The Sri Lankan government’s failure to respect human rights, democracy and accountability have caused alarm at home and abroad and may prove still more costly in various ways. After a recent decision…
Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zone (FTZ) workers are employed in global factories deeply embedded in global supply chains. Historically, they contribute significantly to Sri Lanka’s export income and economic development goals. Women,…
In the South Asian region, Sri Lanka is a success story when it comes to tackling child labour. The widely prevalent forms of child labour in the 1990s and before, such as…
The visit of Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe to Sri Lanka in late April 2021 – the second visit by a high ranking Chinese official since the pandemic – has raised…
Sri Lanka’s admired initial coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic is now a distant memory. The second wave that multiplied from the Brandix factory in Minuwangoda should have sounded a warning to…
The ban on the import of chemical fertilizer makes sense to some and not to others; however it has far reaching implications for food security. In the pre independence era, the population…
The youth of a country are the forerunners of social progress; notwithstanding this historical fact, we cannot underestimate the role other social strata play in the social development of a nation. Youth…
The recent scandals involving sugar and coconut oil should point the country to the dangers of private sector mafias and rent seekers. These are not your typical consumer goods: they are fast…
Trapped between unscrupulous microfinance companies and duplicitous governments, Sri Lanka’s rural women farmers are drowning in debt. Over 200 have committed suicide, some with their young children; families have been wrecked and…
Saumya is a mother of two from Polonnaruwa who has taken a loan of Rs. 200,000 from a well-established microfinance company in the region to start a small apparel business to make…
“Knowledge is power: You hear it all the time but knowledge is not power. It’s only potential power. It only becomes power when we apply it and use it.” Jim Kwik These are…
It is one year since Sri Lanka went into lockdown. At a recent press briefing by women members of Sri Lanka Chamber of Garment Exporters, a member of the Joint Apparel Association…
Using the policy tool of a dedicated special economic zone for services, the Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka aspires to become an international financial centre after the pandemic in a bid…
The estate sector, a high foreign exchange earner for the country, is undergoing a severe crisis. On one hand, estate workers are underpaid and forced to live in cramped and unhygienic conditions,…
Inadequate access to menstrual hygiene tools and education, or otherwise known as period poverty, is not a phenomenon that only affects the developing world but is an issue that women and girls…
