Cash Transfers in Sierra Leone: Appropriate, Affordable and Feasible? August 2007 Rebecca Holmes, Overseas Development Institute, UK Adam Jackson, Ministry of Finance, Sierra Leone Cash transfers series Cash Transfers in Sierra Leone Authors Rebecca Holmes, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK. Email:
[email protected] Adam Jackson, Economic Policy and Research Unit, Ministry of Finance, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Email:
[email protected] Background and Acknowledgements Evidence on how cash transfers can reduce poverty remains a hot topic in both development and relief circles. Some development agencies have put cash transfers at the centre of their social protection strategies. However, cash transfers are far from a panacea, and questions around the appropriateness and feasibility of cash transfers in different contexts are important and urgent. This paper is one of a series of outputs from ODI’s research study (2006–09) “Cash Transfers and their Role in Social Protection”. The study aims to compare cash with other forms of transfers, identifying where cash transfers may be preferable, the preconditions for cash transfers to work well, and how they may best be targeted and sequenced with other initiatives. The study explores a number of issues of interest to donors and governments, including which forms of targeting and delivery mechanisms are most appropriate. This project is co-funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The authors would like to thank Mr Matthew Smith of the Budget Bureau, Ministry of Finance for providing the figures on Government social protection expenditure. They would also like to thank all the people who participated in meetings and provided valuable information for this report.