The government of Japan and the UNDP have joined hands to improve the women’s economic well-being for smallholder farmer families in Sri Lanka.

The effort to strengthen the socio-economic recovery will be carried out with a fund of about US$ 3.8 million, via home-based agriculture and energy security interventions.

Accordingly, two new livelihood projects that address the economic crisis in Sri Lanka were launched at the Temple Trees today by Prime Minister Dinesh, Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka  Mizukoshi Hideaki, and Resident Representative UNDP Sri Lanka  Azusa Kubota.

The projects will focus on the vulnerable smallholder farming families in the Dry Zone districts, namely North-Central, North-Western, and Eastern Provinces, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and the adoption of green agricultural technologies.

According to a statement by the UNDP, a total of 58,000 women and youth will directly benefit from these projects, while indirectly impacting over 132,000 vulnerable community members from project target groups.