Business for Peace Alliance

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Business for Peace Alliance BPA Sri Lankas
Regional Business Network for Regional
Empowerment, Conflict Transformation and CSR
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Overview

• 12 Regional Board Directors
• 26 Chamber Members
• 3 BPA Delegates in each District
• 3 Women Chamber Members
• Over 15,000 SMEs

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Our Business Model
Conflict transformation Lobbying
advocacy Networking sharing good
practice Influencing engaging
stakeholders Improving understanding awareness
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Activities Focused on Eastern Province

• Social Cohesion through Commerce - ethnic,
  gender, peripheral areas, micro level,
  nontraditional business and linkage with other
  community level actors (Local authorities,
  Provincial media, civil society, religious
  leaders).
• USAid Programmes - CORE SURG
• Conflict Transformation Committees - early
  warning, mitigation of escalation of communal
  violence, peace building through multi cultural,
  multi religious events.
• Mindful Conflict Transformation through
  Media-film festival.
• Language Skills to Improve Livelihoods- Ministry
  of Disaster Management and Human Rights, SCOPP,
  CHA.

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Other Activities which Embrace the East

• BizPAct - Investment in Regional Business -
  Symposiums
• Regional empowerment awareness Peace Conflict
  from a Regional Empowerment Perspective
• Regional capacity building - Skills Development
  (Communication, best practices for income
  generation, New Companies Act, Conflict
  sensitivity, Business for Unity Awards)
• Learn Lead - Nurturing young leaders through
  quality education in leading schools
• Networking - Locally and internationally

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Language Skills to Improve Livelihoods

Confidence Building Stabilisation Measures
Project
THE ACADEMY OF ENGLISH AND DRAMA 'Seeing
education as an investment

• Overall Aim
• To improve the economic welfare of disadvantaged
  persons in the North and East of Sri Lanka by
  equipping them with the skills and the confidence
  to compete on a more equitable basis for
  employment

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• Programme Objectives
• To raise the levels of English language within
  targeted audiences ( IDPs, Young people,
  unemployed), within the Eastern Province, to
  improve employment prospects and opportunities
  for further education
• To expand and improve the quality of the network
  of resources which provide tuition in the English
  language
• To develop sensitivity for inter-personal
  relations through group based educational
  processes

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• Area Selected
• Eastern Province
• Ampara
• Batticaloa
• Trincomalee

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• 12 month project delivered in 2 Phases
• Delivery of workshops (3 months)
• To Identify part-time tutors ( teach 4 hours
  paid per week)
• To Identify potential students
• 2. Training of Trainers language training (9
  months)
• Train tutors in Colombo over 2 weeks, weekly
  intensive sessions (all expenses paid)
• Tutors will deliver free part-time English
  language classes in groups in the regions over 6
  months ( 4 hours per week)

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Role for the Regional Chambers

• Awareness raising of the programme
• Identify part-time tutors
• Help identify students
• Help to identify the skills that employers in the
  regions want
• Need to link employers and potential employees

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The Future

• Programme will be rolled out to North
• Plans to expand to teach Tamil and Sinhala
• Link into other projects focussing on regional
  economic development
• Potentially bigger role for the Chambers

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Connecting Regional Economies(CORE)

• A
• USAID-funded project being delivered by AECOM Inc

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What is the CORE Project about?

• Economic Growth. Increased Welfare in
  conflict affected populations. Value
  Chain and Agricultural Productivity
  enhancement at the grass roots level.
  Improvements in export earnings. Connecting
  disparate regions. Employment creation.

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Project Purpose

• To link commodity production in the east to
  intermediate value adding processors and to
  businesses in Colombo and elsewhere for internal
  and external markets.

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How is it Organised?

• The work of the project is split into 5
  components
• Livelihood Development.
• Agriculturally Based Value Chain Development.
• Value Chain Service Development to Benefit
  Conflict Affected Populations.
• Workforce Development.
• Improved Enabling Environment Policy at the
  National Level.

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Where does it operate?

• Trincomalee
• Batticaloa
• Ampara
• Anuradhapura
• Moneragala

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The Role of the BPA in CORE

• Our primary directive is
• TO MAINTAIN A CONFLICT SENSITIVE LENS IN THE
  DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMMING
• In addition, the BPA is also involved in the
  component that is considering the policy context
  for project interventions

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What type of things has the BPA done so far?

• Developed Criteria on Conflict Sensitivity for
  assessing CORE projects with large companies
• Developed and given workshops on Conflict
  Sensitivity for CORE staff
• Developed and delivered training on Conflict
  Sensitivity for farmers groups
• Worked with other components so that conflict
  sensitivity has been built into all proposed
  project interventions
• Taken part in an initial workshop to analyse
  potential policy interventions

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