The 13th Annual CEPA Symposium

1-3 September 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka

The Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) organized its Annual Symposium this year in collaboration with the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC). The event took the form of an International Conference on Post-War Development in Asia and Africa and was held in Colombo from the 1-3rd September 2014 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo 7. The conference was preceded by an inauguration on the 31st of August.

Africa and Asia, home to an overwhelming majority of the world’s population, have also witnessed the most intense and protracted armed conflicts over the past several decades. The countries recuperating from war and conflict in Asia and Africa do so under differing and unique conditions, but many of the challenges they face are not particularly unique. Conceived as a multi-stake holder forum, the symposium looked to a) inform and render post-war development policies and practice more evidence based, and b) enable learning and dialogue between post-war polities through discussion of trends, differences, special cases and best practices.

The concept note for the symposium can be downloaded

2014-13th-CEPA-Symposium-Concept-Note

Discussions are available on

https://www.youtube.com/user/cepasl

SYMPOSIUM AGENDA

WATCH SESSIONS

Inaugural session – 31st August 2014 <watch here>

Panel 1: Development and conflict: Reconsidering dominant approaches <watch here>

Panel 2: Macro political economy & post-war development <watch here>

Panel 3: The promise & perils of aid <watch here>

Panel 4: Social mobilization, political inclusion & access to justice <watch here>

Parallel Panel (i): Children and Adolescents

Parallel Panel (ii): IDPs & Ex-combatants

Parallel Panel (iii): Education <watch here>

Panel 5: Distributive justice and post-war resource mobilization <watch here>

Panel 6: Land, Natural Resources & Infrastructure

Panel 7: Livelihoods and social protection <watch here>

Parallel Panel (iv): Fishing <watch here>

Parallel Panel (v): Access to health, water and sanitation <watch here>

Parallel Panel (vi): Entrepreneurship <watch here>

Looking Back to Look Ahead: Provocations and Reflections <watch here>

Valedictory Panel: Redefining Policy Horizons in Post-war Sri Lanka <watch here>

PLENARY PANELS

1. DEVELOPMENT AND CONFLICT RECONSIDERING DOMINANT APPROACHES

RETHINKING THE CONFLICT-POVERTY NEXUS: FROM SECURITISING INTERVENTION TO RESILIENCE

David Chandler

Today the biggest concern of international policy-makers is not so much the impact of development upon ideological, geo-political or military competition but the alleged dangers of the unintended consequences of policy-making in a complex and interconnected world. We are witnessing nothing less than a revolution in international policy-thinking, with a shift from imagining that international policy-makers can solve development/security problems through the export or transfer of policy practices or their imposition through conditionality, to understanding that problems should be grasped as emergent consequences of complex social processes which need to be worked with rather than against. This shift was first heralded by the Conflict-Poverty Nexus which sought to highlight the entanglement of security and development, undermining ‘reductionist’ or ‘linear’ views that security or development could be treated as discrete problems. Over the last decade, policy debates have shifted further away from the focus upon ‘problems’ to the existing practices and knowledges which are to be worked with on the basis that local capacities for resilience need to be at the heart of policy concerns in the fields of security and development.

‘WAR WITHOUT SOUND’: THE SECURITIZATION OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE ABSENCE OF PEACE 

Jennifer Hyndman

The war in Sri Lanka may be over officially, but it continues as a ‘war without sound’ (informant, Mullaitivu 2013), or as war by other means (Dahlman, 2009): in the absence of peace and reconciliation development by stealth and militarization proceeds. Much has been written about the militarization of civilian life in Sri Lanka (Kadirgamar, 2013; David, 2013), but this paper focuses specifically on how this has proceeded with little public protest or pushback. The political work accomplished by ‘securitisation’ is used to gain consent and create new space and capacity for state security measures and militarisation.  This paper recasts the connections between security, peace, and development in post-war Sri Lanka, drawing on fieldwork in one area that connects all of these projects: tourism. An analysis of ‘war tourism’ in Sri Lanka shows how it reproduces threats to Sri Lanka’s security at the same time that it celebrates military victory and might. Tourist sites mobilise fear of potential terrorism and return to the LTTE, if vigilance and militarization are not maintained. In such a context, then, development is best done by the military. Within this securitisation framework, militarisation becomes a common sense approach. How is this common sense produced? The securitization of development is vivid in the post-war context of Sri Lanka, inextricably tied to neoliberal imperatives to convey a democratic, stable country that is open to and good for business.

