World Bank approves credit for reintegration project

The World Bank has approved a US $25-million credit to help support the Sierra Leone government's strategy to help reintegrate former combatants and rebuild the country's social and economic infrastructure, the bank said in a news release on Wednesday. The beneficiary of the credit, the Community Reintegration and Rehabilitation Project, aims to contribute to increased security, stability and economic revival by providing the following two programmes. Firstly, an emergency recovery support fund that will facilitate social and economic recovery and the restoration of basic services through community-based projects that target individuals, groups and communities affected by the conflict. Secondly, a training and employment programme to support the economic reintegration of former combatants through targeted counselling, training and employment creation efforts as well as civic education, psychological counselling and community sensitisation activities. Vulnerable groups to be targeted by the project include households headed by women, unemployed youths, children and former combatants and their dependents, the news release said.