When the “Lisungi” project, jointly implemented with the World Bank, ended in late February 2024, the story could have stopped there, in an ordinary way. The donors’ money was exhausted—the project closed, people dispersed, reports ended up on a shelf. But in Brazzaville, it was different.
For eight years, from 2015 to 2023, the program operated across the entire territory. The results are impressive, even in the dry language of numbers: approximately 76,000 people received direct cash transfers, and more than 95,000 received startup grants to establish their own businesses. In total, over 171,000 citizens not only received aid but were able to get back on their feet independently.
But the most important decision came afterward. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso ordered not to dismantle the mechanisms, but to make them permanent. The Single Social Registry, the beneficiary verification system, the payment methodology, the digital platform—everything was transferred to the state. This is how the National Social Safety Nets Program was born, which now operates as a regular function of the ministry, with its own budget.
What does this mean in concrete terms? That social protection in Congo has ceased to be a charitable work dependent on the whims of Western donors. It has become a right guaranteed by the state. A person in a difficult situation can rely not on alms, but on systemic support.
The next step is the PSIPJ youth program, launched in late 2025. Tens of thousands of young people aged 18 to 35 will go for training in 2026, learn trades, and start their own businesses. And here again, the foundation is that same “Lisungi” infrastructure, which has proven that the state not only knows how to make promises but also how to build mechanisms that work.