Back to back floods that took place in Ratnapura district in the past few years have not only affected the social welfare of the people, but also the local economy as well, putting a huge burden on the government and people themselves. Ratnapura DS Division is one of the most affected divisions in the district.

In alignment with disaster resilience work being done under ILO’s global flagship “Jobs for Peace and Resilience” programme, immediate flood support was given to 69 entrepreneurs in the Ratnapura Division to restart their businesses. On 21st January 2019 at a ceremony in the Ratnapura District Secretariat, MSMEs were presented funds to replace equipment for production that was destroyed or damaged during recent floods.

These beneficiaries, representing both men and women entrepreneurs, who hadn’t received flood relief from other sources, were identified with the support and guidance of the Ratnapura District Secretariat and Divisional Secretariat offices. The event was attended by the District Secretary, Ratnapura, Mrs. Malani Lokupothagama, ; Deputy Mayor, Ratnapura Urban Council, Mr. Lakshman Munasinghe; and the Divisional Secretary, Ratnapura, Ms. Pradeepika Illukkumbura among other distinguished guests.

It is hoped through this initiative that these MSMEs would continue with their businesses and would be in a better position to contribute to local economic growth. Moreover, the ILO intends training these beneficiaries on business continuity management with the view of making them more prepared for recurring disasters, which are common to the district.

In December 2018, the ILO commenced business continuity management trainings for government officers in Ratnapura and Kalutara districts who work closely with MSMEs, with financial support from the Japanese Government. Under the same project, it is hoped to train MSMEs in these two districts from January, 2019 onwards. With increased awareness and more preparedness garnered through these trainings, it is anticipated that MSMEs would recover sooner and better in comparison to previous years.

In the meantime, extending ILO’s disaster resilience work beyond MSMEs, another project is being implemented to develop a model to increase the resilience of local communities to mitigate disaster impacts through floods, landslides and droughts. With ILO funding, this project covers flood affected areas in Ratnapura and Kalutara districts and drought affected areas in the Kilinochchi districts. However, with the new incidence of floods in Kilinochchi and drought conditions in the South Western region, the ILO is scaling-up to cover floods and droughts as common disasters in its project sites in the North and South-West of Sri Lanka. The developed disaster resilience models will be implemented, and popularised among development partners, for replication in other disaster-prone areas of the country, thereby strengthening the resilience of communities.