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Project report

Food Security in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka , RUN BY: Oxfam Australia | STATUS: COMPLETED

AUD 50,001

Raised from 18,085 people

Program Background

It may be more than half a decade since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, but the twenty six year long conflict has left many open wounds. Inequality, marginalisation and discrimination remain prevalent as do low income levels and high food prices, making it hard for affected communities to survive. These communities often resort to strategies that compound their poverty such as going into debt to pay for their daily expenses.

Oxfam started working in Sri Lanka in 1982 and today, with your support, their work focuses on empowering active citizens to realise their rights, gender equality, peace building and ensuring marginalised communities can make a living and have enough food to eat.

Through their 34 local partners, Oxfam has undertaken a wide range of activities to help empower local communities in selected villages across eleven districts of Sri Lanka. This includes enhancing environmentally sustainable agricultural productivity; supporting the establishment of small scale enterprises; strengthening relationships between communities, government service providers and the private sector; enhancing women’s leadership and decision making power.

There is a lot to celebrate in this report with families increasing the amount of food they grow, the money they earn and their knowledge of their rights. With your support Oxfam and their partners have continued to work alongside the people of Sri Lanka to bring about a just future without poverty.

Key Project Outcomes

Oxfam targeted achieving three main goals to ensure improved food security and sustainable livelihood options for vulnerable men and women. The first goal was to increase food security with improved nutritional food intake. The second focused on increasing income and access to resources and increasing control over resources and decision making by targeted women. The third was to improve the standard of living through productive and essential infrastructure.

The project’s work in sustainable livelihoods and food security saw many great outcomes including:

Supporting the establishment of around 4,400 home gardens across all the program sites, providing technical knowledge including organic fertilizer production, water conservation, crop diversification, seed production and conservation and necessary equipment. These home gardens have contributed to reduce household expenditure on food consumption by around 15-20%.

Developed and linked small to medium enterprises with value chains and supported various local, national and international markets. This support was a key part of avoiding exploitation of small to medium enterprises with the goal of increasing their net income.

Improved food security. The nutrition levels of families Oxfam worked with was increased and produce from their home gardens and paddy fields began to yield sufficient food which ensured all members of the family got three nutritionally balanced meals per day. This was a significant achievement compared with the data gathered in 2010, when it was discovered that the target communities had very little knowledge about their daily nutritional intake and requirements.

2,862 community members in targeted villages increased their income, savings and ability to fulfil their basic needs. Additionally 5516 targeted women increased their income by 30% through enterprises. Furthermore 58.6% of women community based organisation members received decision-making power and control over resources, and 40.5% of women community based organisation members have improved decision making power and control over resources.

The Community Coalition of Alternative Marketing Production Programme (CCAMP) helped in establishing national and regional market linkages for 1518 producers. Oxfam with World Vision and another local organisation Janathakshan also initiated the ‘Bridge Market’, a weekly market place for the local producers in the town of Batticaloa. At present 300 farmers sell their eco- friendly products through 40 vendors at the Bridge Market. Similar regional market systems have been established by CCAMP with the District Secretariat in the Kegalle District, where 30 producers sell their products to the Government officers at a weekly marketplace established within the District Secretariat Premises. See a case study on the Bridge Market below in this report.

After product quality improvement training provided by the National Design Centre (NDC) for the Palmyra, rush and reed, handloom and other handicraft sectors, 102 producers began supplying their products to national market outlets such as ‘Laksala’ (the country’s main Government owned market chain for handicrafts) and to other main tourist attractions. This resulted in a 300% increase in their profit margins compared to the local market prices. Oxfam also developed an online market platform to link these producers directly with urban consumers at national and international markets.

9885 families have improved basic needs due to productive and essential infrastructure provided by the program. These included the construction or renovation of 1275 toilets; 342 water points; 329 drinking water wells; 147 productive infrastructure units such as dips, lifts and minor irrigation; and 67 other storage facilities and road renovations.

The participation of women as farmers and leaders also increased at community level, as a result of the work on women’s economic empowerment. Women farmers became undisputedly accepted within their communities and also at the district level, overcoming the stereotyping of farmers as only male and females as farm hands.

Oxfam has also been successful in engaging the Sri Lankan government to replicate food security projects to ensure sustainability for the future. Recently, Oxfam and its partners developed a number of programs with government institutions including a memorandum of understanding signed with the District Secretary of Hambantota to expand the eco friendly home gardening and paddy cultivation program in three District Secretariat divisions. Under this program, the District Secretary’s development officers were trained in eco friendly agricultural systems and they have established 160 home garden models in 44 villages within six months.

Oxfam's work in Kegalle District also influenced the Agrarian Services Department to expand eco friendly paddy cultivation with 2,000 farmers. In Ampara, Oxfam and partners trained 60 Agriculture Instructors of the Department of Agriculture, who established 35 models of System of Rice Intensification in the last Maha Season. Crop cut surveys conducted by the Department in those models show an increase of paddy harvest from 60 – 80 bushels per acre to 85 – 120 bushels. The Department of Agriculture has started to expand the program with 128 farmers in the next season using its extension services and resources. Oxfam is also supporting the Northern Province Agriculture Department in developing a 5-year plan for promoting eco friendly agriculture in the province.

