Australian Aid: building partnerships and promoting economic growth, prosperity and stability in Sri Lanka
As a neighbour and long- term friend, Australia cares about the future of Sri Lanka. We are committed to supporting the government and private sector to provide economic opportunities for all Sri Lankans.
For over 70 years, Australia has been a consistent development partner to Sri Lanka, providing around A$1.5billion in development assistance since this time.In 2018 we provided around A$29 million in grant aid.
In 2018 we commenced new programs in disaster response and economic livelihoods, and renewed support for humanitarian demining efforts in light of Sri Lanka’s accession to the international Mine Ban Treaty in December 2017.
We continued to bed down initiatives introduced in 2016 and 2017, which included a flagship gender equality program, support for Sri Lanka’s macro- economic reform agenda, and skills and market development initiatives to boost Sri Lanka’s tourism sector.
In partnership with the International Labour Organisation we launched our third phase of support for a local economic development program in Northern and North Central Provinces. This program will continue seven years of support to the agriculture and fisheries sectors, with the aim of connecting local producers to export markets.
Australia has along history of humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka, most recently involving response to disasters caused by seasonal droughts, flooding, landslides and dengue epidemics. In 2018 we partnered with UNICEF and World Food Programme to commence a longerterm disaster risk reduction program, with a mechanism for quick emergency response as required. This program involves strengthening government capaci- ty on disaster preparedness and improving national information systems, building children’s disaster preparedness skills and supporting the effectiveness coordination of services in the event of a disaster.
Our Women in Work with the IFC program made good progress in promoting gender equality in businesses, including establishing 18 partnerships with leading Sri Lankan private sector firms under the “She Works” initiative. These firms, employing over 200,000 people across various sectors, are committed to doing more to boost women’s employment opportunities. A seminal “Tackling Childcare” report was launched under Women in Work in collaboration with UNICEF which highlighted the business case for employersupported childcare in Sri Lanka. In August 2018 we hosted a visit from Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in Sri Lanka.
Our work in support of the Sri Lankan tourism industry has started yielding good results, with a number of small businesses in the tourism value chain producing authentic Sri Lankan products for the tourism market, providing income and employment opportunities for men and women across the island. We have also continued our collaboration with industry and the Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational training to deliver a portfolio of skills training programs in districts in the east. One notable activity has been a television reality show ‘Supreme Chef’ launched in 2018 to promote the culinary industry as a viable career path for men and women, including those with disabilities. We also continued to provide high level technical support to the sector through world renowned Australian experts, working both with government policy makers and industry representatives to support the inclusive growth of the sector.
In addition to the work we do with Government and the private sector, we have also continued a number of livelihood development activities in various districts through international NGO partners through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
Working closely with the World Bank Group and key government ministries, we provided policy and technical advice to support implementation of the government’s economic reform agenda, which has included a new national tourism strategy, a national trade policy, an innovation and entrepreneurship strategy and a roadmap for investment climate reform.
In the governance sphere, Australia’s development program supported local governments around the island to strengthen their service delivery, revenue collection and budgeting systems.
In 2018 we were pleased to boast record numbers of masters levels scholarships offered to Sri Lankans for study atAustralian universities. We have also successfully built the Australia-Sri Lanka alumni network over the year by hosting numerous professional networking and social events.
Over 2018, the Australia Awards program supported 52 Sri Lankans to travel to Australia to undertake short courses on Sustainable Tourism, Women in Executive Leadership and Women Trading Globally. In addition, 10 officials from the Sri Lankan Attorney- General’s Department undertook an intensive course on International Commercial Arbitration at the University of New South Wales.
We have also continued to strengthen our Australian Volunteers and New Colombo Plan student programs here, bringing more Australians every year to Sri Lanka to deepen the people- to- people links between our two countries.
For further information on the Australian aid program in Sri Lanka visit www.dfat.gov.auor follow us at
www.facebook.com/ AustraliainSriLankaandMaldives or
www.twitter.com/AusHCSriLanka.