Fostering Economic Inclusion for Resilient Growth in Sri Lanka

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The proposed program will aim to support the following two complementary interventions: The first is an integrated package of economic inclusion interventions tailored to the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups within the ultra poor and poor category. This will focus on Sri Lanka’s pockets of deep poverty and acute food insecurity. The interventions will sustain consumption levels in the aftermath of the crisis, strengthen the services required for continued engagement of these vulnerable groups in livelihoods, and will focus on complementing the current basic economic inclusion package being rolled out under WB and ADB financing to address additional vulnerabilities faced by these groups based on their identity, circumstances, and the socioeconomic conditions that limit their ability to take advantage of income generating opportunities. The intervention would aim to test whether a more comprehensive and tailored package of support (delivered in partnership with civil society organizations) would yield more sustainable results in terms of preventing further increases in their vulnerability - when compared with the basic intervention currently being tested by the Department of Samurdhi Development (DSD). This component will be implemented under the overall coordination of the Ministry Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment with civil society organizations (CSOs) expected to deliver the livelihood activities as well as enabling and training services.The second intervention is a Third Party Monitoring (TPM) package involving a pilot with Citizen Engagement Hubs. This component will seek to improve the effectiveness of the Aswesuma program by establishing citizen and beneficiary feedback engagement on critical aspects of the reforms. The success of the recovery process in Sri Lanka will be largely dependent on the political commitment on the part of the current Government to push through with the series of reforms laid out in the IMF program and recently approved Development Policy Operation. It will be critical for GoSL to effectively understand the impact of reforms to take corrective action as needed to maintain its credibility vis- a vis citizens in a context of limited trust where there are concerns regarding lack of transparency and corruption. Activities under this component with facilitate this process, with The Partnership for Transparency Fund leading the implementation of citizen hubs and feedback mechanisms.