1) A feminist geopolitics framing takes as its premise that local and national politics are inseparable from global geopolitics, and these are in fact mutually constituted. It foregrounds civilian actors and the scale of the everyday over globalization and state-centric discourses with a view to (re)tracing the salient global but also local links between IFIs/neoliberalism and security concerns/agenda in daily life.

2) This paper defines securitization and shows how the manufactured ‘threat’ of a migrant invasion in the global North in international discourse has been transposed geographically to a national context in Sri Lanka, but with a view to be open for business on an international stage. Particular ‘risky regions’ (and minority groups) are produced as potentially ‘dangerous’ to security but also to prosperity. Another war must not happen, cannot happen: everything must be done to ensure/secure this, goes current state thinking.  ‘Development’ has been recast from its Cold War roots as a powerful carrot and tool to create allies for the ‘non-communist manifesto’. Development’s current focus is still economic, but by militarizing it, this pro-capitalist project also concentrates and galvanizes state power over civilian space and bodies. What remains similar to the Cold War is the focus on militarized ‘development’: Ethiopia’s first lot of development aid was all about military weaponry and equipment. A focus on how everyday civilians, especially from minority groups in the North and East, are shaped and affected by development remains an area that requires further analysis. Civilian space shrinks in this context.

3) Finally, this paper will briefly compare state securitization measures in Colombia around tourism with those in Sri Lanka, and examine how the state uses militarized ‘tourism’ to open up space for investment at the same time as it represses minority groups and instills fear among those who live in these spaces.

ALTERED PERSPECTIVES ON CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT INTERREGNA IN WAR-TORN SOCIAL FORMATIONS: NEW FORMS OF ACCUMULATION AND CLASS RE-FORMATION

David Moore

This author’s earlier work (2000) on the crises and reconstruction of war-torn social formations focused on ‘neo-liberalism’ and the aims of institutions such as the World Bank to incorporate these socio-economic complexes into a liberal political and economic order. Subsequently, perspectives derived from theories of primitive accumulation and hegemony (2010, 2014) have served as templates for examining these re-structuring of social formations, alongside such paradigm shifting works as Duffield and Cramer (2001, 2006, 2007), the latter labelling post-conflict remodelling as fantastical.

This paper will attempt to ‘apply’ a framework developed in David Priestland’s Merchants, Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power (2013), in which fundamental political and economic shifts in the world’s history can be explained by alterations in the relations among what he calls the military, capitalist, and intellectual ‘castes’: which one rules, in various forms of alliance with the others, creates a particular pattern of socio-economic relations for historical epochs that in turn unravel and re-form. At the present, the merchants’ rise (at the – shifting – core of the global political economy) has peaked and a new configuration is in formation. Freedland’s The Plutocrats (2013) also postulates a new alignment of these forces as finance capital alters its relations with the sages and soldiers. Neither Priestland nor Freedland spends much time thinking about what happens in the global periphery of these shifts, but it could be said that their ideas – in conjunction with the classics of political economy ranging from Marx to Gramsci (clearly Priestland’s sages should meet the Italian’s ‘organic intellectuals’, both authors need to focus more on the subalterns, and they lack a sophisticated appreciation of the globalisation [Robinson 2005] of these relations) – could be applied to conflict and post-conflict in the ‘third world’ as ‘neo-liberalism’ morphs into something less overtly ideological and the post-Cold War infatuation with democracy wanes (Stephens, 2014; Moore 1999, 2014b).

What re-configurations among warriors, state-centred actors, and capital have caused ‘third world’ wars and how are their post-war alliances restructuring patterns of accumulation and hegemony in the context of nation-state (re)formation and democratisation (Moore 2001)? How will these patterns structure the re-articulation of modes of production, systems of inequality, and cultural belief systems at the foundations of war and peace?

This exploratory piece will attempt to sharpen some of these theoretical questions.

