Impact on the recovery of livelihood programs in newly resettled areas of northern Sri Lanka: a case of emergency northern recovery program (ENREP) focusing on cash for work component

Abstract

The development objective of the Emergency Northern Recovery Program was to support the Government‘s efforts to rapidly resettle the IDPs in their original places in Northern Province by creating an enabling environment. In order to achieve this objective the program incorporated four components. Cash for work program was one component. The twin objectives of the CFW component was to provide short term immediately required cash for the re-settled people and also to clear their own land and public social and economic infrastructure in the area. The cash transfer has boosted the capacity of sustaining the resettled people. Majority of the beneficiaries were selected in the formal selection and they were aware of the daily wage rate, number of days allocated and the payment procedure. Cash obtained from the CFW was handled by male and female as well as sons and daughters of the family. They have spent the money in food, cloths, medical care and productive investments. The members of the families participated in the household decision making process. The CFW program as a whole has outreached 99% of the targeted beneficiaries of 45,000 resettled families in its two phases of implementation. Output of the program has contributed for the speedy recovery of people and provided psychosocial benefits to affected people. Further, the women participants accepted that the program has improved their social status and reduce domestic violence temporarily at least during the implementation of the program.