US offers Rs 7b more to feed 800,000 children for 15 months

By Kapila Bandara  

More than 800,000 children and 27,000 pregnant and lactating women in Sri Lanka will get essential nutrition over the next 15 months through US$20 million (Rs 7.16 billion) more funding announced by the United States this week.

The funds will go to support a school nutrition program.

Farmers are also being supported to help improve food production in a country driven to unsustainable debt from a borrowing binge since 2007 by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the then president, and a significant balance of payments crisis.

The United States Embassy in Colombo said on June 28, the additional help was announced by President Joe Biden at the G7 summit. The summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany, ended on June 28.

Mr Biden and leaders of G7 countries committed more than US$4.5 billion funding to address global food security in more than 47 countries including 10 in Asia. More than half of the new investments will come from the United States.

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Ms Julie Chung, said in a statement that the additional assistance to Sri Lanka “demonstrates the United States’ ongoing commitment to food security, public health, and the economic well-being of all
Sri Lankan people.’’

Assistance from Washington appears to have speeded up since the arrival of Ms Chung, a career Senior Foreign Service member with the rank of minister-counselor, in February, considering Sri Lanka’s economy began to unravel rapidly in the first few months this year.

Since June 16 alone, US$32m in assistance has been announced by the United States, including nearly US$12m in economic and humanitarian help recently.

This latest round of funding is meant for a school nutrition program and for food vouchers for pregnant and lactating women.

This funding will also support 30,000 farmers through agricultural assistance and cash to increase food production.

Ms Chung assured support from the United States for Sri Lanka’s “efforts to promote economic stability and will ensure this assistance reaches the communities – and children – who need it most’’.

In mid May, Ms Chung met United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

energy program to discuss the US$19m, five-year investment in Sri Lanka’s power sector.

On June 21, USAID announced US$11.75 million in new funds, including US$5.75m for cash assistance related to food security issues and US$6m in development assistance to support small-scale agricultural productivity and microenterprises in marginalized and vulnerable communities where poverty is high.

The support also comes as USAID marks more than six decades as a development partner of Sri Lanka.

Thriposha was a milestone moment of USAID contribution to child healthcare in Sri Lanka. It was in 1972, that the USAID’s Food for Peace program began involvement in maternal and child health. This then led to USAID and CARE starting the Thriposha program, not local politicians as is often believed and promoted.

Even in 1993, during the tenure of the president Ranasinghe Premadasa and prime minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, a survey revealed that one in 10 households eats less than three meals a day and that 35% of children are underweight.

Earlier this June, USAID Administrator, Ms Samantha Power, oversaw the swearing in of Gabriel Grau as mission director for USAID Sri Lanka and Maldives. Ms Power noted that his family had moved to
Sri Lanka when he was just three months old, living first in Colombo and then in Kandy.

And on Friday, the World Bank maintained Sri Lanka as a lower middle income country in its annual update, based on gross national income per capita of between US$1,086 and US$4,255 (Rs 388,686 and Rs 1.52m) in 2021.

In that year, under the new Podu Jana Peramuna government, the rulers lived in denial of unsustainable debt and troubling balance of payments issues. The fiscal deficit was estimated at 11.1% of total economic output, or gross domestic product.

The twin deficits, the fiscal deficit and a deficit on the current account of the balance of payments, had lingered for decades unattended. Also, public and publicly guaranteed debt was estimated to have shot up to a staggering 117% of GDP.

The trade deficit ballooned to US$8.1 billion from US$6 billion in 2020.

In 2022, the current account balance deficit is expected
to rise.

Poverty, based on the US$3.20 international poverty line metric, is forecast to jump to 11% in 2022 from 10% in 2019.

Based on the World Bank classification, Sri Lanka ranks alongside Lebanon, which sinks from being in the upper-middle-income slot to lower-middle income level. Belize moves to the upper-middle-income group from lower-middle-income. Panama and Romania move to higher-income group.

The World Bank explains that GNI is the sum of value added by all domestic producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output, and also net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad.