(UDHAYAM, COLOMBO) – Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs and Policy Planning Dr. Harsha de Silva says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) plans to spend over USD 50 million on children in Sri Lanka in the next four-years.
The Deputy Minister said he met with the South Asia and Sri Lanka team led by Timothy Sutton, the new country representative for UNICEF in Sri Lanka at the UNICEF Headquarters in New York on Saturday (10) and agreed on the proposed 2018-2022 program for Sri Lanka.
The proposed program will be presented to the UNICEF board in September and the Minister expressed hope that it would be approved.
The proposed plan will focus on early childhood programs to get children into preschool programs. In addition, middle childhood issues with respect to quality and relevance of education and adolescent issues on ensuring access to achieve full potential and deal with violence against kids, will also be addressed, “You’d be surprised at the incidence of both physical and sexual violations; too high at around 15 percent,” Dr. de Silva said.
The Deputy Minister extended his gratitude to UNICEF on behalf of nearly 6 million children in Sri Lanka.