Sri Lanka

Due to the economic crisis in Iceland, development cooperation with Sri Lanka was termintated in june 2009. All signed agreements on support were honoured.

Following the tsunami disaster in december 2004 where 30,000 people in Sri Lanka lost their lives and constructions in a vast area along the coast were demolished, the Icelandic government decided to increase its donations to Sri Lanka for the year 2005 by 50 million ISK, upon the 25 million ISK alredy allocated before the tsunami disaster. ICEIDA’s approach in Sri Lanka was originally to focus mainly on develeopment of the fishing industry, at the local government’s request, but in light of recent events, that decision was modified since there were more urgent projects to tend to which centered upon restoration and renovation. An agreement for development co-operation between the two nations was signed the 23^rd of June, 2005.

In 2008 there were 13 staff members in Sri Lanka, thereof 3 Icelandic.

From Iceida´s Annual Report 2008:

Introduction

On January 2^nd 2008, the Government of Sri Lanka announced that it would withdraw from the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement of 2002, between the Tamil liberation movement, LTTE, fighting for an independent state in the north of the country and the government, and the agreement was formally abrogated two weeks later. This followed a breakdown in peace talks in 2006 and an escalation of the armed conflict throughout 2007, when government forces regained control of the Eastern Province. Provincial elections took place in the Eastern Province in May 2008. Although the results were seen as a victory for the ruling party, the situation in the province remained volatile during the year and strict security regulations have been enforced. In line with its policy, the government has initiated major reconstruction in the Eastern Province, with emphasis on roads, bridges and utilities. The rate of economic growth has been greater there than the national average, not least in fisheries and agriculture.

The armed conflict in the north has claimed a large loss of life on both sides and brought hardship and suffering to the civilian population. Although the government forces have suffered occasional setbacks, they have been able to confine the LTTE to an ever decreasing area. Sabotage and bombings in the capital of Colombo and its suburbs occurred in 2008, targeting buses and railways during rush hours.

In spite of the conflict, economic growth remained robust in 2008 with an estimated 5,8% annual growth in GDP and the per capita GDP (PPP) reaching about US$ 4,700. However, inflation is also high, exceeding 20%, not least because of increases in oil and food prices for most of 2008. Imports of oil and oil products account for about a quarter of total imports. The reduction in world oil prices towards the end of 2008 was not felt in Sri Lanka because the state oil company had made advance contracts to protect itself against further increases. Foreign financing contributes about 50% to public investment in Sri Lanka. During 2008, Iran and India joined Japan as the largest bilateral donors, accounting for over 40% of new commitments which totalled US$ 1,658 million until the end of September. Total foreign fund disbursements during the same period were US$ 781 million.

After the tsunami in December 2004, Sri Lanka gained GSP+ (Generalized System of Preferences Plus) duty-free access to the European Union until the end of 2008. The GSP+ is to provide incentives to developing countries to ratify and effectively implement a set of international standards in the fields of human rights, core labour standards, sustainable development and good governance. In 2008, there was much debate whether Sri Lanka would qualify for an extension, which was eventually granted until the end of 2011, subject to the findings of inquiries being conducted by the EU on the implementation of certain UN and ILO conventions. These inquiries are expected to be completed in the latter half of 2009.

An important source of income is remittances from workers abroad, which has grown rapidly over the last decade or so. In 2008, there were more than 1.5 million Sri Lankans working abroad, their remittances contributing an estimated 9% to the GDP.

ICEIDA´s Development Cooperation

Iceland, along with other Nordic countries, contributed personnel to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), whose role it was to monitor reports on violations of the 2002 ceasefire agreement. The Icelandic engagement increased substantially in autumn of 2006 when Sweden, Finland and Denmark withdrew from the mission following a declaration by the EU that LTTE was a terrorist organisation. When the agreement was terminated by the Government of Sri Lanka at the beginning of 2008 there were ten Icelandic monitors in Sri Lanka, who had to leave at a short notice. The Icelandic Government decided to review its relations with Sri Lanka. No new commitments were to be undertaken by ICEIDA until the review had been completed. Projects already under implementation, which required the presence of ICEIDA in Sri Lanka, were scheduled to be completed by mid-2009.

Finally, a decision to end bilateral cooperation with Sri Lanka was taken, primarily on economic grounds, following the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in early October and the ensuing economic crisis. Sri Lankan authorities were formally notified on 14 November 2008 and ICEIDA partners and staff informed of the decision. In early December, the ICEIDA director visited Sri Lanka to discuss the withdrawal of ICEIDA with the relevant parties. All commitments of ICEIDA were to be honoured and in many cases special actions were to be implemented to ensure the sustainability of current projects. It was decided that the day-to-day operations should be kept as normal as possible until the closing of the office towards the end of June 2009.

