Knowledge Generation
Contributing to the knowledge base on the causes, manifestations and responses to poverty is a core CEPA activity. Our research quantifies the phenomenon, taking care to describe the nuances and complexities that numbers alone cannot portray. Our work in 2014 under this core activity includes:
Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium
In 2014, CEPA continued its research under the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), a six-year, eight-country programme exploring livelihoods, basic services and social protection in conflict-affected situations. The programme is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Irish Aid and the European Commission and led by the Overseas Development Institute in London. In 2014, CEPA concluded research on the following studies designed to test the factors affecting state legitimacy/state building in the context of two violent conflicts in Sri Lanka.
- Delivery and access of social protection programmes by war-affected communities in Jaffna, Trincomalee and Mannar Districts,
- Whether caste identity determines access to basic services (health, education, water) in the post-war Northern Province
- Livelihood service delivery by the government to war-affected coastal fisher communities.
 In 2014, CEPA continued its research under the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), a six-year, eight-country programme exploring livelihoods, basic services and social protection in conflict-affected situations. The programme is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Irish Aid and the European Commission and led by the Overseas Development Institute in London. In 2014, CEPA concluded research on the following studies designed to test the factors affecting state legitimacy/state building in the context of two violent conflicts in Sri Lanka.
CEPA articles, working papers and blog posts published under the Secure Livelihood Research Consortium
Mayadunne, G., Mallett, R. & Hagen-Zanker, J., Surveying livelihoods, service, delivery and governance - baseline evidence from Sri Lanka, Working Paper 20, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, July 2014
<http://www.securelivelihoods.org/publications_details.aspx?resourceid=318>
Saparamadu, C. & Lall, A., Resettlement of conflict-induced IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka: Political economy of state policy and practice, Working Paper 10, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, January 2014.
<http://www.securelivelihoods.org/publications_details.aspx?resourceid=268&>
Philips, M., Gender and post conflict development: Experiences of female headed households, Blog post, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, 28 August, 2014
<http://www.securelivelihoods.org/blogpost/66/Gender-and-post-conflict-development-Experiences-of-female-headed-households>
Philips, M., The challenges to post war development in Asia and Africa, Blog post, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium,12 August, 2014
<http://www.securelivelihoods.org/blogpost/65/The-challenges-to-post-war-development-in-Asia-and-Africa->
Fernando, P., Women in the local economy in post war Sri Lanka, Blog post, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, 2 July,
2014
,<http://www.securelivelihoods.org/blogpost/62/Women-in-the-local-economy-in-
post-war-Sri-Lanka>
Lokuge, G., Outside the net: Women’s participation in fishing activities in Trincomalee district of Sri Lanka, Blog post Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, 19 March 2014 <http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/show/Blog-Outside-the-net-womens-participation-in-fishing-activities-in-Trincomalee-district-of-Sri-Lanka.htm>
Lall, A., Post war development in Northern Sri Lanka: why some people are unable to return to their lands, Blog post, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium12 February 2014, <http://www.securelivelihoods.org/blogpost/52/-Post-war-development-in-Northern-Sri-Lanka-why-some-people-are-unable-to-return-to-their-lands>
|
Annual Symposium 2014
‘Post-war Development in Asia and Africa,’ was the focus of our Annual Symposium conducted in collaboration with the SLRC and supported by the Think Tank Initiative’s Opportunity Fund, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, GIZ and Dialog Axiata. YATV provided live streaming of the proceedings and the Asia Foundation and World Vision supported participants to the Symposium.
It was conceived as a multi-stakeholder forum, to inform and render post-war development policies and practice in Asia and Africa more evidence-based. Forty (40) papers inclusive of those from our SLRC partners were presented.
One of the key insights from the Symposium was the fact that war and conflict often condition and shape imaginations of and approaches to development. As such, policy makers need to ensure that post-war development does not bear the imprint of the war/conflict itself. Many participants at the Symposium raised the concern that the frameworks of ‘post-war’ or ‘post-conflict’ are applied arbitrarily, uniformly, or too quickly, without regard for context or the fact that war and conflict often manifest themselves in other ways.
Papers presented by CEPA at the Symposium:
Godamunne, N, Social protection delivery, access and use: (mis) matching expectations with perceptions: The case of post-war Sri Lanka.’
Lall, A., Caste and Access to Basic Services in Post-war Jaffna.
Lokuge, G., Outside the net: Intersectionality and Inequality in fisheries in Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka.
