Kilinochchi social enterprises empower northern women, opens it to the world
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For social enterprises anywhere in the world starting up and surviving in the highly competitive profit driven globalised economy poses many challenges. When the enterprise is situated in a former conflict zone and employs people who were deeply affected by that conflict the challenges multiply.
In Northern Sri Lanka one such organisation is the Sivan Arul Vocational Training & Production Centre, which is located in Kilinochchi district. This is a social enterprise with a vision of creating sustainable employment opportunities for the conflict affected women and men through its livelihood model of “commercially viable socio-economic business enterprise”.
The ILO-implemented LEED project which is funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Australia was first introduced to Sivan Arul in 2012.
The LEED project, according to a media release issued by ILO, helped the organisation as it progressed to establish a modest processing plant that now manufactures and markets rice and spice based food products. It currently employs 56 people, most of whom are women.
As well as providing local employment the factory income also contributes to the support of an orphanage, a home for elders in the neighbouring district of Mannar, support the construction of common wells and various other similar activities.
“If commitment was all that was necessary then the organisation would have nothing to worry about. However it is operating in a very competitive market where profit margins are slim. Therefore strong financial and managerial skills are required, efficient processing, reliable and cost effective supply chains and markets need to be in place if the business is to survive and continue to provide decent jobs,” ILO said.
The ILO’s LEED project provided infrastructure and equipment as well as technical assistance on re-engineering their business processes, e.g. sourcing, purchasing, storage, production engineering, packaging and marketing to the Kilinochchi centre. The partnership has witnessed a growth of over 300 per cent in annual turnover, an increase in staff numbers and wages and an improvement in working conditions and occupational safety and health.
The enterprise was the first organisation in the Northern Province to receive the ISO certification (ISO 22000) for Food Safety Management System and is now exporting to Europe, Australia and Canada.
A bakery that was opened in 2015 in Mullativu has gradually developed into another food processing factory creating local employment over the next few years. In parallel it is planned to improve the supply chain linkages with local farmers and fishermen and develop new products to add value to the local raw produce.
Annual turnover has increased to Rs. 100 million now from Rs. 20 million in 2012 and employment t0 56 from 25.
As Nihal Devagiri, the ILO National Project coordinator explains, “this is a very competitive sector and Sivan Arul has made exceptional progress. However this businesses will only survive if it continues to compete and develop; new products need to be designed, more efficient ways of production have to utilised, existing markets retained and new markets developed. At the same time employment can be maintained, working conditions improved, staff development and the social responsibility aspects of the business continued as a priority.
“The DFAT funded LEED project has not been the biggest supporter in terms of finance to Sivan Arul. We have however been the most consistent and sometimes even persistent. We place a lot of emphasis on process, developing the soft skills as well as supporting infrastructure and hardware,” he said.