Development of Estate Worker Housing Cooperative Federations

PALM foundation, in a previous cycle of the country programme, has worked to strengthen the 7 Estate Worker Housing Cooperatives and 4 villages in Nuwara Eliya district. In this programme cycle, the project will create a national level cooperative and district cooperative federations covering the seven plantation regions that represent 418 cooperatives in the entire country (Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Hatton, Rathnapura, Galle & Kegalle) with a systematic 5-year long-term plan consisting of three main intervention areas: capacity development process (organisational development), cooperative business development and gender equality promotion. The proposed network system will widen the service level of cooperatives in community banking, social enterprises and marketing. The regional cooperative federations will directly assist to build up the capacity of primary cooperatives (EWHCS) to further strengthen their capacity in resolving and advocating to the most of social, economic and environmental rights denial in a collective manner. The project is expected to have a national level cooperative union and 7 district cooperative Federations established with the required technical and financial capacity, advocating to the member cooperatives enabling to extend the services in strengthening organisational, community banking and cooperative enterprise development capacities. The long-term impact of the project will be to have an active, well-functioning national and district cooperative federations constituted by the estate worker housing cooperatives of seven plantation regions in Sri Lanka.