USAID/OTI Sri Lanka Field Report
January 2005
Program Description
USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI) program in Sri Lanka assists in generating greater support for a negotiated peace settlement to end the long-standing conflict. To accomplish this aim, USAID/OTI's two objectives are: to increase collaboration and participation among diverse groups to set and/or address priorities; and to increase awareness and/or understanding of key transition issues.
Based on these objectives, USAID/OTI provides grants that: support positive interaction among diverse groups of people; promote participatory decision-making at the community level; improve livelihoods; and facilitate the flow of accurate information from multiple viewpoints.
Working with local NGOs, informal community groups, media entities, and local government officials, USAID/OTI identifies and supports critical initiatives that move the country along the continuum from war to peace. Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) implements the $14.8 million small grants program and manages USAID/OTI offices in Colombo, Trincomalee, and Ampara. Between program start-up in March 2003 and the end of January 2005, USAID/OTI has cleared 321 small grants worth approximately $7.176 million.
Country Situation
Sri Lanka Begins to Recover from Tsunami Disaster – In the month since the tsunami hit Sri Lanka the country has made strides to begin the recovery process. Communities have undertaken tremendous clean-up efforts and have begun to construct temporary housing. According to the Government of Sri Lanka's latest figures, the tsunami killed 30,959 persons and injured 21,441 from 13 of the country's 25 districts. In addition, 5,443 people remain missing and 555,641 persons remain displaced, staying with family, friends and in the 309 temporary welfare camps set up at schools, temples and other sites. The Government of Sri Lanka states that 65,349 houses were completely destroyed and 48,276 houses were partially damaged.
Confusion and Tension Over 100 Meter Law –
A law on the books prior to the tsunami prohibits construction within 100 meters of the sea. Following the devastation officials have made contradictory statements regarding the enforcement of this law and to whom it will pertain. It is still unclear whether this law will be applied uniformly throughout the country or if there will be a larger setback for the East. The law will have a large impact on many people who depend on the ocean for a living - fisherfolk and tourism workers among them. The uncertainty regarding the application of this law has also delayed the return and the start of housing reconstruction of those displaced.
Tensions Continue between Government and LTTE – The Government of Sri Lanka and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam continue to wrangle over access to tsunami relief money. The LTTE has accused the Government of restricting the flow of aid money into LTTE-controlled areas. The government also issued a report stating that only 30 percent of those affected had received assistance. It then ordered civil servants to work over a holiday weekend to improve this statistic.
USAID/OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
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| OTI-funded cash-for-work tsunami cleanup team in Galle. |
OTI recently completed a series of grants aimed at increasing local government capacity to compile, validate and manage data collected from tsunami-affected districts in Sri Lanka. The grants supplied selected Government Agents' and Divisional Secretary's offices with desktop computers and telecommunication infrastructure to enable information to be fed back to the central government instantly. The 35 grants, totaling approximately $218,000, leveraged support to the GoSL from IBM, which supplied the central government with 187 laptops for mobile data collection in tsunami-affected areas. OTI field staff were present at many of the DS offices the day the equipment was delivered and observed DS staff inputting field data within a couple of hours after installation.
OTI also funded 11 grants for local groups to clean up the debris caused by the tsunami. Many of these grants paid local people, who had been displaced by the tsunami, to clean up the land. A number of grants had local paid laborers joined by volunteers from unaffected areas. OTI called on NGOs from other parts of the country that it had worked with previously to help with the clean-up. These volunteers came and contributed to multi-ethnic clean-up teams on the coast.
