Training in self employment for poverty conflict affected

The government will implement a module formulated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which will provide community based training in skills for self-employment, employment and enterprise development for communities living in poverty as a result of the conflict and the tsunami devastation, Secretary, Ministry of Labour Relations and Man Power, Mahinda Madihahewa said.

The successful pilot project in Ampara, funded by the Belgian government and coordination by the Sri Lankan government, had resulted in a draft Manuel on Implementing Guidelines which will be handed over to President Rajapakse shortly.

The ILO Community-based Training for Economic Empowerment (CB-TREE) project was launched in the Ampara District in January 2006 in partnership with the Government, District Secretariat and NGOs and has trained 840 individuals of whom women constitute the majority.

Ampara, together with Batticaloa and Trincomalee, received special ILO attention because the tsunami had ravished these districts, destroyed lives and brought hopelessness and despair. Because of the security situation in the East, CB-TREE was introduced only to Ampara.

About 96 percent of the beneficiaries had been able to engage in employment which is unique because the ILO experience had been that in countries where CH-TREE had been implemented only 65 to 70 percent of the beneficiaries put their training to good use by engaging in employment, Chief Technical Advisor CB-TREE project, Rudy Baldemor said.

The project had been successful in restoring or creating 92 enterprises with 727 persons employed in them.

He pointed out that in a tracer study of 430 beneficiaries last month, the average income had increased by Rs.2,000 to Rs. 5,200 a month as result of the livelihood skills training, a 62 percent increase. The number of dependents exceeded 3,000.

The CB-TREE module did not stop there. Through donor funding, in this case the Belgian government, Rs. 4.5 million was made available to seven community groups with 601 members or heads of families, in which to start up enterprises. It was used to set up the Community Fund Scheme (Co-Fund) which is managed by the communities themselves.

The Co-Fund component of the CB-TREE project was launched nine months ago and since then 88 percent of the Rs. 4.5 million had been dispensed among 38 percent of the beneficiaries as loans. The repayment rate is 94 percent while 5 percent have delayed repayments. Thirteen percent of them are on their second loan. The average loan per applicant amounted to Rs 17,350.

Madihahewa, who is also the Chairman of the CB-TREE Project Advisory Committee said that ILO’s module provided the necessary training and the tools to uplift poverty stricken communities, as is shown in Ampara, but the sustainability and propagation of the project to other districts would depend on the formation of links with government organisations.

"The project helped communities regain their livelihood after the tsunami by empowering them to engage in economic activity using resources in the locality," he said.

While ILO’s involvement, and the Belgian government’s for the matter, is limited to the technical aspects of the project it is the Sri Lankan government’s responsibility to take the CB-TREE module to other needy parts of the island.

A national workshop was held yesterday with several representatives of various ministries and district secretaries to determine how best this project could be implemented through the government to a wider range of communities.

ILO Country Director Ms Tine Staermose said that the CB-TREE project in Ampara was just a pilot project and is one among other projects that links up with the government’s commitment to empower the population in rural areas as stipulated in its national development framework and development plans for the East.

"We presented the methodology. While funding can come from donors or the government, what is important is that government collaboration is required to sustain the project and take it to other areas," she said.

Baldemor pointed out that the CB-TREE module brought results as long as a convergence approach was adopted, adding that it had all the answers to policy questions on skills training for employment and self-employment and Madihahewa said that this would be the module the government is most likely to adopt.

Belgian funding for the project in Ampara was extended by another 6 months and the CB-TREE project, managed by Sri Lanka, will have time until then to formulate a workable plan as to how the project can be sustained and disseminated to wherever else it may be needed.

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Training in self employment for poverty conflict affected