GRADUATING THE POOR
2019 – 2025
Reach:
The programme will reach 2,000 families with a focus on Women Headed Household and Households with a Person with a Disability (PwD).
Goal:
The Goal of the programme is to graduate families out of subsistence living.
Locations:
The programme will be operating across four districts
| DISTRICT | DIVISION | VULNERABILITY |
|---|---|---|
| Kilinochchi (North) | Kandavalai | Kilinochchi has the highest poverty rating among the 25 districts in the country. Kandavalai is ranked the second poorest among the 4 divisions |
| Kilinochchi (North) | Poonakary | Poonakary is ranked the poorest among the 4 divisions |
| Batticaloa (East) | Vavuntheevu | Vavunthatheevu is the poorest division in the country |
| Pollonaruwa | Pollonaruwa | High vulnerability, families identified through the Pilot Village2Markets programme |
How we have ensured that we have selected the most food insecure
This programme has specifically targeted the most food insecure, families who are unable to regularly eat three meals a day. Families have been identified through a multistakeholder process over a period of 3 months engaging Government, Civil Society and Social institutions.
How this programme works
The programme will leverage the Graduation approach which focuses on 4 key pillars and adopts a targeted approach for each family to ensure their graduation over a 12 – 18 month period.
In the targeted areas of this programme, we identified that there was a lack of social mobilisation which would impact the social empowerment component of the Graduation Approach.
In response to this, the programme will be adding a second component in many of the locations – Self Help Group Model. The Self Help Group programme brings together women through a multilayers platform to change economic, social and political challenges they face. The purpose of the Self Help Group is captured in the image below.
Partners
Palmera is working with a lead national local partner and supporting sub-implementing agencies who have deep knowledge and relationships in the geographical locations. By working with national and locally based Sri Lankan agencies, Palmera builds the critical civil society landscape and builds long term capacity for future programmes.
Lead Partner
Sub-Implementing Partners
- Organization for Integrated Sustainable Development
- Mahashakthy Women Federtation
- Rural Planning Development Organization
- Grameeya Sanwaradan Padanama
- Arunodaya Maha Sangamaya
The Making Markets Work for the Last Mile (LM4P) approach targets economically excluded areas at the last mile, where development needs are most pressing, and resources are most limited. This approach works with market actors to better serve small rural entrepreneurs and equips these entrepreneurs to better access and benefit from market opportunities.
How the Approach Works – The Strategic Framework
At the core of the LM4P strategic framework, is the goal for access, agency and advancement of vulnerable women and men through profitable markets in the last mile. Markets are thin in the last mile context and the capacities of the population are low to engage in profitable markets or subsectors. Proper functionining of these profitable markets is important for sustainable economic growth of the last mile population.
The reason for this ineffective engagement are system barriers – both market and and non-market. Market barriers are those that are directly related to the functioning of a market while non-market barriers are those that are not directly related to the market but are reasons why socially excluded, women, men and communities are unable to engage profitably. The LM4P framework acknowledges that in last mile contexts, key barriers to market participation may lie in the non-market Barriers (household focused facilitation) than in the market ones (business or market focused facilitation), while in case of other last mile contexts, this may be opposite. To address these barriers, both market and non-market actors can play a crucial role to ensure sustainability.
Through the approach, programmes will implement systemic interventions using a combination of both ‘lift’ and ‘reach’ strategies that addresses the key market and non-market barriers of the last mile poor. Considering the heterogenous nature of vulnerabilities of the poor, ‘lift’ strategies will be needed to enhance capacity of the poor to become market ready – strategies which may not yet be financially feasible for the actors. Simultaneously, considering market and non-market actors do not have sufficient incentives to engage with the last mile poor, programmes will need ‘reach’ strategies facilitating relevant actors to test and adopt inclusive models with proper incentives to reach the last mile poor. These interventions will need to be designed and sequentially implemented based on the diagnosis of the last mile location and the vulnerabilities of the poor living in it.
The framework further highlights the potential systemic interventions (explained in the table below) that can be implemented to overcome market and non-market barriers of the last mile poor. The interventions presented in the framework serve as a guide and the final decision on how or whether to implement them depends on the selected last mile context and programme resources. Programmes may need to devise other intervention strategies depending on the context.