The Sri Lanka Country Director of USAID
and Sri Lanka’s Commissioner
General for Rehabilitation today handed over equipment to help over 550 former
Tamil Tiger combatants to start new civilian jobs in eastern Sri Lanka.
The handover in Batticaloa, which included
canoes, pumps, engines and tool kits for rice paddy cultivation and fishing,
was part of a USAID-funded IOM pilot project to help reintegrate the
demobilized former rebels into civilian life.
The Information, Counseling and Referral
Services (ICRS) project aims to reintegrate up to 1,000 former members of the
armed Tamil groups LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and TMVP (Tamil
Makkal Viduthalai Pulikel).
"Reintegrating former combatants into
society, retraining them and helping them to find jobs and generate income, is
not easy, but is an essential first step towards stabilization, peace and
economic recovery," says IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdiker.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, USAID
Sri Lanka Director Rebecca Cohn said "I want to congratulate the
individuals who are here with us today for the important step you have taken in
your lives. We applaud your courage and wish you success, knowing that this can
have a powerful confidence-building effect for the much larger numbers we hope
will embark on a similar journey in the weeks and months ahead."
Commissioner General for Rehabilitation
Brigadier Sudantha Ranasinghe speaking at the ceremony said: “This is a very
good example reintegration assistance that can be replicated in the Northern Province. It is
important to do community rehabilitation and to stop the labeling of this group
of people.”
The Batticaloa project follows another
pilot reintegration project implemented by IOM at the request of the government
in 2003. The RECLAIM programme successfully helped some 600 former combatants
return to civilian life.
IOM has implemented post-conflict
disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes that, over the past 20
years, have helped over 300,000 former combatants and 1.5 million of their
dependents in 25 countries to return to normal civilian lives.
Sri
Lanka has been an IOM member state since 1990 and IOM has had a major
presence in the country, including six sub-offices in the north and east, since
the December 2004 tsunami.In addition
to the reintegration of former combatants, IOM Sri Lanka's activities include
emergency response and reconstruction, technical cooperation in migration
management, capacity building, counter trafficking, and return and
reintegration.
UNFPA Supports Health Services for Resettled Women in Northern Sri Lanka
Share COLOMBO, 9th March 2010 – Getting proper health care is a challenge for thousands of Sri
Lankans who have recently gone home to former conflict zones. UNFPA, the United
Nations Population Fund, is stepping up its support for the health and safety
of women and girls who are returning, particularly those who are pregnant.
At least 2,500 pregnant
women have moved out of camps for displaced since the start of the year,
returning to their homes or moving in with host families. Some 150 will give
birth in the next month, UNFPA estimates.
Health services are limited
in these resettled areas. Most health facilities were damaged during the
conflict that ended last year, and with limited public transport, access to
existing health services continues to be difficult.
In response UNFPA, in
collaboration with the Ministry of Health, provincial health officials and the
Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, has begun to operate mobile
reproductive health clinics in resettled areas, offering prenatal and postnatal
care, voluntary family planning, services for HIV prevention and psychosocial
counselling.
In restoring health
infrastructure, UNFPA has provided a range of reproductive health equipment and
supplies to the Mallavi Base Hospital and Kilinochchi General Hospital so that
mothers can deliver their babies safely.
The Fund also continues to
distribute personal hygiene packs for women and girls and maternity kits for
pregnant women to help in maintaining personal hygiene.
After
visiting several
resettlement areas, UNFPA Representative Lene K. Christiansen said,
“UNFPA is
pleased to be working with our partners in restoring health services and
ensuring
that the unique health concerns of women and girls are not overlooked
during
the resettlement process”.
U.S. Funds IOM to Support
Sri Lankan Government Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking
COLOMBO, February 12,
2010: The US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
in Persons (GTIP) is to fund an IOM
project to help Sri Lanka develop a
national strategy on combating human trafficking, to identify and prosecute trafficking
cases, to protect victims and to improve the country’s collection of
trafficking data.