WAR, PEACE AND SOCIAL RE-ORDERING

Ayesha Siddiqa

War and peace are both political tools meant to re-order power between nations or within nations. Such re-ordering, in turn, is meant to renegotiate share of political power and national resources. Internal conflicts happen not just because people find it fun to fight but to renegotiate power. In their recent work on “Violence and Social Order,” political economist Douglas North, John Wallis and Barry Weingast have talked about how certain states have a better regulatory framework through which power elites negotiate their share in power that allows for relative rent-seeking. There are others that they call ‘fragile natural states’ where the absence or collapse of such mutually agreed up regulatory framework results in use of violence as a means for renegotiating relative control of power and the state. Putting it differently but simply, violence occurs because elite consensus breaks down. Peace is restored after the cost of conflict has increased for one or more parties and a new consensus has developed.

Thus, peace emerges from conflict, which also means that it reflects a new power dynamics attained on the basis of violence. While there are times and instances that a negotiated peace meets expectations of most stakeholders, in other times the new social and state power structure merely endorses what is captured through use of force. In this case, peace remains fragile. The larger problem in this context then, especially for the development community, is that their capacity to distribute assistance depends on how power is distributed and what the new patterns of rent-seeking are and the new groups that engage in that. The militaries, which have the privilege of having institutional and legalized monopoly over violence, often play a critical role in defining power structures within the state and society and determine the behavior of the distributive mechanism. Exploitation will increase because the negotiated peace may not represent a consensus but surrender of some stakeholders in the face of violence. On the other hand, those that have acquired power then exploit resources in a manner, which increases the potential for violence and the breakdown of peace at a future date. Hence, it is important for both the academia and the development community to analyse issues that may arise from both war and peace, and how it impacts relationships among key stakeholders.

2. MACRO POLITICAL ECONOMY & POST-WAR DEVELOPMENT

NEOLIBERAL DEVELOPMENT, FAILURE OF RECONSTRUCTION AND CHALLENGES OF REVITALISING THE          WAR-TORN NORTH

Ahilan Kadirgamar

What are the challenges of reconstructing a war-torn society such as in Northern Sri Lanka, where production has been disrupted for decades with little capital accumulation and investment? How does the economy of such a region react to the rebuilding of large infrastructure including major road networks, the expansion of the national and global market and an overwhelming process of financialisation? This paper addresses the failure of reconstruction including widespread indebtedness and rural dispossession in the Northern Province. In analysing such dispossession, which is also common to so many other places in the Global South recovering from armed conflicts, this paper critiques the neoliberal global regime constituting authoritarian states, NGO-ised dependency and multi-lateral and bilateral donor policies and initiatives. Through research on the rural economy in Northern Sri Lanka, this paper argues that any understanding of the persisting social and economic crisis of war-torn societies requires analysis of global finance capital as it ravages war devastated economies and a critique of the discourse of “post-war development” itself. While critiquing such global processes of dispossession, this paper discusses the need to recover and strengthen local forms of social associations and local forms of production, including the co-operatives, historically a pillar of Northern society and the agriculture and fisheries sectors, which contributed to social and economic advancement during the decades prior to the war in Sri Lanka. The failure of reconstruction has been for the most part a failure of policy and its abdication to finance capital and the market, and is propelling out migration for remittance incomes but with socially crippling costs. Revitalising the war-torn rural economy requires controls on market fluctuations, a reversal of devastating financialisation and encouragement of local forms of production including investment for small industries; rejuvenating a process of reviving local institutions and incomes.

POST CIVIL WAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE EASTERN AND NORTHERN PROVINCES OF SRI LANKA: A CRITICAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

The Eastern Province emerged out of armed conflict in July 2007 and the Northern Province in May 2009. It is five years since the decisive end of the civil war in Sri Lanka in May 2009. However, disaggregated socio economic data for the nine provinces in Sri Lanka is available only until 2012. Therefore, this paper will critically analysis the post civil war economic development in the civil war-affected Eastern Province for the five-year period for which data is available, 2008-2012, and the Northern Province for the three-year period for which data is available, 2010-2012. This paper will, by and large, analyse the provincial macroeconomic development and policy during the respective post civil war periods. The sources of economic growth and financing of development, nature of policy milieu, and gender, poverty and employment implications of such developments are proposed to be critically and comparatively analysed.