Mayadunne, G., People’s perceptions of livelihood services delivery by the government: a study of fisher communities in the post war north and east. |
Life and Debt Study
 A number of donors, as well as government authorities, are assisting in the construction of permanent shelter for people returning to their areas of residence in the North of Sri Lanka. Owner-driven construction has been a popular modality for many of these initiatives; nevertheless, there have been strong concerns about growing indebtedness among housing beneficiaries and the inability of returnees to manage their lives after resettlement. Focusing on 347 households in the Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu Districts, CEPA’s study, ‘Life and Debt: Assessing indebtedness and socio-economic conditions of conflict-affected housing beneficiaries in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu Districts’, found that owner-driven housing is more of a catalyst rather than a cause of indebtedness which precedes the construction process. As their debt burden increases, families are compelled to adopt negative coping strategies, such as reducing food consumption, which hurt their quality of life. Our researchers found that the lack of sustainable livelihoods was a strong factor leading returnee households to borrow, alongside the lack of financial literacy.
With this study, CEPA made a timely and highly valuable intervention in ongoing efforts to reconstruct and restore normalcy to the war-affected areas. In presenting systematic evidence that assistance to returnees may exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, the study has triggered significant interest and discussion among policy makers, local authorities and aid agencies.
Research Articles Published by CEPA in 2014:
CEPA continued to produce research in keeping with rigorous methodological and analytical standards, with a view to influencing local, national and regional policy on tackling poverty and vulnerability. A key intellectual strand in our work last year explored Sri Lanka’s headlong rush to development after the war and its effect on those who already bore the brunt of economic and social marginalisation.
- Godamunne, Nayana, 2014-2015. ‘Development for whom? Reimagining urban development in Colombo Sri Lanka’. Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal. Vol. 8 (2). Print
- Godamunne, Nayana, 2104. ‘Development and Displacement: The National Involuntary Resettlement Policy (NIRP) in Practice’. Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences, Colombo: National Science Foundation. Vol. 35/36(1 & 2), pp 37-50. Print.
- Gunasekara, Vagisha. 2013. ’Life on the Margins: Putting Inequality at the Heart of the Post-2015 Development Agenda’. Economic Review. Colombo: Peoples’ Bank, Vol. 39 (5-6 & 7-8): pp 26-29. Print 1.
- Inadeen, B., 2014. ‘Improving Local Governance and Service Delivery with the Citizen Report Card (CRC)’. Parliament Research Journal: Human Rights and Good Governance, Vol.1 (4), pp. 61-68. Print.
- Jayasekara, P., 2014. ‘On Driving Development Through Innovation in a Young World’. Economic Review. Colombo: Peoples’ Bank, Vol. 40 (1-2), pp 10-15. Print.
- Munas, Mohamad & Lokuge, Gayathri, May 2014. ’Shocks and coping strategies of coastal communities in war–conflict-affected areas of the north and east of Sri Lanka’. Regional Environmental Change. Springer: Berlin Heidelberg. DOI 10.1007/s10113-014-0632-x. Online http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-014-0632-x
- People’s Bank, August/November 2013. ‘Making Sustainability the Next Metric’. Economic Review, Colombo: Peoples’ Bank, Vol. 39, (5-6 & 7-8). Print 2.
This special issue of the Economic Review carried the papers presented at CEPA’s 2013 Annual Symposium.
1 Published in 2014
2 Ibid.
|
 CEPA continues to publish in line with its trilingual publication policy to ensure our work reaches the widest audience possible. The following were published in 2014:
Poverty Briefs:
- Urban Poverty in Sri Lanka, 2013 by Ishara Ratnayake, (English and Tamil)
Thematic Briefs:
- Social Infrastructure and Inclusive Growth by Priyanthi Fernando and Mansi Kumarasiri (Sinhala and Tamil)
- Policy Responses to a Changing Labour Migration by Mohamed Munas and Nadhiya Najab (English)
Study Series:
- Life and Debt: Assessing Indebtedness and Socio-Economic Conditions of Conflict Affected Housing Beneficiaries in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu Districts by K. Romeshun, Mohamed Munas and Vagisha Gunasekera (English)
- National and Household Food Security in Sri Lanka, by Nimal Sanderatne and Sharmini de Alwis (English)
 Think Pieces:
- Community-Centred Development: Experiences of a Third Party Participatory Evaluation by Amila Balasuriya and Sunil Jayasekera (Sinhala)
Edited Volumes:
- ‘You May Say I’m a Dreamer’: Essays on Reimagining Development, edited by Vagisha Gunasekara and Roshni Alles
Working Papers
- Comparative Perspectives: Gendered Dimensions of Well-being: Findings from an Exploratory Study Carried out in the Badulla District, by Sanjeewanie Kariyawasam (Tamil)
|
|
