Today in Sri Lanka, Administrator Samantha Power announced an additional $20 million in humanitarian assistance to support Sri Lankans during the complex emergency that has resulted in a severe economic crisis leaving 5.7 million people in urgent need of food, agriculture, livelihood support, protection, and more. The United States is committed to getting the Sri Lankan people the critical humanitarian assistance they need to weather this crisis. We will continue to support the economy, which includes the resilience of small businesses, help strengthen institutions and civil society, and ensure that the most vulnerable have access to services.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will invest the additional funds to provide emergency food and nutrition support to those most in need. This brings USAID’s total assistance to nearly $92 million since June to support the Sri Lankan people through this crisis. Our contributions provide meals for approximately 1.1 million school children for 60 days and ensure that impoverished lactating mothers receive the nutritious food they need, equip farmers with agricultural assistance and cash in order to increase food production in vulnerable communities, distribute cash assistance to enable hundreds of thousands of crisis-affected people to immediately meet their basic needs, and support public financial management reforms to facilitate Sri Lanka’s emergence from debt. Our humanitarian programming will also support disaster risk reduction, shelter, and agriculture and livelihood activities, including providing agricultural inputs to Sri Lankan farmers to strengthen the ability of vulnerable communities to prepare for and withstand impacts of the complex emergency and other potential new disaster shocks.
The two announcements made in Sri Lanka this weekend brings the total U.S. government assistance to Sri Lanka to nearly $240 million. On top of the USAID total contribution of $92 million, there is also $120 million from the U.S. Development Finance Corporation that will bolster the Sri Lankan economy, especially small and medium-sized enterprises and $27 million in grant technical assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which supports food security and economic growth by helping participating Sri Lankan dairy farmers double their milk production. This humanitarian and technical assistance is in addition to USAID’s ongoing development assistance in partnership with the government, the private sector, civil society, and the people of Sri Lanka.