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Colombo Area Office

:: Technical Co-Operation in Sri Lanka

The ILO is a technical agency (not a donor agency) and works with a limited regular budget from member country contributions. Other extra-budgetary funds are mobilised from donors based on requests by constituents or through global programmes.

The Area office in Colombo manages the overall assistance to Sri Lanka through a range of diverse activities and is technically assisted by Multi disciplinary team (MDT). Regular activities, which are allocated funds through the ILO's biennium budget, help to mainstream Decent Work issues into the country's policies and programmes. For example, ILO Colombo Area Office worked with the Ministry of Labour relation and foreign employment and helped in the co-ordination of Initiative 7 of the draft National Employment Policy. A chapter on Decent Work was written to be included in the policy document. Sri Lanka's National Productivity Policy also contains the Decent Work Agenda.

In addition to ILO's regular budget, other projects of specific duration are allocated extra-budgetary resources through diverse donors. Currently, there are ten extra-budgetary projects in Sri Lanka

The following technical projects are currently on-going:

Factory Improvement Programme (FIP)
HIV / AIDS Workplace Education Programme
International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
JobsNet
Enter Growth – a project working for small enterprises
Youth Employment Network(YEN)
Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (CB-TREE Project)
Trade Union Assistance to Tsunami-affected Communities: Making Voices of the People Heard
Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (4Rs) in North East Sri Lanka

	Factory Improvement Programme (FIP)
		The Factory Improvement Programme (FIP) is a multi-supplier training programme for the development of local factories' capacity in industrial relations, healthy and safe working conditions, as well as productive and quality outputs. The programme involves groups of six or more factories for 10 to 12 months’ training as well as factory-level consultations and improvement programme. Two-day training sessions for each module are followed by factory visits and consultations in the specific needs of individual factories. Resource persons include both international and national experts.
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	HIV / AIDS Workplace Education Programme
		Sri Lanka is a low prevalence but highly vulnerable country to an HIV/AIDS epidemic with the total number living with HIV/AIDS estimated at 3,500 and the estimated adult prevalence rate of less than 0.1%
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	International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
		The project aims at eliminating worst forms of child labour as a matter of priority in three main sectors namely, trafficking, child domestic labour and children affected by war. It has now extended support to children affected by the tsunami. The programme adopts a holistic approach to interventions, working with the direct target group of children through an inclusive preventive strategy within the framework of a vulnerable community. Hence the interventions are targeted to meet the needs of children within the compulsory school going age of 5–14 years, the older children of 15-17 years of age, older siblings of vulnerable families who may be inclined to send their children out to work and also to support to families i.e. through empowering women with the objective of them keeping their children in schools. Life skills education is factored into most education interventions and on occasion adults have also received Non Formal Education (NFE).
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	JobsNet
		Jobs Net- The National Employment Sourcing & Delivery System as the referral system benefits jobseekers, local and foreign employers and self-employment seekers by providing referrals for jobs and training, information, advice and Career Guidance. It is an on-line referral system with a web interface at www.jobsnet.lk.
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	Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning
		In the rural and peri-urban social and economic development context, the concept of accessibility can be applied to access to basic needs like drinking water, energy, employment and basic services like education, health care and markets. In the rural areas of many developing countries, travel and transport consume a large portion of the household budget in terms of money, energy and time. Due to the generally poor condition of the road network, entire areas can become isolated for long periods of the year.
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	Enter Growth – a project working for small enterprises
		Micro and small enterprises are the engine of growth in Sri Lanka. They are vital to local economic development, which creates jobs and raises incomes, and so contributes to a better life for all.
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	Youth Employment Network(YEN)
		The Youth Employment Network (YEN) was created under the impetus of the Millennium Declaration, at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, where heads of state resolved to " develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work."
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	Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (CB-TREE Project)
		The Community-based Training for Economic Empowerment project, or CB-TREE is a joint undertaking of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Government of Belgium to help the Government of Sri Lanka in the restoration of livelihoods and revival of local economies in areas that has been affected by the tsunami (and armed conflict) through skills training, enterprise development and the installation of appropriate economic support mechanisms at the community level. The Project is also designed to take advantage of the transition period in developing a long term policy framework to improve community-based training in the country based on the needs and characteristics of its people and the nature of its rural economy.
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	Trade Union Assistance to Tsunami-affected Communities: Making Voices of the People Heard
		With funding from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), the ILO has embarked on a project with the national trade unions to initiate dialogue and strenghten the voices of the people in relation to the rebuilding of livelihoods among the tsunami affected communities. This two year project exclusively focuses on the Ampara District.
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	Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (4Rs) in North East Sri Lanka
		The ILO, has since June 2004, been a part of the Danida funded inter UN Agency initiative on Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (4R) targeting returning internally displaced populations in 3 districts in North East Sri Lanka. Within the 4R project, the ILO implements projects in the following components:
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