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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Australia funds UNDP's Transition Programme Australia entered into an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Sri Lanka to grant one million and forty-nine thousand Australian dollars to UNDP's Transition Programme operating in the North and East of Sri Lanka, as well as Moneragala District. The agreement was signed end last week by Mr. David Binns, High Commissioner for Australia, and Mr. Miguel Bermeo, the Resident Representative of UNDP, as well as the Resident Co-ordinator of the UN in Sri Lanka. The funds will be utilised particularly in the Fisheries Recovery initiatives of the Transition Programme, and Australia has, on early occasions too, supported its fisheries activities in the North and East. Support to Fisheries Recovery is one of the principal strategies of the Transition Programme operating in the North and East with projects under implementation in Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi, Mannar, Trincomalee, and Batticaloa districts to bring economic benefits to local fishing families and directly improving their livelihoods. The funds will be utilised in such initiatives as micro finance support to purchase fishing equipment, capacity building of district institutions supporting the fishing sector, support for marketing of fish and production of ice, assistance for crab fattening, and production of fingerlings in support of inland fisheries. Fisheries remained a major source of income for a vast population living in the North and East, prior to the outbreak of the armed conflict in 1983. With the restrictions on fishing being relaxed and fishing activities expanding, there is a growing need for capital by individual fishermen, as well as fishing societies, to resume and expand fisheries activities in the areas. Activities in relation to Transitional Recovery, Employment Recovery, Integrated Recover and Reintegration, Community Reconstruction, Sports Action, and Support to Agriculture and Livestock, Micro-Credit Initiatives, and Community Reconstruction & Income Generation remain the other core areas of work under the Transition Programme of UNDP. |
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