In April 2008, a new country director took over in Sri Lanka. The Icelandic fisheries project manager left at the end of July. A new driver was hired in August and at the end of the year a driver and a local engineering consultant left.

 

Support to the Fisheries Sector

At the request of Sri Lanka, the fisheries sector has from the outset been the focus of ICEIDA’s development cooperation in the country. Emphasis has been on institutional capacity building, but due to the devastation brought about by the tsunami in late 2004, rehabilitation and infrastructure development has also been high on the agenda.

 

Projects:

Infrastructure Development at Landing Centres in Sri Lanka

The project on landing centres is the largest project ICEIDA has undertaken in Sri Lanka and is part of the implementation of a comprehensive GoSL programme on post-tsunami reconstruction and development of the marine fisheries sector. The project started in 2006 and various facilities were built at seven landing centres along the west coast of Sri Lanka in 2007 and 2008, including auction halls, radio rooms and fishers’ facility complexes, which are two storied buildings, with 5-6 rooms on the upper floor and a hall, showers and toilets on the ground floor. In 2007, a decision was taken to expand the project to include fishers’ facility complexes at 18 landing centres in the three districts in the Eastern Province. By the end of 2008, most of the construction work had been completed, but final touches were still required in many places, including the supply of water and electricity and rectifying small defects.

The facilities are handed over to local registered community based organisations (CBOs), which in most cases are fisheries cooperative societies. In a few cases such organisations had to be established and many existing ones were very weak. To address this problem, ICEIDA engaged Sewalanka, a reputable and experienced local NGO, to assist in developing the capacity of the CBOs. This is, however, a slow process and it must be kept in mind that members of many of these communities have been displaced, often more than once, because of the tsunami and the armed conflict in the country. Originally, Sewalanka was engaged for nine months at each site, but in mid-2008 the board of ICEIDA approved an extension to the project, which secured continued involvement of Sewalanka until the end of June 2009. The extension also included the provision of training of CBO members and Sewalanka mobilisers in fish handling and processing, project management and other areas depending on identified needs and wishes. The training served as a precursor to the identification and planning of livelihood projects to be implemented in all communities. The additional cost of the project extension was roughly US$ 500,000. By the end of the year, the implementation was on schedule, most CBOs had received training, a number of projects had been identified and formulated and implementation had started in some communities.

 

Satellite Based Fish Forecasting

Another project has focused on fish forecasting. Chlorophyll concentration, sea surface temperature and temperature gradient in the waters around Sri Lanka are all monitored by satellite and the National Aquatic Research and Development Agency (NARA) has access to these data free of charge. These data can be used to predict the distribution pattern of pelagic fish like tuna. The advantage of such predictions is that it can save time spent searching for fish, thus reducing costs and increasing catches. In this project, which started in mid-2007, ICEIDA has provided the equipment needed, technical support and training for staff at NARA. In August 2008, NARA started to provide forecasts for the fleet. The forecasts were originally limited to areas inside the EEZ, but were extended to international waters towards the end of the year as tuna long-lining mainly took place outside the EEZ. During the year, data collection was intensified, and maps and log-books were produced and distributed to vessels taking part in the project. This way it is hoped that enough catch data will be collected to validate and improve the predictions. The project will come to an end in May 2009, but the lead NARA researcher in this project has been invited to undertake six months training at the United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme (UNU-FTP) in Iceland in 2009-2010, where he will carry out statistical analysis of catch per unit effort in relation to oceanographic data. His studies in Iceland will form an integral part of his Ph.D. studies at a university in Sri Lanka.

 

Fishing Vessel Registry

The collection, analysis and dissemination of fisheries statistics was identified during the exploratory missions to be an area needing urgent attention and support. Apart from having administrative and management functions, a vessel registry is also an integral part of a fisheries data collection system, and with that in mind, ICEIDA agreed to support a project to establish a vessel registry for marine fishing vessels in Sri Lanka. The project started in September 2007 when a central database was established based on census data of marine fishing vessels. Although the registry was fully functional by mid-2008, it was clear that it was not being updated fast enough, mainly because of lack of commitment by district offices. An extension was therefore proposed to provide district databases and equipment and training for staff in the district offices. The extension, which is until April 2009, was approved by the board of ICEIDA in July 2008 at an estimated cost of US$ 96,000, with US$ 74,000 being provided by ICEIDA. The vessel registry has already proven to be very useful to the Department of Fisheries and is a vast improvement over the stacks of record books it replaced. The more it is used, the more new uses are discovered, which in turn necessitate changes and additions. During the visit of the ICEIDA director in December 2008, it was decided that ICEIDA would provide one more consultancy in 2009 and a local firm would be hired to work alongside the Icelandic consultant who designed the vessel registry, so that future development could be done using local expertise. In addition, practical training is to be provided for one staff member of the vessel registry under the UNU-FTP in Iceland.

