In collaboration with the US Institute of Peace, our everyday indicators informed the design and evaluation of USAID’s Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE) program. The SCORE program aims to foster a unified Sri Lankan identity, reduce socio-economic disparities and exclusion, and strengthen community resilience.

Our approach incorporated community perspectives and ideas into the SCORE program, ensuring that both program design and evaluations
were firmly grounded in real-life experiences.

SCORE Project Designs

Our community-sourced everyday reconciliation indicators guided SCORE’s implementation across 20 Grama Niladhari Divisions (GNDs), helping to assess community-level changes over time. Projects initiatives directly responded to key issues identified by the community via the everyday reconciliation indicators, such as the construction of water purification centers, mobile huts for female entrepreneurs, language training for government officials, anti-hate speech media training for youth and community-based conflict prevention committees.

SCORE Program Evaluation

To assess the impacts of the SCORE program, EPI conducted a comprehensive longitudinal study. This included overseeing baseline surveys (2019) and endline surveys (2023), along with over 100 interviews and focus groups with community leaders, project partners and diverse community members.

Utilizing our community-generated indicators, we surveyed SCORE communities (and comparison communities) before and after project implementation. Survey findings helped us evaluate the overall effectiveness of the SCORE program in advancing reconciliation as defined by the communities themselves. Our qualitative fieldwork provided deeper insights into evolving reconciliation dynamics and SCORE’s impacts.

EPI’s survey data revealed small but meaningful increases in perceived levels of reconciliation and notable improvements in inter-ethnic relations. In most communities, SCORE projects were associated with positive changes in key reconciliation indicators over time. While our work also highlighted some shortcomings of the program, our research suggests that meaningful community consultations and targeted programs have the potential to foster reconciliation at the local level.