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ABOUT SEDF

Fighting poverty and hunger is, in essence, to redress the structural imbalances and deficiencies in the socio-economic and political milieu.

In the war-affected north and east of Sri Lanka, the agriculture and fisheries sectors are starved of capital for productive investment and reinvestment. Further, the social structure has been bifurcated. It lost its confidence and, in a way, it’s bearing too.

Seventy percent of the population live in rural areas and, most of them are smallholder peasant farmers and fishers.

Growth and Development are not possible by injecting money into a flawed system. However, traditional approaches did gain traction in the past to bring about positive changes to open up the growth potential.

An alternative approach is required to build confidence, address social inequality and, accumulate sustainable livelihoods and development.

Collective actions based on cooperation, fraternity and solidarity are a way forward. In other words, a community-based Solidarity-Economy.

This is achieved through financial intervention and social investing to boost the capital accumulation of small entrepreneurs.

When small farmers and fishers are successful, the extra generated cash can help transform moribund rural areas into vibrant rural economies. This, in turn, leads to growth and higher employment in non-farm and fisheries businesses such as services, agro-processing and small-scale manufacturing.

Socio Economic Development Fund’s (SEDF) vision is to create self-sufficient, resilient and vibrant local communities driven by existing and new small entrepreneurs that will transform the culturally sensitive communities to peacefully coexist in equality, mutual respect, prosperity and in harmony with the environment.

Communities cannot be self-sufficient on their own, but SEDF strongly believes that communities can retain the sustainability to reproduce, to add value add and to sustain the capital flow and wealth creation to cause a multiplier effect.

SEDF recognizes that poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Generally, poverty is defined as a single-dimensional measure – usually based on income. SEDF embraces local community-based organizations to address a diverse range of impediments in overcoming poverty.