How much foreign aid does the US provide to Sierra Leone?
Updated quarterly
About $105.9 million in aid was obligated for fiscal year (FY) 2024, the most recent fully-reported year. Another $28.9 million has been reported for FY 2025.
$106M
of foreign aid was obligated to Sierra Leone (FY 2024)
99.8%
of foreign aid was for economic purposes (FY 2024)
The United States gives foreign assistance to provide humanitarian aid and support peace, security, and economic development around the world. According to foreignassistance.gov, investing in global security and stability serves US national security interests by creating strategic and economic connections with other countries.
The more than 20 government agencies that fund or conduct foreign assistance activities report their aid to the Foreign Assistance and Data Reporting Team at foreignassistance.gov, which is jointly staffed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State. Due to data collection and reporting lags from the agencies providing aid, it can take up to two years for data to be considered “fully reported.” And even once they are, these numbers continue to change.
Sierra Leone is considered a low income country, according to the World Bank classification system. There are 29 low income countries that received aid, getting 21.3% of US foreign aid provided to individual countries in FY 2024. Sierra Leone ranked #23 among the low income countries in terms of aid received, between #22 Central African Republic ($120.5 million) and #24 Tajikistan ($99.3 million).
In FY 2024, $105.9 million in foreign aid was committed to Sierra Leone.
Obligations by fiscal year, inflation-adjusted dollars
How much military aid does the US provide to Sierra Leone?
Foreign aid can be either military or non-military in nature. According to foreignassistance.gov, military aid is “... foreign assistance for government armed forces for purposes such as internal security, legitimate self–defense, or to permit their participation in regional or United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations.” Non-military assistance is any other aid, broadly described by “economic assistance.”
In FY 2024, all foreign aid was given for economic purposes.
What is aid to Sierra Leone spent on?
How does foreign aid money get to the intended recipient?
Aid starts in Congress and flows to US government agencies, which are responsible for obligating and disbursing funds and managing the implementing partners that conduct aid activities in the receiving country. An assistance activity “... can be a project, program, cash transfer, delivery of goods, training course, technical assistance, research project, debt relief operation, or a contribution to an international organization.”
What kinds of organizations provide aid in Sierra Leone?
Implementing partners can be based in the US or not, and are divided into eight categories:
- Businesses
- Church and faith-based groups
- Governments (either foreign governments or US government agencies like the Peace Corps or the Department of Defense)
- Multilateral organizations (international institutions whose members are country governments, like the World Food Programme of the United Nations)
- Networks (a global or regional organization that brings together public, private, and civil society groups with similar goals to facilitate knowledge sharing)
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or not-for-profit organizations
- Public and private partnerships (collaborations between the public sector and a private partner to deliver public services, often infrastructure)
- Universities and research institutes
87.4% of US aid to Sierra Leone in FY 2024 went to US-based implementing partners.
The top category of aid delivery partner was the US government, accounting for $54.9 million, or 51.9% of all aid.
Aid was delivered by eight kinds of implementing partners. The US government, US-based businesses, and US-based NGOs received $83.6 million, or 79.0% of total aid.
In FY 2024, funding for US aid to Sierra Leone was appropriated by Congress to eight agencies.
| 1. | Department of State | $50.7M |
| 2. | Millennium Challenge Corporation | $43M |
| 3. | US Agency for International Development | $8.98M |
| 4. | Peace Corps | $1.84M |
| 5. | Department of Defense | $658,700 |
| 6. | Department of Health and Human Services | $400,300 |
| 7. | Department of the Treasury | $222,900 |
| 8. | Department of the Interior | $82,700 |
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
