The SANASA Movement

The SANASA movement represents a cooperative approach to community empowerment and mobilization. Having been formed as a credit and thrift cooperative in 1906, the SANASA movement has had 100 years of experience as an indigenous force in Sri Lankan development.

Prior to the mid 1990s, SANASA employed a credit and savings model in which credit was streamed from the national federation through the districts to the primary societies and their members. Primary member savings were channeled back to the federation through the primaries and districts, ensuring a healthy state of liquidity.

The SANASA Development Bank

In 1997, as a response to the trends ushered in by globalization and a changing national economy, the SANASA Development Bank (SDB) was registered as a Licensed Specialized Bank by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Formed by various SANASA Primaries and the SANASA Federation, the SDB is a bank of cooperative microfinance.

The SDB now functions as the financial apex institution for the SANASA movement. Although bound by Sri Lankan banking law, the SDB is 100% cooperative owned and caters directly to members of the SANASA movement. Thus, the SDB is a professional organization providing sustainable microfinance to the Sri Lankan people.

Powered by a community based approach and a professional staff, the SDB represents a development tool like no other. The SDB currently has 31 branches and 7 extension centers island-wide and plans to open more by the end of 2008. The result is finely tuned system for delivery of microfinance needs to SANASA primary societies who can then lend to their members.

The scope of the SDB is not merely the SANASA movement, but caters to the finances of private clients as well as Community Based Organizations (CBOs), local NGOs and cooperative entities. Thus the SDB presents an attractive option for partnered community development in post-tsunami Sri Lanka.