Program Details: 
Rebuilding and Recovery After Conflict and Disaster

In the summer of 2006, a sharp escalation in confrontations between the Sri Lanka Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (also known as the Tamil Tigers) in the eastern region forced thousands of families to flee the fighting. Many of these families were Indian Ocean tsunami survivors for whom Mercy Corps had been providing recovery assistance. With the return of normalcy and relative peace to the region, displaced people have returned home and concentrated efforts are now underway to rebuild the lives of those affected.

Currently, Mercy Corps’ work in Sri Lanka centers on creating public and private partnerships to promote peaceful coexistence, economic opportunities and access to services for vulnerable communities. While we still provide emergency assistance when needed, more of our work is focused on helping communities revitalize and rebuild.

To date, Mercy Corps has helped more than 350,000 people improve their incomes and their lives.

Post-Tsunami Economic Recovery
With support from the American Red Cross, Mercy Corps has been working in 27 villages in Ampara, Batticaloa and Hambantota districts to help communities restore livelihoods after the 2004 tsunami. Our projects improve local infrastructure, support economic development and help revitalize the tourist industry. We are also providing grants to business associations and cooperatives.

Our program includes:

• Mobilizing communities to improve livelihoods by creating revolving-loan funds to expand home-based businesses such as vegetable farming, coir-making and basket weaving.
• Expanding employment opportunities by partnering with businesses and local nonprofits to build new enterprises; recently we helped build a coconut oil plant, a shoe factory and a fruit processing facility.
• Promoting small-scale ecotourism operators along an underappreciated stretch of amenity-filled coastline.
• Improving water and sanitation systems in Hambantota district schools and communities.

Answering the Global Food Crisis
The global rise in food prices has increased the need in food-insecure places like Sri Lanka, which does not grow enough of its staple food, rice, to meet domestic demand. Without outside assistance, poor households will increasingly suffer the effects of high food prices. Families can become malnourished, and many will be forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms such as selling off valuable assets, consuming needed seed stock and taking children out of school because they’re unable to pay the fees.

Mercy Corps’ Global Food Crisis Response, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is meeting immediate needs and improving the country’s ability to weather future emergencies.

Our effort targets 2,250 returnee families in Batticaloa district that feed themselves mainly by farming less than three acres of rice. Their yields are limited, as they have little access to quality seed. Because they also have limited cash with which to buy inputs at the start of the season, they commit to loan agreements with suppliers who demand high interest rates.

Mercy Corps is providing these families with vouchers they can exchange for quality seed. At the same time, we are developing a network of seed farmers to increase the availability of quality seed. We're showing farmers how to use a new, organic rice-growing methodology that's been proven to work elsewhere in Sri Lanka. That method, known as SRI, has doubled yields on small plots using less water and no chemicals. An important component of this project is linking those farmers to government extension systems. Together, these initiatives are expected to improve access to food and increase the incomes of nearly 10,000 people.

Food Crisis Action Fund: Focus on Credit
Mercy Corps established our Food Crisis Action Fund to augment the work we are doing through our Global Food Crisis program.

To alleviate the effects of the food crisis, Sri Lanka must improve the quality of inputs, such as seeds, and increase the production of food crops, particularly rice, while also decreasing production costs. The success of these initiatives depends on farmers’ ability to access formal credit and to sell their products in chosen markets. Mercy Corps is helping to address short- and long-term food security by expanding farmers’ access to credit.

The project targets farmers in the same areas as the Global Food Crisis Response, within the Ampara and Batticaloa districts, who are affected by conflict and have limited or no access to formal credit.

Building Constructive Relationships
With the cessation of formal fighting in eastern Sri Lanka comes a period of transition. While there is hope this transition will lead to unity and stabilization, there is a real risk of further fragmentation and instability as Sinhalese, Muslim and Tamil ethnic groups fear being dominated by the others. Mercy Corps and its local partner are fostering relationships among indigenous groups. Our program will help to:

• Improve the ability of religious community leaders to resolve conflict and build bridges among religious groups.
• Strengthen the ability of civic (professional, trade, youth, farming) associations to promote their joint interests in peaceful way.
• Help civic associations identify and implement projects that build ties across communities and address conflict drivers in the region.

This project is based on our experience that when multi-ethnic associations work together, they are able to quell violence. It is through relationships built on trust, networks that mitigate rumors, and a joint interest in a peaceful society, that formerly at-odds groups can peacefully pursue their livelihoods.