Sri Lanka Moving from Stabilization to Growth

dropped

Failure

The proposed program will aim to support the following two complementary interventions:i. 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 help these groups sustain their consumption levels during the current crisis and strengthen the services required for continued engagement of these vulnerable groups in livelihoods. The intervention 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 MoWCASE. The activities are designed to provide particularly marginalized groups among the poor and ultra poor with sustainable livelihood to meet their basic food needs/ reduce the adverse impacts on child and maternal health nutritional outcomes. The targeting of beneficiaries will be done on the basis of a combination of geographic targeting (districts with highest poverty, food security and GBV rates) and categorical targeting criteria using the social registry. The project uses the following definitions: (i) Rural livelihoods” denotes access to on-farm and off-farm income generating activities and productive infrastructure. Rural livelihoods will be considered improved when they rely on more sustainable income generating activities and increased income diversification. This Component will complement the existing and pipeline livelihood initiatives including the economic inclusion pilot under the World Bank-funded Social Protection Project (P178973). The project will also leverage effective livelihoods schemes and existing partnerships with local skills/business development services piloted by development partners including the ILO and ADB. ii. A comprehensive Third Party Monitoring (TPM) package focusing: (i) generating data on the welfare impact of the current reform process with a specific focus on the vulnerable groups targeted under the proposed grant and; (ii) building consensus between Government and citizens on the reform trajectory and key programs to mitigate the impacts of reforms and ensure effective delivery of essential services. 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. A set of quarterly phone surveys would be rolled out and rapidly analyzed over the four year period to generate actionable data to allow for course corrections or complementary measures – as needed – to maintain the reform trajectory on course. In addition to the information needed to inform Government reform, putting in place a two-way communication mechanism to engage citizens at local (district) level, will be equally important. A set of district level citizen hubs will be put in place and a network of local community-based organizations strengthened to provide feedback on reforms, access to services and raise concerns around lack of transparency and corruption in particular. The team will explore the use of social media monitoring to collect additional information on public sentiment regarding key reforms. The proposed intervention would be implemented under the overall coordination of the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment (MoWCASE) with: (i) civil society organizations (CSOs) expected to deliver the livelihood activities as well as enabling and training services as well as to drive the implementation of citizen hubs and feedback mechanisms [Transparency International in partnership with the Partnership for Transparency Fund ]; (ii) specialized firms will be contracted to implement the proposed quarterly surveys on social welfare and popular sentiment monitoring [to be selected competitively].

World Bank Group

Project

Raw Materials, Commercial, Government, Education