The USD 300,000 program, which will
build on an earlier US-funded IOM counter trafficking project in Sri Lanka, will
provide training for law enforcement and government officials and technical support for the
government’s anti-trafficking task force to help it to develop a comprehensive national
strategy.
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia
Butenis commented, “GTIP grants have been a great tool to build the capacity of
governments to combat trafficking and we look forward to building on our past
work with IOM and the Government of Sri Lanka to eliminate this modern day form
of slavery.”
The project will
work to improve the government’s process of identifying and protecting trafficking
victims by ensuring that they are referred to agencies for appropriate
assistance. The program will also look at establishing shelters and training staff
to work in them.
“This new initiative
will bring together IOM, our partners and the government to comprehensively
tackle the problem of human trafficking and protect some of the most vulnerable
people in our society,” says IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdi
Ker.
Previous US-funded IOM
initiatives to curb human trafficking in Sri Lanka have included a series of
nationwide workshops that trained over 1,000 law enforcement officers and NGO
workers to identify, protect and prosecute traffickers, a program that sensitized
judges on the issue, the establishment of a national research centre to help
combat human trafficking and assistance for victims.
Human trafficking is the
third most profitable criminal industry in the world, and is emerging as one of
the most urgent human security issues of today. According to GTIP’s 2009 annual report, human traffickers target men, women and children
by using creative and ruthless schemes to trick, coerce and win the confidence
of potential victims. Victims are forced into harsh domestic labour, prostitution,
or involuntary marriage, and even illegal organ theft.
For
more information contact Anuradhi Navaratnam, 5325 300 (Ext: 348), pnavaratnam@iom.int, Stacey Winston swinston@iom.int or Passanna Gunasekera, 5325 300 (Ext
344/341), pgunasekera@iom.int
The World Bank
Colombo Office invites registered civil society organizations in Sri Lanka to
submit applications for the Civil Society Fund (CSF) 2010
The theme for the
Civil Society Fund 2010 (CSF 2010) is “Development
and Climate Change – Building Community Resilience in the Dry Zone of Sri
Lanka”.
Applications are sought for projects that
will propose innovative mechanisms to adapt to and mitigate climate change
through community based initiatives related to sustainable agricultural
practices at the household level, water management and managing solid waste.
Water scarcity in the
Dry Zone area of Sri Lanka is one of the biggest challenges faced by people
living in this area, which is also a key area of agriculture production.
“Innovative approaches to dealing with the causes and consequences of climate
change will be critical for the future”, said Naoko Ishii, World Bank Country
Director, echoing a key message from the recent 2010 World Development Report
on “Development and Climate Change”
ﾠ
Five grants of up to
US$9,000 each will be awarded this year.ﾠ
ﾠ
Applicant
organizations are asked to describe how a grant from the World Bank might help
them to raise matching funds from other development partners. A cash or in-kind
counterpart from the applicant-organization of, at least, 20 percent of total
cost required and should be reflected in the proposed budget.
ﾠ
Organizations that
have not been supported by the Program in previous years are encouraged to
apply. Organizations are not eligible for more than three grants from the Civil
Society Fund within a five-year period.
Projects will be
assessed by their:
1.ﾠﾠEffectiveness: ability to demonstrate sustainability of proposed
activities through collaborations with other public/private sector
organizations.
2.ﾠﾠFeasibility: show a practical approach with a realistic time line and
budget.
3.ﾠﾠOrganizational Capacity: indicate the skills and capability of the
organizations staff and any previous experience of handling a similar project
of equal size and scale.
4.ﾠﾠCredibility of the organization in the community.
5.ﾠSignificance: Ability of the project to make a difference to the
community it proposes to support and a clear mechanism to report expected
results.
