USAID pledges support for Sri Lanka to ride out crisis situation

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will closely work with other donors such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, G7 countries, and other stakeholders to support Sri Lanka during this extraordinarily difficult period, the agency’s administrator Samantha Power has assured Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

During a telephone conversation with PM Wickremesinghe, Samantha Power has discussed how the USAID is responding to the island nation’s political and economic crises. 

Administrator Power expressed her sympathy for the Sri Lankans who were killed or injured in the political unrest earlier this month.

Pledging her support to the people of Sri Lanka, she has stated that USAID would help the country weather the crisis.

Administrator Power meanwhile stressed the need to urgently undertake political and economic reforms to gain the trust of the Sri Lankan people. 

She has underscored that USAID is pivoting its ongoing programs in Sri Lanka to help address the urgent needs of Sri Lanka’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities as they experience the economic shocks, compounded by rising food, fuel and fertilizer prices due to Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.