Tribefunds

“Help the Women in entrepreneurial phases.”

Kendell Atkinson, DAI Lanka

BACKGROUND

For more over four decades, income disparity has remained constant. The richest 20% of the population receives more than half of the country's total household income, while the lowest 20% receive only 5%. The ‘richest category' includes households with a monthly income of Rs. 81,372 or more.

According to the current data, households earning less than Rs. 36,500 are classified as being in the "poorest group." Mullaitivu district (71.6%) and Killinochchi (66.6%) have the greatest percentage of families falling into the "poorest group." One of the primary causes for the huge economic disparities between rural and urban areas in Sri Lanka is a lack of opportunities in primarily rural districts.

Women are already active producers if the household and family economy is considered, but they are not currently contributing to the economy through full ownership of their businesses. Potential women entrepreneurs face problems arising from their social identity and role obligations, lack of sufficient knowledge/skills in establishing and running businesses as well as from lack of role models.

Therefore, only highly educated women are currently succeeding in the formal economy. Less well-educated women often work in the informal economy and face difficulties in dealing with the general management of a business and more specifically with such aspects as credit applications, marketing of products or services, and general management.

Many small family-owned businesses would benefit if the women behind them had better access to advisory services and training to help them improve their skills as they normally play the most important role. Women employees account for 45.04% of the total employees in Sri Lanka. Female labor force participation has stagnated at between 30 to 35 percent in the past two decades, which is much lower than one would expect given the achievements in social indicators.

This was caused by migration to urban areas where job opportunities were lower and increasing enrolment in secondary and tertiary education. The prevailing role models and social identity are barriers for less-educated women to establish and run businesses.

OBJECTIVE Our project aims at the development impact of the project is to improve the living standard among the women in the Mullaitivu District which is a rural district of Sri Lanka.

The outcome will be for the low-income women, micro-entrepreneurs by enlarging female entrepreneurial participation and strengthening business competitiveness of women-led startups by providing female entrepreneurs with giving them the capital which needs for to start the business along with the market knowledge and training that help increase access to finance and market opportunities. Further, to generate women’s contribution to the economy, and most importantly, to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and inclusive growth.

By the end of the project, the project managed to target poor, yet 10 productive women in the Mullaitivu District of Sri Lanka where those families started counting on the new businesses to generate daily income that will cover their basic needs such as food, health, education and/ or improving their housing conditions.

METHODOLOGY

The project will be based on Micro Finance. At the beginning 10 beneficiaries would be informed of the availability of microfinance loans for the selected area through the Regional Coordinators of the district from the low-income earning families.

The Beneficiaries would have to submit a project proposal for the planned intervention for income generation. After that, a team consisting of the project officer, stakeholders in the area, and the DAI Lanka Head office considers the feasibility of the projects. If found to be feasible, the project is approved for the microfinance facility.

During the implementation of the project, the selected beneficiaries would offer the requested amounts by the coordinators to initiate their project and they are requested to settle the microfinance loan within one year. The Maximum Cap on Total Loan to each area would be Rs 400,000.

The loans disbursed would be on a Zero Interest basis where the borrower needs to repay the capital borrowed in a Year. In addition, there would be no Collateral required, and loans would be granted purely on the trust between the coordinators and the beneficiaries.

Therefore, this microfinance project would be unique in that fact that they would be no interest charged, thereby placing no burden on the borrower other than loan repayment.

Activity/Output		Total Cost
a. Capital for the zero-interest loan	(Rs.40,000 X 10)	400,000
b. Workshop training cost
i. Travelling		10,000
ii. Training material		500
iii. Accommodation for facilitators/coordinators one night		5,000
iv. Refreshments for participants		2,000
v. Meals for facilitators/coordinators		2,000
vi. Fees for Facilitator (5,000/=) Coordinator (3000/=)		8,000
vii. Hall usage with government protocol followed.		1,000
c. Project officers' allowance
i. Project Officer’s monthly allowance 10,000/= (Supplementing 2000/= per month from the budget)		24,500
ii. Monthly Travelling		12,000
d. Utility costs
i. Printing, paper, electricity, telephone (@ 500/= per month)		6,000
e.Supplementing the head office rent
i.Monthly office rental 45,000/=		3,000
Total cost for the project		Rs.473,500

DAI Lanka DAI Lanka has been in Sri Lanka since 2016 serves the rural communities of Sri Lanka through leadership development. With the spread of the pandemic DAI Lanka has moved into relief and sustainable development as well. The pillar of developing resilient communities encompasses all the Organization's operations and objectives dedicated working with the children, women, youth, families, and communities. The Organization work through education, women, sustainable development, empowerment, and child education and awareness programs and initiatives which generate benefits for wide range of underprivileged populations in Sri Lanka's rural districts.

We hope to have funding in place by October 2021.

1st August 2021 - And we are off with our campaign, really looking forward to your support!.

Contact details for further inquiries:

Project Co-Ordinator: Shehara Elton
Phone Number: +94 (0) 76 607 1185
Email: selton@DAIntl.org
Project Co-Ordinator: Gnanasekara Thiyagaraja
Phone Number: +94 (0) 77 969 1328
Email: gnanasekarathiyagaraja@gmail.com
Website: http://www.daintl.org//
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DAISLLeadership/

Women, SMEs, and Inclusive Growth

Kendell Atkinson, DAI Lanka