Please note that the
CSF cannot fund research programs, formal academic training programs,
operational projects, ongoing institutional core support (such as equipment
unrelated to the activity), scholarships, fellowships, study programs,
individuals applying on their own behalf, or organizations not categorized as
civil society organizations. Proposed activities should not compete with or
substitute for regular World Bank instruments; they should be clearly
distinguishable from the Bank’s regular programs
ﾠ
All applicants must
be Sri Lankan registered civil society organizations of good standing and have
a record of achievement in the community and a record of financial probity. The
Fund will only accept one application from an organization.
ﾠ
Applications for the
Civil Society Fund and a small booklet titled “Short Course on Proposal
Writing” inEnglish,
Sinhala,
and Tamil
will be available at the reception of the World Bank’s Colombo Office, 73/5,
Galle Road, Colombo 3 and on our website at www.worldbank.lk.ﾠﾠ
ﾠ
To receive copies of
the application form by e-mail and for more information on the CSF, send an
email to infosrilanka@worldbank.org
ﾠor click on the link
below to download all application material from this website in all three
languages.
ﾠ
The deadline for
submission of applications: March 30, 2010.
For more information
about World Bank activities in Sri Lanka, visit:ﾠwww.worldbank.org/lk
USAID Funds IOM Return and Resettlement Operations in Northern Sri Lanka
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced US$3 million in new funding to support IOM’s return and resettlement operations targeting some 77,000 internally displaced people in the north of the country.
The assistance will include transport to allow IDPs to return to their home districts; emergency shelter kits to build temporary housing and transitional shelters; water and sanitation facilities; and the provision of emergency health services across the region.
“Our focus is on vulnerable families, such as female-headed households, the elderly and the disabled. By improving access to shelter, and providing clean water and health care, USAID is providing some of the critical services these people need to begin to rebuild their lives,” said U.S. Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis.
"Thousands of displaced families are returning to their home districts with very little by way of shelter, water, sanitation and basic health services. IOM will tailor this assistance to plug the gaps and meet the most immediate needs in these areas," said IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdi Ker.
Since the humanitarian emergency following the end of the war against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in May 2009, IOM has assisted the Sri Lankan authorities in providing emergency shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, and primary health care to thousands of IDPs, mainly in the Menik Farm displacement camp in Vavuniya district.
In late 2009 IOM scaled up its emergency operations at the request of the government to help over 100,000 IDPs return to their home districts from the camp, which previously housed over a quarter of a million people.
There are currently more than 93,000 IDPs remaining in the camp, many of whom are waiting for permission to return home, pending de-mining and removal of unexploded wartime ordnance from hundreds of towns and villages across the North of Sri Lanka.
For more information please contact IOM Sri Lanka: Selina Salkeld +94.11.5325 300 (Ext392), Email:
Safe water for thousands: 1.66 Billion Rupee water project commissioned in Ampara
COLOMBO 7 January 2010 – Today, the Government of Sri Lanka and UNICEF officially commissioned a new water supply scheme in Ampara district.
The Thirukkovil Water treatment plant will provide safe drinking water to 38,000 people in the Thirukkovil area. In doing so the 1.66 billion rupee project, funded by UNICEF, will play a critical role in safe guarding the health of the region’s children, greatly contributing to the reduction of the incidences of diarrhoea, hepatitis and other water related diseases. While also ensuring that local residents especially women and children, don’t spend hours each day fetching water.
“This project will increase the water coverage from 58 to 90 per cent in this region, greatly improving the quality of life for the people’’ said the Minister of Water Supply and Drainage, Al-Haj Athaullah at the opening ceremony.
“Water borne diseases are one of the most serious threats to child health especially when there is limited access to safe water,” said UNICEF’s Representative in Sri Lanka, Philippe Duamelle. “Today the health and life of thousands of women and children will be enhanced by giving them access to safe water”. As humanity faces ever greater water challenges and difficulties on sanitation, projects that so greatly increase the supply of safe water become even more important.