The proposed paper would strive to compare and contrast the macroeconomic development at the national and provincial levels during the post civil war period vis-a-vis the period of the ceasefire between 2002-2005. Moreover, this proposed paper would strive to compare and contrast the post-civil war economic development of Sri Lanka with other post-civil war countries in Africa (e.g. Mozambique, Rwanda) and Asia (e.g. Myanmar, Nepal).

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AID IN PALESTINE: FROM DELAYED DEVELOPMENT TO FADED NATIONHOOD

Sahar Taghdisi-Rad

The paper will demonstrate the theoretical and empirical inadequacy of the mainstream macroeconomic approach to aid policy making to incorporate a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the interaction between aid and conflict. The unwillingness of donors to take effective account of the conflict, originating from their political, strategic and ideological interests in the conflict, also limits the effectiveness of aid in these countries further. The paper will focus on the case of the donor assistance to the Palestinian economy, where despite receiving the highest per capita aid worldwide for many years, no lasting developmental (and political) outcomes have been achieved – with the economy suffering from major weaknesses, the society increasingly divided along political and class lines, and the prospects of achieving true political autonomy looking more distant than ever before. The paper examines the nature of donor operations in Palestine, highlighting the political and ideological determinants of aid allocation and effectiveness, and demonstrating how by working ‘around’ the conflict, donor policies and macroeconomic frameworks have contributed to the prolonging of the conflict, continuation of the status quo and the weakened prospects of Palestinian political autonomy.

THE MACRO-POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT AND CONFLICT: THREE CONTRASTING APPROACHES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

Rajesh Venuogopal

This paper explores the macro-political economy of post-war development in Sri Lanka, looking at the domestic and international origins and genealogy of this broad agenda, and its consequences. In the first part, it outlines the three distinct models of post-war development that have emerged in Sri Lanka, and describes some of the implications. In the second part, it sketches some of the key features of the macro-political economy of Sri Lanka, and in particular, the intersections of class and ethnicity, and the way that this intersects with and modulates the possibilities of those three models.

3. THE PROMISE AND PERILS OF AID

COMPETING FOR VICTIMHOOD STATUS: NORTHERN MUSLIMS AND THE IRONIES OF POST-WAR RECONCILIATION, JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT

Farzana Haniffa

The northern Muslims together with all protracted IDPs displaced prior to 2008 became a low priority case load for return and resettlement assistance in the aftermath of the 2009 “ending” of the war in Sri Lanka.  Framed in terms of an ethics of “greatest need” connected only to funding availability, all old IDPs lost out in the resettlement process. This paper attempts to decenter this idea of economic limits and humanitarian need by discussing the manner in which such ideas of “greatest need” actually emerge from discourses about victimhood that are part of an ethical humanitarian project to which local politics are irrelevant.  This paper will show, however, that these initiatives consistently intersect with local power hierarchies and local ideas of legitimacy and belonging. Therefore this paper will look at the manner in which the war related victim discourse of International Humanitarianism, helped to exacerbate northern Muslims own marginality and continued exclusion from the north.  Looking also at the manner in which victimhood narratives are mobilized in Sri Lanka by electoral politics, and displaced IDP activists themselves, this paper will speculate about the efficacy of the victim identity for political and social transformation during this time of transition in Sri Lanka.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF NEPAL PEACE TRUST FUND (NPTF) IN FACILITATING POST-CONFLICT DEVELOPMENT OF NEPAL

Rajib Timalsina

It was with the aim of ending the decade long conflict that the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) was signed between the Nepali state and then rebel group, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in November 2006. Various initiatives and processes have helped in consolidating the peace process and in meeting the requirements of the CPA once the accord was signed.

It is believed that the regular development process was insufficient to address specific issues of the post-conflict period. In case of Nepal, the establishment of the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) was one significant milestone. The setting up of Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF) in January 2007 with the mandate to implement the provisions of the CPA and subsequent related agreements was another set up as special attention was required to consolidate the transition and bring back the development course to normal.

