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DateLine Sunday, 25 May 2008

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Towards peaceful prosperous nation

Samurdhi and livelihood development program:

The village is considered the axis of national development and it is evident that to achieve national development is desired and required through successful development village.

Construction and improvements of infrastructure facilities, establishment of livelihoods and creation of a virtuous society in the villages.

The main program, run by the Government - Gama Neguma (uplifting the village) - is based on these three pivots. Requisite planning is already under way to cover all the villages in the island under this program during this year.

Last year with this program, under the Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure, 4968 projects in 4172 villages were launched are in progress with an investment of Rs. 4000 million, exclusive of the financial value of the moral boosting activities and the items of work fulfilled with community participation.

The Gama Neguma program is taking steps through proper coordination of the programs undertaken by various line ministries, provincial councils and non governmental organisations in the villages to avoid duplication and inefficiency.

With the reshuffle of cabinet on January 2007, Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure was established bringing;

The Samurdhi Authority and the Department of Commissioner General of Samurdhi,

The Southern Development Authority;

The Udarata Development Authority;

The Department of Up-country Peasantry Rehabilitation;

The Rural Development Training and Research Institute;

And the International Centre for the Training of Rural Leaders, under its purview. This newly established Ministry replaced six former ministries namely Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure, Samurdhi, Regional Development, Rural Economic Development, Livelihood Development and Fisheries Housing Development. The programs of the Ministry covers all 25 districts in the island and by a Gazette notification of 10th July 2007.

Aiming the poverty alleviation is another major area in the mandate of the Ministry as per the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’. Strategies and programs are compiled and implemented accordingly.

In this context, a host of income generation and small scale enterprises were launched and are in progress based on small and medium scale loan schemes, Vocational Training programs and supportive devices implemented throughout the country by Samurdhi division.

In addition regional development programs are carried out covering all the parts of our island nation. Further the program focuses on fulfilling livelihood objectives by providing infrastructure facilities and finding markets which shoulder the production process.

Prosperity

Under the Purview of the Ministry of Nation Building, the Samurdhi Commissioner General’s Department as well as the Samurdhi Authority carry out the Samurdhi and Livelihood Development program.

- Formulation of policies, programs and project for poverty alleviation with special attention to Samurdhi beneficiaries - Implementation of social safety network program - Formulation of Livelihood Development Programs including Micro enterprises focusing Samurdhi beneficiaries - Facilitation of Samurdhi beneficiaries to identify feasible projects , provision of credit, extension services, marketing and managing the respective businesses are lined up under this program.

Last year was one which changed the route so far adopted by the rural development sector. It included the rural development sector which extended to the Samurdhi projects to each and every Grama Niladhari Division and it marked the launching of the Jathika Saviya Village awakening program with the objective of developing 4,000 selected villages under the ‘Jathika Saviya - Gama Neguma’ program implemented according to the Mahinda Chinthana.

The Department of the Samurdhi Commissioner General carry out Samurdhi Relief Program, Nutrition Allowance program, Smurdhi Social Protection program, Samurdhi Sipdora scholarship program, Supply of essential services to other Ministries and Departments and Development of Human and Physical Resources of the Institution.

The Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority aims raising productivity through effective utilization, of the human and physical resources of the institution through eradicating poverty through the complete strengthening of the low income recipients.

It is their responsibility to converse the lives of the poor in to a business based high percentage self financing life. Youth participation for the development of the poor families is also enhanced.

The Samurdhi Relief Program provides financial assistance to low income earning families to maintain a living standard level of minimum. The program being implemented for selected families as a means of getting them to effectively participate in the overall economic process of the country.

Therefore the Samurdhi Relief Program is identified as a social welfare directed at the economic development.

The families are classified according to the number of members in the beneficiary family and cards of appropriate financial value are issued accordingly.

The Nutrition allowance programme, launched in 1994, focuses on raising the nutritional standard of the feeding mothers in the low income earning families. This allowance is made available for 12 months from the month after the child birth, by way of a stamp card.

This program was updated under the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’program and a new program known as ‘Nutrition package’ is being implemented in selected Divisional Secretariat divisions in the island. It is being implemented in association with the Ministry of Health and Nutrition.

This project was launched as per the ‘Income and Expenditure Disparities and Poverty in Sri Lanka’ conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics. This program was launched in 2006 in nine divisions as a pilot project.Samurdhi Social Security program was inaugurated under the scheme to prevent the poor public from falling in to the lower depths of poverty as a result of sudden economic difficulties.

The ‘Sipdora’ Scholarship program opens doors for the children of low income earning families to higher education after passing the G.C.E. (Ordinary Level) examination. This is operated in 22 districts and 20 scholarships are awarded for each DS division.

In addition under the Samurdhi scheme an animal husbandry and fisheries development program, eradicating the use of liquor and narcotics, development of the growth of the children and many other social empowerment projects are progressed.

Progress

The Samurdhi scheme was launched aiming at a prosperous Sri Lanka eradicating poverty. As per the recent progress report by the Ministry a total of 1.9 million families are receiving the benefits to uplift their livelihood and emerge of poverty.

Under this project a prominent feature is the Samurdhi Banks. Currently there are 1040 bank societies and the banks are on the process of converting to a total computerized network.

As a relief to the Tsunami destructed families, the authorities took measures to write-off loans taken by selected beneficiary families amounting to a total sum of Rs. 604, 096.This successful venture, turning the poor families to business based income generating families, has come to the fourth place in the world’s small financial institutes, a ministry progress report states.

The Samurdhi program runs all over this island providing opportunities to all, socially and economically empowering by focusing on balanced sustainable development of the village and villagers and leading to the development of the regions and eventually the country making every citizen a beneficiary to live in peace and harmony in this beautiful island nation.

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