The Thirukkovil supply scheme has the capacity to supply 6,500 cubic meters of fully treated drinking water to the Thirukkovil Divisional Secretariat area and suburbs. Before this project there was no reliable safe water supply in the area. Communities were depending on dugwells and other sources of water which covered only 58 per cent of the water supply needs of the region. With the Thirukkovil water supply scheme the coverage will now increase to 90 per cent.
The main components of the new project include:
Sagamam Water Intake, consisting of pump house, generator room, and suction chamber.
Thirukkovil Treatment Plant consisting of the aerator, sedimentator, laboratory, sludge disposal system.
Thamaraikulm site consisting of a 500 cubic meter tank for storing the treated water, generator room, pump house and a 2.7km pipeline connection.
The scheme will distribute water to communities in Thirukkovil, Mandanai, Thambiluvil, Kudinilathidal, Vinayagapuram, Thamaraikulam, Sangamamgramam and Sagamankandy areas.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence.The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
For more information please contact: Suzanne Davey, Communication Officer – External Relations, UNICEF Sri Lanka, Mobile: 077 316 5378, Office: 94-11-2768555 sdavey@unicef.org
The European Commission (EC), through its implementing partner the International Organization for Migration (IOM) provides a milk chilling centre for the dairy farmers of Bandaradoowa Village, Uhana, in Ampara, eastern Sri Lanka.
Average household income in Bandaradoowa is currently around LKR 3,180 per month, and of the 309 households, 43 are female headed and two thirds are registered Samurdhi recipients.
The benefits of this centre will be far reaching. Dairy farmers - previously only able to make one milk round per day and suffering much loss of income due to spoilage – will now be able to keep their milk cool, make an additional evening round, and potentially double their income. The project cost over 5.9 million Sri Lankan rupees and will serve some 1,522 beneficiaries, of which 112 dairy farmers in this conflict-affected village directly.
A ceremony to open and hand over Bandaradoowa MCC to the Bandaradoowa Farmer Managed Society will take place at 10.30am on 03.12.2009 at the project site.
Women central to efforts to deal with climate change, says new UN Population Fund report
Colombo, 18 November 2009—Women bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but have so far been largely overlooked in the debate about how to address problems of rising seas, droughts, melting glaciers and extreme weather, concludes The State of World Population 2009, released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
“Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it,” says UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
The poor are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women. The poor are more likely to depend on agriculture for a living and therefore risk going hungry or losing their livelihoods when droughts strike, rains become unpredictable and hurricanes move with unprecedented force. The poor tend to live in marginal areas, vulnerable to floods, rising seas and storms.
The report draws attention to populations in low-lying coastal areas that are vulnerable to climate change and calls on governments to plan ahead to strengthen risk reduction, preparedness and management of disasters and address the potential displacement of people.
Research cited in the report shows that women are more likely than men to die in natural disasters—including those related to extreme weather—with this gap most pronounced where incomes are low and status differences between men and women are high. The State of World Population 2009 argues that the international community’s fight against climate change is more likely to be successful if policies, programmes and treaties take into account the needs, rights and potential of women.
The report shows that investments that empower women and girls—particularly education and health—bolster economic development and reduce poverty and have a beneficial impact on climate. Girls with more education, for example, tend to have smaller and healthier families as adults. Women with access to reproductive health services, including family planning, have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse-gas emissions in the long run.
“With the possibility of a climate catastrophe on the horizon, we cannot afford to relegate the world’s 3.4 billion women and girls to the role of victim,” Ms. Obaid says. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to have 3.4 billion agents for change?”
Peace benefits must be strengthened through economic measures and inclusive reconstruction efforts, says UN Assistant Secretary General
Colombo, November 13, 2009. “We appreciate the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka, in the past few weeks, to accelerate the release and return of IDPs and as agreed with the Secretary General in May, to resettle a majority of the IDPs by January 2010,” said Mr. Ajay Chhibber, UN Assistant Secretary General (ASG) and Assistant Administrator for UNDP, while on a three day mission to Sri Lanka, which concluded today.
