Sri Lanka : Japan, ADB to support Rural road project

Japan: Japan and the Asian Development Bank are supporting a pilot project that will combine rural road work and the creation of income-generating opportunities in the poorest districts of Sri Lanka, the Bank said yesterday.

The project will be funded by a US$ 2 m grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction to be managed by ADB and the Sri Lankan Government and project beneficiaries will contribute US$ 245,000 to complete the funding requirement, the ADB added.

The improvement of rural access roads and livelihood development for the poor project will rehabilitate about 200 kilometres of rural access roads with community participation in Badulla, Monaragala and Ratnapura.

Non-governmental organisations will also provide training for self-employment programs to 2,000 beneficiaries in the three target districts.

The assistance was in response to the request made by Sri Lanka to ADB for the development of an innovative project on a pilot basis to address the present poverty in the three target districts by improving their rural access roads.

'Although ADB finances the improvement of national and provincial roads, it has not yet financed improvement of rural access roads in Sri Lanka by generating income opportunities for poor village people,' said T.M. Tilakaratne, Implementation/Program Officer of ADB's Resident Mission in Sri Lanka.

'Lessons learned from the project could be applied to rural community development programs implemented by the Government and other donors in other districts,' he added.