Design for North Eastern Local Services Improvement Program (NELSIP)

Project Narrative

The project involved the repair and development of local economic infrastructure in the conflict and flood-affected northern and eastern areas of Sri Lanka. The project aimed to improve the income and livelihoods of up to 370,000 people living in some of the poorest areas of the country. AusAID’s funds were pooled with the US$84 million Government of Sri Lanka and World Bank loan funds and used to support mainly the rehabilitation and construction of new infrastructure, capacity building for infrastructure development and management by public institutions and utilities at district and provincial level.

Key services provided

The key services were to prepare the Design Summary and Implementation Document (DSID) for a proposal by AusAID to support the expansion of the World Bank North East Local Services Improvement Project (NELSIP) in Sri Lanka. The proposal approved by AusAID provided a 3.5-year program (April 2012- December 2015) of assistance with a total budget of up to A$38.55 million to support co-financing the expansion of NELSIP. Provided advice on how AusAID funds may be used to support a new Catalytic Fund being developed by the World Bank as an extension to NELSIP. The Catalytic Fund would support innovative projects, practices and governance processes that would add value to the development of local economies in the provinces and areas covered by the project. The project would be implemented under the partnership agreement with the World Bank. Under the agreement, AusAID would transfer funds to a World Bank’s South Asia Trust earmarked to support NELSIP activities. The project provided advice on measures to ensure visibility, risk management, sustainability, effective monitoring and reporting of the use of funds by NELSIP.