The visit, which included a trip to the IDP Welfare Centre in Menik Farm and the ‘Rice Bowl’ in Mannar District, served to update Mr. Chhibber on the recovery needs in Sri Lanka brought on by recent resettlement trends. In Vavuniya, Mr. Chhibber held discussions with the IDPs, civil and military authorities, officials in the District Mine Action Office (DMAO) and demining operators.
The discussion provided an opportunity to see how UNDP could best contribute to the post-resettlement process in view of the magnitude of the displacement and capacity challenges at hand. The ASG visited project sites in Vavuniya where UNDP is providing civil and legal documentation support to the IDPs. In addition, UNDP is also involved in strengthening disaster risk preparedness and environmental protection by supporting construction of drainage networks and reforestation initiatives.
In Colombo, Mr. Chhibber met with senior Government officials and Ministers, including Hon. Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights and Hon. M.P. Basil Rajapaksa, Senior Presidential Advisor and the Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Dr. P.B. Jayasundera.
Mr. Chhibber also held exchanges with representatives of the donor community in Sri Lanka and the United Nations Country Team. The visit provided Mr. Chhibber with the opportunity to outline UNDP’s role in the recovery efforts in the coming weeks and months.
UNDP, he said, is already playing an active role in assisting people in the camps and is an important partner of the Government. However, with the increase in the pace of resettlement, UNDP needs to start looking beyond the immediate resettlement process. Considerable assistance will be required to help communities establish sustainable livelihoods and restart their lives.
UNDP, in partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka, other UN agencies and bi-lateral donors, is in a strong position to contribute to post-resettlement efforts. “With the improving economic situation, Sri Lanka is already seeing some of the benefits of peace. This must be strengthened and consolidated through economic measures and an inclusive reconstruction effort in the North”, he concluded.
IOM works with Government, partners to return IDPs
In close coordination with the government and the UN, IOM has scaled up its logistics and transport operations in the past month to help return some 90,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from the Menik Farms displacement camp to their home districts across northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
The returns, in hundreds of IOM-chartered buses, were funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Australia (AusAID), and at one point reached 4,000 people in a single day.
Destinations included Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara and more recently, Mullativu and Kilinochchi districts. (Tunukai in Mullativu and Poornaky in Kilinochchi have now been identified as safe return areas)
"IOM strongly supports the government's decision to empty the Menik Farms camp and return the IDPs to their home communities by the end of January 2010. We are also planning to work with our partners in the government and the international community to help the IDPs to rebuild their lives after they return home,” says IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdi Ker.
The IOM return operation of the past month brings the number of IDPs to leave Menik Farms, which in July housed about a quarter of a million people, to over 100,000.
"An important aspect of the government’s resettlement plan is to ensure that local authorities are ready to receive the IDPs, to provide protection to vulnerable people and to ensure their access to services,” says IOM Sri Lanka Emergency Operations Manager Giovanni Cassani.
Clearing landmines and unexploded ordinance before the IDPs return home to towns and villages across northern Sri Lanka is a major challenge. IOM, with US$1.3 million of funding from Australia, has provided the government’s humanitarian de-mining unit with 220 mine detectors, helmets and other safety equipment. Part of the money is also helping the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) to hire more de-mining teams.
IOM is also helping returnees through the provision of shelter kits, transitional shelters and water purification systems, as well as clearing wells, and installing drainage and sanitation facilities. It is also setting up temporary health care facilities and strengthening the capacity of local government to cope with the additional needs of the returnees. Post-return, these will include early recovery initiatives and the need for new livelihoods.
In addition to the UK and Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden are also funding various IOM Sri Lanka IDP resettlement projects.
In parallel with the IDP return operation, IOM will continue to address the ongoing humanitarian needs of displaced families still in Menik Farms camp. This support will include the provision of emergency health care, temporary shelter, water and sanitation, camp care and maintenance, distribution of non-food relief items, transport, logistics and IDP registration.
