The World Bank Group supports Sri Lanka’s efforts to meet its development goals. Highlights include:
Health
The Primary Healthcare System Strengthening Project ($200 million) focuses on the detection and management of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and targeting the most vulnerable. Within the two years of implementation, NCD services expanded to 187 primary care institutions across the country, with all services functional in 63 Phase-1 primary care institutions. In 2019, approximately 161,000 women aged 35-45 years were screened for cervical cancer at primary care institutions, exceeding targets. In recent years, substantial analytical work has informed government policies. This includes an assessment of the system for financing health care and the impact that COVID-19 has had on this, as well as a study on nutrition. An assessment on the pandemic preparedness of health system is currently underway. The project has also supported the Ministry of Health to receive, manage and redress grievances and is in the process of moving from a manual to a digital system.
Since May 2020, the Sri Lanka COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project (ERHSP) has been supporting the government’s efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, $128.6 million was approved under the ERHSP to support the implementation of Sri Lanka’s ‘test, track, isolate and treat’ strategy. In addition to supporting the country’s emergency needs, the project focuses on strengthening the capacity of national and sub-national institutions to address immediate needs and to equip them to handle future public health emergencies. An additional financing of $87.24 million was approved to provide scaled-up social protection measures to vulnerable communities, and a second additional financing of $80.5 million was approved in April 2021 to support vaccine procurement and deployment, including the purchase of 7.07 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
In addition, in September 2020, funds worth $56 million were also reallocated to pandemic related assistance from existing projects.
The project mainly focuses on strengthening the capacity of national and sub-national institutions to address immediate needs and equip them to handle future public health emergencies, and social measures through the provision of scaled-up cash and in-kind transfers for the elderly, persons with disabilities and patients with chronic kidney disease from low-income households in response to COVID-19.
Education
The World Bank is helping the development of human capital across all levels of education and training. The Sri Lanka Early Childhood Development Project, launched in early 2016, is supporting children from disadvantaged households to access early childhood development and foundational learning.
Social Protection & Jobs
The World Bank is playing a pivotal role in the reform of Sri Lanka’s safety net through the $75 million IDA-financed Social Safety Nets Project. The project is developing an Integrated Welfare Management System (IWMS), a central online portal that will serve as a “one-stop shop” for Sri Lanka’s welfare programs. The IWMS contains data on almost 2.5 million low-income households, which will be continually updated by local officials once the system is active. The new IWMS will generate information that can be used to better identify and deliver the support for households, reduce overlaps, and eliminate leakages in welfare programs. Through this project, the World Bank provided $45 million in financing to help cover the cost of emergency income support to low-income households during the April/May 2020 COVID curfew.
What is the current status of Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka is a lower-middle-income country with a GDP per capita of USD 3,852 (2019) and a total population of 21.8 million. With over six decades of partnership with Sri Lanka, World Bank Group continues to support Sri Lanka's transition to a more competitive, inclusive, and resilient.
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