The Listening Project - Field Visit Report Sri Lanka

The Listening Project organized a Listening Exercise in Sri Lanka in late September 2007 with the help of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA), Forut, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)/Irish Red Cross, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Oxfam Great Britain, Sewa Lanka and World Vision. These organizations provided funds, staff, and other in-kind support (hospitality, transportation, etc.) to the effort, and CHA sent one of their staff members to join the facilitators’ team. CDA provided one staff member, two consultants and one local facilitator to facilitate this Listening Exercise.

Six regions of Sri Lanka were visited during the Listening Exercise: 1) the tsunami-affected areas in the South of the country, in and around Galle; 2) the tsunami-affected and conflict- affected Batticaloa region in the East; 3) the areas in and around Puttalam, where there is a concentration of Muslim IDPs present since the early 1990s; 4) the central highlands and tea plantations of Badulla and Uva Provinces; 5) the border areas of Anuradhapura Province, where there is an influx of IDPs from the conflict in the North; and 6) in and around Colombo with apparel industry workers, staff in government ministries, foreign donors and Sri Lankan NGOs and research centers. The regions were selected by the participating agencies in consultation with CDA, with the intention of visiting communities that have experienced different kinds of international assistance over a range of time.