Divineguma Act, No.1 of 2013.

This Act is enacted to provide for the establishment of a department to be called as the Department of Divineguma Development by amalgamating the Samurdhi Authority of Sri Lanka established by Act, No. 30 Of 1995, Southern Development Authority of Sri Lanka established by Act, No. 18 of 1996, the Udarata Development Authority of Sri Lanka established by Act, No. 26 Of 2005; to establish Divineguma Community Based Organizations at rural level and to provide for a co-ordinating network at the district level and national level; to establish Divineguma Community Based Banks and Divineguma Community Based Banking Societies; etc.
In 1995, the Samurdhi Program was introduced by the government with the final objective of reducing poverty levels with unique features to include communities into the decision-making and target population identification processes. It is administered by the Department of Samurdhi Development and it operates throughout all 25 districts.
The major objectives of the Divineguma Development Department include: (a) to carry out such development activities as may be required to alleviate poverty and to bring about a society guaranteeing social equity; (b) to promote the individual, family, group and community centered livelihood economic development activities; (c) to ensure food security for each individual and family; (d) to mobilize and empower people to speed up the national development; (e) to provide micro-financial facilities for the purpose of promoting the livelihood development of people; (f) to develop physical and social infrastructure facilities as may be required for the development of the livelihood of people. In accordance with the provisions of the Divineguma Act No. 01 of 2013, the Department operates under the three main streams: (1) The Departmental stream with the official structure (2) Community based banking system stream (3) Community based organization stream.
There shall be established, for each Grama Niladari division or for a portion of a Grama Niladari division or for several Grama Niladari divisions as may be specified by the Minister by Order published in the Gazette, divineguma community based organizations with the voluntary participation of divineguma beneficiaries (Sec.9). Section 15 provides for the establishment of divineguma regional organizations. Section 19 provides for the establishment of divineguma district committees. Section 25 and 29 provide respectively for the establishment of divineguma community based banks and the establishment of divineguma community based banking societies.