The United States is providing more than $5.8 million assistance to Sri Lanka through the State Department and the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of its global COVID-19 assistance.

The COVID-19 assistance to-date from the State Department and USAID to Sri Lanka includes $2 million in Economic Support Fund (ESF) to increase social services for areas and populations most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, address the specific threats to social cohesion, and mitigate negative economic impacts.

Another $2 million in additional ESF is provided for strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises and increasing women’s economic participation.

The total assistance includes $1.3 million in health assistance to help the Sri Lankan Government prepare laboratory systems, activate case-finding and event-based surveillance, support technical experts for response and preparedness, conduct risk-communications, prevent and control infectious diseases in health facilities, and more.

These funds promote American foreign-policy interests by financing shorter-term mitigation efforts and addressing the second-order impacts of the pandemic in the long term, across a variety of sectors.

Finally, $590,000 in Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) humanitarian assistance provided through the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration will support vulnerable people in Sri Lanka during the pandemic.

These funds help international organizations and NGO partners address challenges posed by the pandemic in refugee, IDP, and host communities as well as other among migrants and other vulnerable people.

Over the past 20 years, U.S. assistance in Sri Lanka has totaled more than $1 billion, which includes $26 million for health, the State Department noted.

According to a fact sheet issued by the Office of the Spokesperson of the State Department on Tuesday (May 19), since the outbreak of COVID-19, the U.S. Government has committed more than $900 million in State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) emergency health, humanitarian, economic, and development assistance specifically aimed at helping governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) fight the pandemic.

“The American people have given more than $10 billion that will benefit the global COVID-19 response, and we continue to ensure that the substantial U.S. funding and scientific efforts on this front remain a central and coordinated part of the worldwide effort against COVID-19,” the Office of the Spokesperson said.

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