Moriba Foday

National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA)

NaCSA is a semi-autonomous government agency which augments the work of social sector Ministries and Agencies and local authorities in delivering social services to deprived and remote communities across the country. It is governed by a Board of Directors with representatives from Government, donors and civil society. NaCSA's broad mandate is "to provide and otherwise engage in social relief programmes and to promote community-based demand-driven and sustainable development activities leading to the alleviation of poverty and improvement in the speed, quality and impact of development initiatives in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, relevant ministries, private sector partners and other interested partners". NaCSA started in 1996 as a Government Ministry known as the Ministry of National Reconstruction, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (MNRRR) with a broad mandate to respond to the immediate humanitarian crisis that emanated from the civil war and to handle the disarmament, demobilsation and reintegration of ex-combatants. The Ministry however could not cope with the level of urgency required for delivering such services within the prevailing context because of the bureaucratic procedures typical of government ministries. In order to address the administrative bottleneck, Government in November 1998 transformed the Ministry into a Commission called the National Commission for Reconstruction, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (NCRRR) with a more focused three year mandate of providing assistance for post conflict reconstruction, resettlement and rehabilitation. Government created a separate Agency to handle Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of ex-combatants known as DDR. When the NCRRR mandate expired in November 2001 it was restructured and renamed the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) through an act of parliament. This period coincided with the official end of the war hence the Commission new mandate included managing the transit