The Government of Sri Lanka has placed great emphasis on improving and uplifting rural economy and living standards, particularly in post conflict areas. The Government currently implements two large-scale rural development programmes through the Ministry of Economic Development, funded through regular government budgets. The Divi Neguma or livelihood development programme delivers at household level, aiming to improve agriculture production and rural industry. The Gama Neguma or village development programme focuses on rural infrastructure such as roads, bridges, culverts, buildings, and water supply and irrigation systems. The programme is active in all 14022 Grama Niladhari (Village Administrative) units in 25 districts of Sri Lanka.
Climate change threatens the sustainability of both these programmes. Already the impact of climate-related weather anomalies is manifest in reduced agriculture productivity, in crop losses, in flood and landslide related damage to infrastructure and in increased uncertainty for farm based livelihoods. Therefore the climate induced problem which the project seeks to address is that recurrent climate-related impacts are posing a serious threat to the government’s stated aim of developing strong rural economies that bridge the urban-rural income disparity, particularly in post conflict zones.
In order to address this risk, Ministry of Economic Development, in collaboration with UNDP has developed the project “Strengthening the Resilience of Post Conflict Recovery and Development to Climate Change Risks in Sri Lanka”. The project is funded by the Special Climate Change Fund of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and aims to build adaptability to climate change into the design and implementation of both Gama Neguma and Divi Neguma. Building resilience in rural development programmes to current and projected climatic change will include developing institutional capacities to assess risk, designing appropriate interventions and implementing adaptation actions with community participation. Through the Ministry of Economic Development’s internal coordinating mechanisms the project will work with a range of technical partners- such as the Department of Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock, and Disaster Management Centre. The project aims to conduct climate risk assessments in all 25 districts to identify areas with greater risk; and train district planning officials to manage climate risks. At village level, the project will support incorporation of climate risk assessments in to every Grama Niladhari (GN) level Village Development Plan.
The project will deliver concrete adaptation measures in three selected districts with high vulnerability to climate change, building on the government-funded Gama Neguma and Divi Neguma rural development programmes. These measures will include enhanced water storage and rational use, conservation of soil, coastal ecosystems for improved agricultural production, improved crop choice and built infrastructure such as roads, irrigation systems and water supply which incorporate climate risk reduction.
UNDP will place a Technical Coordinator, guided by the Assistant Country Director and National Project Coordinator in support of the day- to-day implementation, management and coordination of Programme activities and to ensure effective planning and monitoring of the Programme to achieve stated outcomes and outputs in accordance with UNDP/Government of Sri Lanka Guidelines for Nationally Implemented Programmes and UNDP’s Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP).
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