Since its establishment, NPTF has become the principal body to coordinate between the Government of Nepal and eight other donor agencies for addressing the necessities of post-conflict development. The mandate, as directed by the peace accord, was to act as a funding mechanism for Government-donor resources and to monitor and facilitate the peace process. NPTF channelized its budget through various implementing agencies. A significant amount of NPTF resources was allocated to the cantonment management and combatants’ rehabilitation; conflict affected people and communities; and reconstruction of police units at various locations. Similarly, NPTF played a crucial role in successfully concluding the first Constitution Assembly (CA) election in April 2008, as well as the second in 2013 by financing projects of the Election Commission of Nepal. NPTF also helped the Constitution Assembly Secretariat (CAS) consolidate public opinion for the drafting of a new constitution. Reconstruction is taken as a cross cutting theme of the all the projects. By undertaking projects under such diverse themes, NPTF has sought to facilitate Nepal’s transition to peace.

On such context, this study aims to focus on the role of NPTF as a special case. This paper will discuss post-war development policies and practices adopted in Nepal from an interdisciplinary perspective. Special attention will be given to practices and policies of NPTF in considering its objectives, goals & mandate. By documenting and analyzing best practices, working modalities and lessons learnt by NPTF that took place in Nepal from January 2007 to March 2014, this paper aims to provide a research base on which a framework of policies and practices of post-conflict development can be built.

CONFLICT AND CONTESTATION IN THE WAR AND POST WAR DEVELOPMENT: REFLECTIONS FROM NEPAL

Bishnu Upreti

In the past quarter century, the world, mainly developing countries, has faced inter- and intra- state high and low intensity wars and protracted armed conflicts. South Asia was not an exception. These conflicts were in one way or another related to power struggles, strategic interests of powerful countries, ethnic identity, religious, geographical, social and economic discriminations, poverty, inequality, or control of national resources. While examining the root causes of these conflicts, one of the dominant factors appear to be the development sector, which is said to have failed to address some of these concerns Further, the development sector also been severely affected by these conflicts and mainly development aid agencies have developed and practiced different conflict sensitive development approaches (“Do No Harm,” “Conflict sensitive Project Management,” “Basic Operating Guidelines,” “peace and conflict impact assessment,” “safe and effective development” etc). However, both the development sector and their conflict sensitive development approaches have become highly contested in the conflict and post-conflict context. In this paper I will synthesize these contestations, while looking to the conflict and post development contestations from the study I have conducted in the past 14 years on ‘conflict and development’. I will syntheise the research conducted in the development sector of Nepal with a focus on: contestation on aid agencies commitments and actual implementation, contestations in conceptual and theoretical understanding; contestations in policies and practices, and contestation over conflcit sentive approches.

THE CHALLENGES OF CHINA’S FOREIGN ASSISTANCE-LED ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: SRI LANKA AS CASE STUDY

Xiao’ou Zhu

Hedging against its potential exclusion from Trans-Pacific Partnership and other mega trading agreements, China embarked on its 21^st Century Maritime Silk Road agenda to generate domestic growth through supply chain integration and infrastructure construction in South Asian economies. However, the characteristics of China’s business-led and elite-oriented overseas development policies created policy gaps in high-risk yet strategically important countries. Based on interviews and fieldwork focused on Chinese State-Owned-Enterprises (SOEs) in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, this paper explores how globalization changed the nature of these SOEs from policy executors to both policy makers and market actors in host countries as well as in China.

However these changes in nature and influence of key Chinese economic actors is actually not reflected by and is in fact out of step with the 1994 regulation that lays down the principle of non-interventionism in foreign assistance.  Such features combine to generate a new paradigm in China’s foreign assistance where businesses, especially SOEs, serve as a bridge for governments in countries like Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In reality, the market-oriented nature of China’s aid executors, the principle of non-interventionism and the domestic economic and political structure in host countries together shape the nature of China’s aid projects in South Asia so that it does not solve the fundamental challenge of globalization, namely the increasing disparity of wealth distribution between labor and capital. This, in turn, implies that Chinese aid is less able to contribute to reducing geopolitical and ethnic tension in high risk regions.  In order to redress this imbalance, this paper proposes the inclusion of the private sector and civil society into China’s mainly business-led overseas development paradigm, which can also contribute to augmenting the twin-track OECD-DAC led global aid structure.

