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| Wednesday, 21 April 2004 |
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The World Bank has approved a grant of US$51 million for a community-driven project to empower communities and strengthen villages in Sri Lanka. The Community Development and Livelihood Improvement project will create opportunities for poor people to pull themselves out of poverty. Villagers who were consulted during the preparation of the project named the endeavour Gemi Diriya. It will be implemented in approximately 1,000 villages over four years, commencing initially in the five districts of Moneragala, Badulla, Hambantota, Matara, and Galle. "We are very pleased to be able to provide this support to some of the poorest areas of Sri Lanka, where the benefits of economic growth at the national level have been felt least, said Peter Harrold, the World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka. We also hope this is the start of a new relationship between communities and their local governments, where the local communities are increasingly empowered to select the services they value most, and where local governments regard the communities as their clients. The project, which will be driven by the communities themselves, has five components: Strengthening the capacity of Village Organizations so that they can fund priority community projects; Building the capacity of local and national agencies to respond to community demands; An Innovation Seed Fund to pilot creative ideas that need experimentation and learning before scaling up; Project management to facilitate coordination, administration, and monitoring; and Completion of the Village Self-Help Learning Initiative pilot in the Polonnarwa district. Gemi Diriya is designed to empower poor people and help them build a sense of community control. The program builds upon lessons learned during the Village Self-Help Learning Initiative, a four-year pilot program financed by the World Bank, and other similar initiatives, which tested the transfer of decision-making power and funds to communities. The project supports the governments poverty reduction strategy, which advocates restoring economic growth and attaining a lasting peace, thereby increasing economic opportunities for the poor. The program aims to give back to the people a reason to dream and hope for a better future, says Meena Munshi, Task Leaders for the project. The aim is for a future in which they decide upon and are accountable for their own development, with the government acting as a facilitator and a provider of technical assistance. |
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