economic growth and developmental programmes has contributed to a reduction in poverty levels, from 66 percent in 2003 to 53 percent in 2011, as well as levels of inequality levels; these reductions were accompanied by improved living conditions. The Gini coefficient decreased from 0.39 in 2003 to 0.32 in 2011 (Statistics Sierra Leone, 2012). 8. Despite the clear progress that has been made, poverty levels, inequality and the standard of living of people in Sierra Leone, notably that of children, remain a cause for concern, and the GoSL is not yet on track to achieve a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 9. Not only do poverty and deprivation levels remain high, but they are unequally distributed across different geographical areas and across differently constituted households in the country. Whilst poverty declined in three provincial regions, it increased in the Western Region. Poverty levels vary substantially across the districts and between rural and urban areas. Poverty is pervasive and intense in rural areas. It has declined most rapidly in urban areas, from 47 to 31 percent between 2003 and 2011, compared to a reduction from 78 to 66 percent in rural areas. Poverty is more intense in rural areas where, in 2011, only 21 percent of individuals were able to meet their basic needs, compared to 92 percent in urban areas (Government of Sierra Leone: Agenda for Prosperity, 2013). In addition, many of the households living in poverty are labour-constrained and comprised of children, the elderly, disabled and chronically ill people with high dependency. 10. When adjusted for inequality, Sierra Leone’s HDI ranking value drops to 0.21, indicating the real impact of inequality on the lives of the majority of people in Sierra Leone (UNDP, 2013). 11. The unequal distribution of poverty impacts particularly severely on children. A Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis of data from the 2010 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) shows that child poverty in Sierra Leone is characterised not only by inadequate income but additional severe deprivations that affect the majority of Sierra Leone’s highly vulnerable children simultaneously. The result is high levels of deprivation and poor living conditions for the many children in Sierra Leone made vulnerable by the multiplicity of constraining social and economic factors that shape their home environments. For example, a child whose mother has little or no education; or is not in early childhood education; who lives in a rural area; and/or is poor, then suffers multiple and simultaneous deprivations in health, nutrition and sanitation (UNICEF-Sierra Leone, 2013). 12. The slow rate of progress in improving the lives of children, along with the persistence of poverty and inequality, has been determined by a number of historical factors, including a decade-long civil war and insufficient investment of economic gains in social protection and other human development services, particularly for children. 13. Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, waged between 1991 and 2002, set the country’s stability and progress back substantially. The war traumatised the nation and, in its wake, left a trail of destruction of service-delivery infrastructure and systems. Its impact was felt most severely by children. An estimated 10,000 children were directly affected as active combatants and victims. By the end of the war, Sierra 1. Introduction  3