The EU's Development Co-operation with Sri Lanka
| EU Development Co-operation |
The EC has committed more than € 260 million in grant assistance to Sri Lanka since 2000 which places the EC among the major donors. ECHO is also well established in Sri Lanka and has provided significant humanitarian support for conflict and tsunami victims.
In the 1980s and 1990s EC development aid used to focus on poverty alleviation through rural development. Economic co-operation increased in line with Sri Lanka’s economic expansion and now amounts to roughly a quarter of EC aid. Since the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement the EC has shifted its aid focus towards post-conflict rehabilitation and engaged more strongly in the North and East. This approach will be continued in the 2007-13 country strategy.
The challenges facing Sri Lanka over the next seven years will be characterised by:
1. The need to reconcile a volatile political and conflict situation with the overall objective of realising a lasting resolution of the conflict through a peacefully negotiated political settlement which respects the legitimate demands of all the people of Sri Lanka including minority communities.
2. The need to take forward a series of reforms and ensure faster growth to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on poverty reduction.
3. The need to eradicate acute poverty in parts of central Sri Lanka and in the whole of the North and East of Sri Lanka.
The development assistance mapped out in the coming Country Strategy Paper (CSP 2007-13) seeks to assist Sri Lanka to meet these challenges. The CSP is in line with the EU’s established strategy of focusing on conflict prevention and poverty reduction.
The priority sector for 2007-13 will be support to the peace process and poverty reduction in the North and East through sustainable integrated district development of one to two Districts. In addition, the CSP will include a smaller allocation of support to two non focal sectors: trade and good governance. The trade support takes note of the fact that trade concessions such as GSP+ can have a major development impact but that countries such as Sri Lanka have not managed to make maximum use of them in the past. Support under the second non-focal will focus on promotion of good governance through electoral reform, human rights monitoring and advocacy and conflict resolution.
There is continuing need for strong international support to the country, with a particular emphasis on offering potential ‘peace dividends’ through aid programmes if the peace process can gain momentum and on encouraging conflict resolution and dialogue. The EC programme foreseen is positioned in a positive manner as an incentive for peace.