Sri Lanka will launch a US$100 million development programme funded by the Asian Development Bank to strengthen social safety nets, livelihoods and care services, EconomyNext reported.
The Macro-Recovery Sector Development Program for Promoting Resilience and Inclusive Economic Opportunities will run from November 2026 to October 2031 and is financed through a concessional ADB loan. It covers six districts: Kegalle, Matale, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Batticaloa and Nuwara Eliya.
“Around 56 percent of the country’s population faces multi-dimensional vulnerabilities, which severely impact women, youth, elderly citizens, persons with disabilities, and rural as well as estate communities,” Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told journalists.
What the money buys
The programme runs policy and investment components across three areas.
On livelihoods, it provides entrepreneurship training, market access and financial linkages, and 30,000 selected Aswesuma families will each receive a seed capital grant of Rs. 200,000, paid in two instalments. At the stated numbers that single component commits about Rs. 6 billion.
On elderly care, it brings new regulations, training for care workers and five elderly day-care centres.
The third strand is a Social Protection Plan intended to reform the system itself. That follows the social protection action plan developed with the ILO in August; neither report says whether the two are the same instrument.
Cabinet approved the implementation proposal submitted by the Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment.
The districts chosen
The six selected are Sri Lanka’s estate and former-conflict districts — Nuwara Eliya and Matale in the plantation belt, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi in the North, Batticaloa in the East — plus Kegalle. Neither outlet reports the criteria used to select them or how the 30,000 Aswesuma families will be identified, a question with weight given the fraud cases now before the CID over Aswesuma payments.
Sourcing note
EconomyNext published on Tuesday evening and Hiru News on Wednesday. The two accounts are word-for-word identical, including the Herath quote, and appear to derive from the same post-Cabinet briefing material rather than from independent reporting.
