Divi Neguma progress review meeting held

A progress review meeting of Divi Naguma National Programme was held under the patronage of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa at the Economic Development Ministry yesterday and day before yesterday. At these meetings the on going situation, progress, challenges and future perspectives of the Divi Naguma Programme in Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Ratnapura, Nuwaraeliya, Matale, Kandy, Galle, Matara and Hambantota districts were discussed.

The Divi Naguma Programme was implemented in three phases as agriculture, small scale industry and livestock development.

The objective of the Divi Neguma programme is to strengthen people's economic status and minimize their dependence on the market for food requirements.

The programme further aims to improve nutritional levels, reduce cost of living, increase vegetable and food production, increase per capita vegetable consumption, create new income generation sources for families by selling excess production and encourage entrepreneurship at the village level. Monitoring and evaluation of the programme is conducted by facilitators of the Economic Development Ministry, who go into the grassroots level operations.

An online progress review is maintained by these facilitators who are able to update information on to the system remotely.

This was launched by the Ministry alongside a programme that supervises and provides guidance to better implement the Divi Neguma programme. Secretaries of Ministries, District Secretaries, planning directors and government officials were present at the discussions.