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Livelihood recovery in tsunami affected areas satisfactory: report

The Chief Technical Advisor of Income Recovery technical Assistance program, Doekle Wielinga yesterday said that the livelihood of Tsunami affected areas has been recovered to quite a satisfactory level.He made these observations in launching the “Needs Assessment Survey for Income Recovery” (NASIR) yesterday.According to him the recovery of lost livelihood is satisfactory in general; an overall 90% recovery rate is shown in the surveyed districts. Among these districts, the highest number of families having the same primary income source as before is reported in the affected families of Colombo district (97%) with the lowest being reported from the Jaffna district (38%). He elaborated that in Kalutara 100% of people have recovered but in Jaffna in due to current situation the recovery rate stood at 55%.He also said that the strongest recovery has been reported from the fisheries and small business/service sectors which were also seriously affected by the tsunami.The main objective of this launch is to share knowledge on the economic recovery status of affected communities among the livelihood development agencies.This is the fourth in the series of the “Needs Assessment Survey for Income recovery conducted in 10 Tsunami affected districts of Sri Lanka during November 2006 covering Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, Galle, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kalutara, Matara, Mullaitivu and Trincomalee.The survey is organized by International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA).The first assessment (NASIR-1) of the series was conducted in January 2005 as soon after the tsunami to asses the livelihood needs.And the second assessment (NASIR-2) was carried out in eight affected districts April 2005. In this connection in October 2005 the third survey (NASIR-3) was conducted in nine affected districts and tracked similar indicators of livelihood recovery needs as in previous survey.Head of Supportive Evaluative Developing livelihood for tsunami affected districts Cynthia Carlon said that the recovery rate of women has significantly increased during 2006 from 65% to 96%. In comparison to men recovery rate it is lower than the women and it is slightly decreasing from 88% to 85%, she concluded.Director of RADA livelihood Indra Kaushal Rajapaksa said that the survey also reveals that there are still more persons relying on manual labour and on non work sources (government assistance and remittances) than before the tsunami.He said that families who are out of transitional shelters and are back in houses on their own land are succeeding well economically.This is reflected through their monthly income (58% of families earning) and the recovery rate for men (lost an income and now working) which is 86%. These families also show the highest employment rate (71%).“Less people are interested in temporary income and in terms of loans microfinance the demand of loans is very high on of the funds of RADA tries to lobby for special loan scheme, he said.

10/04/2007"
By Aamna Mahboob and Farveeza Ansar

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