this capacity issue, the Government of Sierra Leone approached PPIAF's Sub-national Technical Assistance program in early 2012 to conduct financial assessments of three of its poorest municipalities and help make them eligible for concessional financing using Cash-for-Work (CfW) and Food-for-Work (FfW) schemes for small infrastructure.