B. Grant Activity Summary – March 2003 through December 2004
| Civil Society Organization Support |
2 |
$ 62,883 |
7 |
$195,921 |
| Civil-Military Relations |
1 |
$200,456 |
1 |
$200,456 |
| Community Impact Activities |
18 |
$661,425 |
193 |
$5,283,395 |
| Conflict Management |
1 |
$ 3,790 |
40 |
$491,155 |
| Election Processes |
0 |
0 |
2 |
$ 10,845 |
| Ex-Combatant Reintegration |
0 |
0 |
1 |
$ 72,226 |
| Justice/Human Rights |
0 |
0 |
3 |
$ 53,612 |
| Media |
0 |
0 |
36 |
$657,202 |
| Mine Action |
0 |
0 |
2 |
$ 2,198 |
| Transparency/Good
Governance |
34 |
$200,722 |
36 |
$209,328 |
| TOTAL |
56 |
$1,129,2760 |
321 |
$7,176,338 |
C. Indicators of Success
OTI funded Clean-Up Draws Praise From Government – During a recent 10-day clean-up of Matara town organized by OTI grantee Help-O, the Mayor of Matara commended the entire team on the standard of work being done. "Many people came for clean-up work but just scratched the surface and left," the mayor said. "This is the only organization that seems to be doing a proper job." The Help-O team, led by a political science undergraduate from Ruhunu University, was comprised of 100 tsunami-affected members of the community who were paid for their work and 100 people from the Ruhunu NGO Consortium and Ruhunu University who volunteered their services. Each team had an assigned supervisor who was responsible for the maintenance of targets for completion. In the evenings, the volunteers relaxed in a more social setting and discussed how the affected community members would rebuild their lives.
The community extended their cooperation by offering a house to safely store clean-up equipment overnight; two local residents served as a "fix-it" team for minor repairs. Additionally, some community women were paid to provide tea to the workers. Impressed by the work being done, the mayor supplied additional heavy equipment and trucks from a municipal council that hadn't been affected by the tsunami.
OTI Facilitates a Multi-Ethnic Tsunami Response in the East – Even before the full extent of the damage caused by the tsunami became known the USAID/OTI Ampara office began receiving phone calls from NGO partners asking how they could help. Many organizations were from primarily Sinhalese upcountry areas that had little contact with the coastal area. USAID/OTI approached a coastal NGO partner with prior coordinating experience to organize multi-ethnic groups of young people. These volunteers then worked to clean public spaces, especially schools. Some schools had been directly affected by the tsunami and were filled with debris left behind by the flooding. Others needed to be cleaned so that they could be used as classrooms after they had acted as makeshift camps for displaced people. More than 250 volunteers, including a number of Buddhist monks, have participated in the projects. Now government officials are contacting USAID directly to ask for assistance from these groups.
OTI Continues to Address Long-Standing Issues – In the period following the tsunami OTI has made an effort to continue programming aimed at addressing the long-term conflict. Many Sri Lankans living in close proximity to coastal communities were not affected by the tsunami, but have felt the effects of armed conflict for years. OTI is concerned that these people will feel neglected as the world's attention and resources appear focused on the tsunami victims alone. At the opening of the Kantale Women's Federation, in the Trincomalee District, OTI staff noticed that the Buddhist priests wouldn't sit next to the Hindu priest, and that the Muslim clergy weren't in attendance at all. OTI then supported a grant that brought together all local leaders to discuss community priorities. After five workshops on these subjects the last event was a final ceremony attended by all religious leaders. At this event all of the leaders stood together, joked, laughed and discussed the success of the program - including the decision to form a local peace committee.
D. Program Appraisal
OTI played a critical role in the U.S. government's overall post-tsunami response in Sri Lanka, supporting the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) needs assessments and initial programming of relief funding. OTI, which received $2.5 million of this assistance, focused its programming in January on projects directly related to tsunami relief and clean-up. The 56 grants for $1.1 million represented OTI's one-month high to date and demonstrated its capacity for quick and flexible response. By the end of February, however, as the emergency phase gives way to rehabilitation, OTI anticipates returning to activities more directly related to working with communities -- including those outside of tsunami-affected areas -- to move the country forward toward a peaceful solution to the conflict. OTI will continue to fund reconstruction and other priority projects as identified by communities, with an eye towards active participation and cooperation of local leaders. OTI will also work to ensure that the Sri Lankan population has a better understanding of key tsunami- and peace-related issues that affect them.
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
In February USAID/OTI Sri Lanka will:
- Consolidate and deepen support to local government authorities to better manage emergency response and link service providers - both public and private - with affected communities.
- Continue to fund projects in response to the damage caused by the tsunami, while moving away from community clean-up towards reconstruction of small-scale community infrastructure.
- Empower affected communities to secure their benefits and engage in the dialogue on post-tsunami rehabilitation through traditional and alternative media.
- Identify space and begin to recruit staff for a new field office in Matara at the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
- Reaffirm the relevance of OTI's strategy in light of the tsunami and identify peace building opportunities within the disaster recovery process.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C.: Rachel Wax, Program Manager, 202-712-1243, rwax@usaid.gov
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