The World Bank last week approved a US$75 million IDA credit to Sri Lanka, which will support the second phase of a community driven development program that has touched the lives of nearly one million poor Sri Lankans in the three provinces of Uva, Southern, and Sabaragamuwa.
The Second Community Development and Livelihood Improvement Project, known also as Gemi Diriya or “the strength of the villages,” is active in over 1,000 villages, helping communities identify, prioritize, plan, fund, and implement their own development needs. About 870,000 people in the most remote and poorest villages have benefited from community infrastructure and productive investments such drinking water, access roads and bridges, ICT centers, access to credit, markets, skills and income generation.
The second phase of Gemi Diriya will help expand its reach to two more provinces (North Central and Central) and also broaden and deepen the achievements to date. It will especially focus on linking the community institutions to the local governments and addressing accessibility and connectivity constraints that hamper sustainable livelihoods.
New to this phase is the support that Gemi Diriya will provide to two major national programs—Gamaneguma and Samurdhi—which are adopting the community driven development approach and the local governance systems of the project, specifically participatory procedures, community contribution, devolving greater power to communities and building a holistic village development.
To date, the program has financed 2,140 community infrastructure subprojects, generated about 18,500 jobs, and provided livelihood activities to 140,000 households. It has mobilized substantial resources by promoting savings and village credit, and by linking communities to financial institutions and private sector.