Study on financial counselling in Jaffna and Kilinochchi

The Centre for Poverty Analysis  (CEPA) will be launching the study on an assessment of the effects of financial counselling on decision-making behaviour of housing beneficiaries in Jaffna and Kilinochchi tomorrow (21 October) at 4:30 p.m. at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (24 Horton Place, Colombo 7).

Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs D.M. Swaminathan and Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust Chairperson Ambika Stakunanathan will also be speaking at the event.

As the construction of owner driven housing reconstruction in the North continues with funding from a diverse group of organisations, recent studies show a visible trend of increased indebtedness among housing beneficiaries. In 2014, the CEPA conducted a study supported by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) to understand this trend by examining the socio-economic situation of housing beneficiaries and the extent to which the housing program drives household debt.

The study conducted among SDC beneficiaries Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi, indicated that average debt among them was higher than with those who have not begun constructing houses. As a response to this evidence, in May 2014, SDC implemented a financial counselling module, specific to the housing process, as a way of maintaining low housing-related debt levels.

Subsequently, CEPA conducted another study in 2015 to understand the extent to which SDC’s financial counselling intervention shaped behavioural changes in housing beneficiaries in relation to the housing (re)construction process.