4. POST-WAR SOCIAL MOBILIZATION, POLITICAL INCLUSION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

PROTESTS AND COUNTER PROTESTS: COMPETING CIVIL SOCIETY SPACES IN POST-WAR SRI LANKA

Harini Amarasuriya

Since the 1980s issues of ethnicity, war and peace have dominated social and political spaces in Sri Lanka.  This paper examines how or if these spaces have changed since the war ‘ended’ in 2009.  Recently, there has been a resurgence of what may be termed as ‘local’ protests: farmers organising around fertiliser subsidies and packaging in Dambulla; fisherman protesting increasing fuel costs along the North-Western coast; community protests around access to clean water; urban protests regarding evictions.   At the same time, since 2009, professional groups such as university teachers and lawyers captured the attention of the public through their protests, notably the 2012 trade union action of the Federation of University Teachers Association and the campaign against the impeachment of the Chief Justice by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka.  Recently, we have also seen the formation of a number of groups organising themselves around religious issues, notably Buddhist monk led groups such as the Bodhu Bala Sena and the Sinhala Ravaya.  What do these groups, protests and movements reveal about post-war Sri Lankan society?  What are the emerging solidarities, alliances and rivalries?  Importantly, how have these impacted on traditional civil society organisations, especially those that were active during the war years?  This paper aims to track some of the emerging movements and protests in Sri Lanka and to examine what it reveals about dominant post-war social and political concerns and issues in Sri Lanka.

BEYOND CRITIQUE: TOWARDS REVISED APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT

Sheree Bennett and Alyoscia D’Onofrio

At best, evidence of the effectiveness of Community-Driven Development (CDD) interventions in conflict-affected and post-conflict contexts is sparse and mixed.  Commonly referred to as Community-Driven Reconstruction (CDR), this development strategy gives decision-making control over the use of aid resources to local groups and aims to improve welfare, service delivery, local governance and social cohesion in contexts that have been ravaged by years of civil war and violent conflict.  Recent reviews have demonstrated that despite its normative appeal and operational malleability, CDD/CDR has not delivered the types and levels of impact desired by donors, policymakers and practitioners.  Drawing on the IRC’s experience implementing and evaluating CDD interventions in post-conflict contexts in Africa and Asia for over ten years, this paper elaborates the challenges in implementing and evaluating CDD in these contexts.  It places particular emphasis on the relationship between the conceptualization, implementation and evaluation processes, highlighting the ways in which the theory behind CDD (or the lack thereof), the way CDD is carried out and the way outcomes are measured, interact to either promote or constrain the impact of the intervention.  This paper goes beyond critique to provide recommendations for the revising the design of operational and evaluation approaches to CDD in post-conflict settings.

SRI LANKA’S POST-WAR DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE AND ITS IMPACT ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND AUTONOMY

Kalana Senaratne

Since the end of the war between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE in May 2009, the government has promoted economic development as the principal solution to the Sri Lankan conflict. The post-war development discourse promotes the view that: the war had retarded Sri Lanka’s economic growth and development; peace and reconciliation can be achieved only through greater economic development of the country; the time has come to catch-up. But while the government presents ‘development’ as the new panacea, how Sri Lanka addresses the demands for accountability and autonomy raised by the Tamil people will define it’s post-war future. Therefore, this paper seeks to interrogate how this post-war development discourse has been promoted by the government, and in what ways it obscures and affects our understanding of the ethnic conflict as well as the ways in which we need to address the two most enduring problems confronting the country, namely accountability and autonomy. While it is necessary to challenge this development discourse, such a frontal challenge will remain difficult as this discourse is endorsed (both in direct and tacit ways), not only by the business community but also by the major political parties and a dominant majority, especially in an age of capitalist realism.

5. POWER, DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE AND POST-WAR RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

THE INFORMAL REGULATION OF THE ONION MARKET IN NANGARHAR, AFGHANISTAN

Giulia Minoia & Wamiqullah Mumtaz

Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium_Afghansitan is investigating people’s attempt to access socio economic security in fragile areas though a study aiming to reveal the behavior of formal and informal institutions regulating rural markets in four Afghan provinces. The first of these case studies is building on evidence from 67 interviews conducted by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) between December 2013 and February 2014 amongst farmers and traders involved in the onions’ market in Nangarhar and Peshawar.