Will the project continue?

Due to it's success so far the program will continue in the future.

Can I visit this project?

Yes.

Original project proposal

Project Goal

The Sri Lanka Food Security and Livelihoods Program aims to improve food security and strengthen livelihoods of poor and marginalised women and men in Sri Lanka through promotion of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices and support for the establishment of small scale group enterprises. The project takes place in Anaradhurapura, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Kegalle, Nuraweliya, Hambantota, Polonnaruwa districts of Sri Lanka.

Project Background

Sri Lanka is slowly rebuilding after a 25-year civil war and the devastating 2004 tsunami. Yet recovery is precarious. In January 2011, flash floods affected more than 1 million people and displaced 33,000 families. Communities who were finally rebuilding after the war and tsunami have once again been faced with crisis.

But it’s not all bad news. We’ve been working in Sri Lanka for more than 30 years to build peace, reduce poverty and stand up for class and caste equality. A large part of our work supports women and their families to access basic rights like food, water, sanitation and housing, and to develop viable livelihoods.

Can I visit this project?

Yes, you can. The winners of World Nomads Passport & Plate: Sri Lanka program will be going to visit the communities in which this project operates to learn firsthand about the difference travellers can make. Are you an adventurous foodie who is hungry for change? Apply now!

Issues that Sri Lanka faces

In the post war context, many families have had to re-establish their homes and livelihoods from scratch. The majority of households in the war-affected eastern provinces and northern parts of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts have very limited access to any form of sustainable livelihood. Access to basic essentials such as reliable water supply and sanitation facilities are barriers to food security and development of sustainable livelihoods; water collection absorbs a lot of time that people could otherwise spend on productive or income-generating activities.

Low income levels and high food prices have led to weak purchasing power and negative coping strategies, such as entering into debt to fund daily expenses. Major development projects have failed to benefit marginalised communities. Plantation workers, manual labourers and settlement farmers are particularly vulnerable and tend to be excluded from the benefits of economic development and social safety nets. Access to income generation is particularly difficult for the large number of female headed households as they face significant barriers to their participation in markets and derive little benefit from development processes.

About Oxfam’s Food Security Program

Oxfam Australia works with local communities to enhance productivity and support the establishment of small scale enterprises. Food security will be improved through the promotion of integrated, diversified and environmentally friendly agriculture including home gardens and small scale, high yielding System of Rice Intensification (SRI) applications. So as to reduce the risks in case of future natural disasters the program will promote organic farming with integrated water and soil conservation methods that support adaptation to changing climatic conditions and strengthen resilience to seasonal food shortages. Given the poor living conditions experienced by some people, we will also work to improve water and sanitation facilities to raise basic standards of living in those communities where there is a need.

Sustainability is embedded in the program approach. Through program activities, individuals and groups at the community level will develop their leadership skills, knowledge, networks and assets. Women will have greater control over their lives, more decision making power and will emerge as empowered leaders and role models within their communities. The program will promote inter-ethnic understanding among different community groups and also create links between community organisations across the country in order to share information.

What we can achieve

To ensure food security and sustainable livelihoods for 8,000 very poor families, Oxfam will continue supporting 13 partner organisations in seven districts through training and provision of agricultural resources and seed funding. The program will establish a regional network of 65 trainers (70% women) and three resource centres featuring model farms, training facilities and audio visual resources. They will receive training on eco-friendly home gardening techniques, natural pest and disease management techniques, integrated vegetable and fruit farming techniques with animal husbandry, and low external input paddy farming techniques like System of Rice Intensification (SRI).

Promotion of an alternative national community marketing network (CCAMPP) will enable 1,000 small scale producers across six of the seven districts to secure fair prices for their goods. 30 men and 270 women in 22 small scale enterprises will be further supported to develop their technical capacity and increase their access to markets. A further 12 new enterprise groups will be established. This will benefit another 120 of the most vulnerable men and women through asset creation, financing and capacity development. Provision of up to 30 collective, productive assets (such as market stalls, irrigation systems and storage facilities), managed by women-led committees, will further enhance their ability to increase incomes.

Ongoing support will also be provided to enable small rural entrepreneurs and farmers to gain better access to government services. This will be realised through support to 13 local partners and a range of relevant networks in skills development for representation, information sharing, research and network building.

Construction and rehabilitation of essential community infrastructure will include construction of eight communal wells, providing 320 beneficiaries (50% women) with access to safe water, and 130 toilets, improving sanitation for 520 beneficiaries.

Where your funds will go

$18 can pay for a Sri Lankan to start a small business, providing them with access to a livelihood and an income.

$58 can provide 10 locally grown chickens to a family, ensuring five eggs per day after five months and increasing the family’s protein intake.

$339 can help a woman in Sri Lanka start and maintain an eco-friendly commercial garden with a kit of crops, profiting up to $50 a month after four months.

With your support, we can continue to bring about positive changes. Your funds can provide access to food and build sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable people in Sri Lanka today.

How was it this funded?

Thanks to hundreds of tiny donations from these online businesses and their customers.

World Nomads Australia

World Nomads NZ

Across 31 countries, we work in partnership with local communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Our work includes long-term development projects, responding to emergencies and campaigning for a more just world.