I was opportune to be a part of the District Grievance Resolution Committee of the Sierra Leone’s Social Safety Net (SSN) Project while working as a District Monitoring Officer for Democracy Sierra Leone. It’s a program that gives direct and unconditional cash transfer to the most poor and vulnerable households in every district quarterly. Here we discussed challenges of the project and proffer solutions to those challenges; while communicating the outcomes and recommendations to our different donors.
It was due to our collaboration and success stories that the project was scaled up from being implemented in Western Rural, Bombali, Moyamba, and Kono to the rest of the other districts.
I had a database of contacts of all the councillors in the Western Area Rural District, whom together with our field monitors and Anti Corruption Commission’s representatives monitored the cash transfer process implemented by the NaCSA staff. I collated and analysed those data to find discrepancies or ascertain that they were in sync with the payment plan which served as an indicator to measure the effectiveness of the distribution.
Yearly visit was done to assess the impact of the transfers. I led a team of monitors; whom visited different locations to note the impact of the transfers on the lives and immediate families of the beneficiaries. The impact was astounding! These success stories were communicated to our donors through reports.