In Afghanistan, markets development has been implicitly translated by donors in targeted projects presented as niches of success, assuming that the capability to secure livelihoods for poor Afghans would be enforced by market driven approaches, where entrepreneurial activities embedded in the mirage of a market led growth would help overcoming shocks, such as conflicts[1].

However, a market driven economy could be guaranteed only where a robust legal system and property rights replace the role of the State[2] while Afghanistan presents an economic sector characterized by small scale informality and dynamics of inclusion and exclusion from credit systems and market institutions determined by geography, ethnicity, tribe and gender.

Accounts from Nangarhar’s farmers are shedding light on the persistence of patronage and informal credit relations at provincial and district level, on the implications of water distribution and on the repercussions of these on opium poppy growth and eradication. The paper will then provide a narrative on people’s agency in conflicts (as the capacity or capability of people to act)[3], shedding light on vulnerable actors’ strategies to conceive livelihoods relying on informal networks and trans-boundary trading systems between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

POST-WAR BUREAUCRATISATION OF CONFLICT: SOUTH SUDAN’S RESOURCE UTILISATION SYSTEM

Mareike Schomerus and Hakan Seckinelgin

Drawing on a focus issue in stream 1—resource entitlements—and linking this to the broader political themes of stream 2, this paper provides a detailed empirical look into how the citizens of South Sudan have experienced state building since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and subsequently during independence.

The article argues that the execution of constitutional, political and administrative mechanisms as well as the agency of international, national and local actors have created a hybrid system that merges international state building ideology with South Sudanese political economy. It emerged as a resource utilisation apparatus that systematises distributive injustice, political exclusion, lack of choice, and disempowerment of ordinary citizens. That only few benefit—and that this mirrors the political economy of war times—is at the heart of renewed violent conflict. Concerns voiced about this experience are now echoed in the current crisis that erupted into violence in December 2013. The bureaucratic re-structuring that has been part of South Sudan since the CPA and has continued into independence, acts merely as a catalyst for this renewed conflict, remaining unaffected and thereby entrenching a conflict-prone system that has defied international peace building approaches. Examining the mechanisms of such entrenchment is necessary for an informed dialogue on policy and practice and as a contribution to a more informed debate about recognisably damaging post-war developments.

Drawing on empirical material gathered between 2012-2014, this paper reframes the current violence as a crisis of the political economy of resource capture and highlights the need for a much broader understanding of distributive justice. This is not only a necessary precursor to peace within the newly formed state of South Sudan, but also a crucial element of understanding post-war development in other contexts.

INFORMAL TAXATION AND LIVELIHOODS IN POST-CONFLICT SIERRA LEONE

Wilson Prichard, Samuel Jibao, and Vanessa van den Boogaard

Based on 1129 household surveys and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in 86 primary sampling units across three rural and highly conflict-affected districts of Sierra Leone, this study provides a robust, empirical understanding of the extent and types of informal taxation – that is, non-statutory taxes levied by state or non-state actors. We compare taxpayer perceptions of informal taxation to those of formal taxes, including with respect to the effectiveness of reciprocal fiscal exchange and local service provision. We explore whether certain forms of informal taxes compare favourably to formal taxes and assess the impacts of non-state taxation and service delivery for post-conflict resource mobilization, distribution and long-term stability and state building. Examining the social, institutional and political underpinnings of various forms of informal taxation, we provide possible directions for welfare- and livelihood-enhancing reform.

FINANCING DEVELOPMENT IN A MIDDLE-INCOME TRANSITION: ROLE OF TAXATION IN MOVING AWAY FROM AID

Anushka Wijesinha

For an economy that is aiming to place itself on a sustained middle-income growth trajectory, the capacity of the state to deliver services to the broader population and address human development gaps is essential. This is particularly crucial in the backdrop of a country like Sri Lanka becoming ineligible for generous flows of donor aid in light of a change in ‘conflict’ or ‘income’ status, while still having to finance new needs in health and education, costly public infrastructure programmes, and reconstruction of conflict-affected areas. This paper discusses the taxation imperative in Sri Lanka in the context of these emerging development-financing challenges.

