Re-imagining development in Sri Lanka: In conversation with Nilakshi De Silva
Nilakshi De Silva is a Senior Research Professional at the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), and in this interview, talks about the multi-faceted challenges facing development in Sri Lanka post-war, including the nature and extent of poverty in the country. She is the second interviewee from CEPA featured on Groundviews this year, the first being CEPA’s Executive Director, Priyanthi Fernando. The interview with Nilakshi is anchored to Re-imagining Development? An Exchange of Ideas based on the Sri Lankan Experience, the title of CEPA’s 2012 Symposium looking at equitable, sustainable, inclusive development in Sri Lanka. Though the Symposium’s dedicated site features a lot of interesting content but no real conversation around some of the ideas flagged in this interview, CEPA’s institutional output has for years focussed on development as more than just economic prosperity or year on year GDP growth. Early on in the conversation, Nilakshi flags the importance of looking at poverty not just as something that afflicts the poor,…
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