 

Strategies for Development of Asian Reservoir and Lake Fisheries

Man-made lakes have a long history in Sri Lanka as natural lakes are rare. Large reservoirs and irrigation systems were one of the foundations of ancient kingdoms, dating back more than 2500 years. In many of these reservoirs, fisheries are dependent on the release of hatchery produced juveniles, so-called ‘culture based fisheries’. Reservoir fisheries are important in Sri Lanka, but there is still potential for further development. Fisheries and aquaculture in fresh waters is of importance regionally and Sri Lanka benefits from regional cooperation through membership of an intergovernmental organisation, NACA, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific. At the request of the Government of Sri Lanka and NACA, ICEIDA has supported a regional project with the participation of Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The main objectives of the project are to identify research and development needs for the effective utilisation of reservoirs and lakes for fish production and develop capacity for the management of such fisheries. Ten sub-projects are being carried out, some are already completed and others are near completion. Some of the sub-projects formed the mainstay of papers presented at a “write-shop” in Thailand in 2008 on “Success stories in Asian aquaculture”, to which ICEIDA also contributed. The proceedings are expected to be published in 2009. The regional project started in August 2007 and will be completed by mid-2010. Reports on the project appear on the NACA website, see http://www.enaca.org/modules/inlandprojects/index.php?content_id=4

 

Other Activities

As in previous years, ICEIDA sponsored in June the annual session of the Sri Lanka Association for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the country director gave an introductory lecture on “Data requirements in fisheries management”, which was the theme of the conference.

The International Fisheries Expo Sri Lanka 2008 was held on 7-9 November. ICEIDA was the main sponsor of the event and provided technical support. This was the first event of its kind in Sri Lanka and generated considerable interest.

In view of the potential for increased fish production in Sri Lankan reservoirs, ICEIDA supported the translation of a booklet on Better-practice approaches for culture-based fisheries development in Asia into Sinhala and Tamil, originally published by NACA and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. They will be printed in early 2009 and distributed to partners in Sri Lanka to be used in training and extension activities. The English version can be viewed at: http://www.aciar.gov.au/publication/MN120

 

Gender Mainstreaming

ICEIDA’s partners in Sri Lanka are well aware of the emphasis ICEIDA has on gender, and have been willing to address gender where possible within local cultures.  Gender mainstreaming is most evident in the fish landing centre programme. Sewalanka worked with the 25 fishing community CBOs to consider the implications of different interventions for men and women.

Poverty and low levels of education are characteristics of most communities relying on coastal fisheries. The men do the fishing. During the fishing season(s), they spend much of their time at sea; during the off-season, they stay at home or seek daily wage labour. Women are more likely to be involved in post-harvest processing, such as drying, small-scale marketing of fresh and dried fish, and other income generating activities. While men tend to have higher income levels, they are more likely to use it for personal consumption, whereas women tend to use all of their earnings for household needs. Female-headed households are common, often as the result of the armed conflict or the tsunami. Most communities recognize these households as being particularly vulnerable and some have used the ICEIDA livelihood programme to support income generating activities for widows.

Most Sri Lankan villages have multiple registered CBOs. Since fishing is seen as ‘men’s work’ women’s participation in Fisheries Cooperative Societies is generally lower than their participation in other CBOs, but there is significant cultural and regional variation. In the Sinhala communities of the south and west, the majority of active members are women. Women tend to be strong and vocal leaders and they represent the household when the men are at sea. Women tend to be over 50% of the membership and in two communities, the CBOs entrusted with the facilities have 100% female membership.

In the Eastern Province, 16 of the 18 communities are predominantly Muslim or Tamil. In these areas, women are still able to participate in the Fisheries Cooperative Societies as general members or leaders, but their participation tends to be lower (10-20%). These villages tend to be more patriarchal. Women may be active in separate CBOs (e.g. Women’s Rural Development Societies), but fishing is seen as men’s domain.

Regardless of women’s participation and leadership, 15 of the 25 sites have developed livelihood initiatives that specifically benefit women: food processing, revolving loan funds for income generating activities, seaweed cultivation, and a fishing gear retail shop run by women. Other sites have developed initiatives that provide more general fisheries services: fuel and fishing supply centres, wholesale fish trading, radio rooms and outboard motor repair. In those cases, ICEIDA has often expressed a willingness to fund further livelihood activities, as long as they are specifically aimed at female-headed households.