While it is often assumed that the Sri Lankan state is still the primary financier of social services like education and health, this is rapidly ceasing to be the case. Having once been a generous provider, the Sri Lankan state has, over the years, become less generous compared with its peers. In education, public spending has averaged at 2.3 per cent of GDP during 2000-2010, falling to a 10-year low of 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2012 – this is lower than the rest of South Asia and the average of lower (4 per cent) and upper (5 per cent) middle-income countries. In health, total expenditure on health remained below 5 per cent of GDP between 1995 and 2008, and is low compared to the global average of around 8 per cent. One major reason for this change is that Sri Lanka is collecting less and less in tax vis-a-vis the country’s national income, which is affecting the state’s capacity to spend more on human development needs. Sustained rapid growth, as is envisaged in Sri Lanka, will neither be inclusive nor feasible unless a healthy, educated workforce drives it[4].

In the past, it was easy to place less priority on domestic revenue mobilization because of the generous concessionary aid flowing into the country. Yet, this situation is rapidly changing, driven by two factors. Firstly, the end of the armed conflict has meant that Sri Lanka is no longer a priority country requiring ‘emergency’ or ‘humanitarian’ assistance. Aid operations are scaling down and donors are exiting or cutting down budgetary allocations to the country. Secondly, Sri Lanka has moved out of the ‘low-income’ country status to the ‘middle-income’ bracket and thus becomes increasingly ineligible for concessionary loans that carry low interest rates, long tenors and grace periods, and a high grant element. The paper draws from macro data as well as key informants in local and international development agencies that rely on foreign funding to reiterate that Sri Lanka’s access to concessionary funding from abroad is rapidly shrinking. So, aside from large commercial borrowing, which comes with its own dilemmas, it is higher tax revenues that will strengthen the capacity of the state to address the critical human development gaps that are emerging.

Yet, Sri Lanka’s tax performance is troubling. Tax revenue as a proportion of GDP has dropped to around 15 percent during 2003-2008 compared to about 19 percent prior to 1995. In 2012, Sri Lanka’s tax ratio was just 11.1 percent (down from 12.4 percent in 2011), continually declining from a peak of 24 percent in 1987. According to Gallagher (2005), the benchmark tax ratio for a low-income country is 18 per cent and that for a middle-income country is 25 per cent.[5] Sri Lanka’s performance compares poorly with countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Ghana, and South Africa, but better than other South Asian neighbours, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and marginally better than Indonesia and Philippines. While presenting the recent performance within tax revenue, the paper also posits reasons for the low tax take – tax policies not keeping up with a changing production structure, under-performance of VAT, ineffective tax collection, etc.

In moving forward, the paper argues that revenue raising doesn’t simply mean raising tax rates, rather it can be achieved through rational tax policy, better administration, etc. Crucially, it argues that the country’s current over-reliance on indirect tax must be shelved in favour of greater reliance on direct tax, which in turn has important equity implications. Indirect taxes are inherently regressive – they tax people’s consumption of goods and services regardless of their income level, which in turn means they have a higher burden on poorer households than richer ones.

This paper makes a key contribution to the literature, as it is the first to tackle the nexus of taxation and development in post-war Sri Lanka. It has important implications not only for government policy but also donor strategy in a middle-income country. This nexus – between Sri Lanka’s tax revenue performance in the midst of declining post-war donor aid, and the emerging human development financing needs – will be a key determinant of sustained and inclusive growth in Sri Lanka in the medium to long-term.

6. LAND, INFRASTRUCTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

VIA ARCHITECTURE: POST-CONFLICT INFRASTRUCTURE AND ITS DISCURSIVE CURVE

Harshavardhan Bhat

The post-conflict economy, rapid urbanization and the ever influential impact of global flows have often driven ‘particular’ systems of post-conflict infrastructure, driving past and ignoring the nuances of culture, politics and community. Contrary to what a large numbers of analysts today argue about how this is a growing symptom of the security/aid/post-conflict economy, there has arguably always been a fundamental relationship between political articulation and architectural futures. The purpose of this paper is not perhaps to provide for another planning parallax but to offer the reader an approach towards thinking about the nature of habitat intervention possibly required within reconciliatory platforms and political developments from an alternative perspective. Utilizing African cases, including facade development in Kigali, Rwanda and continuing interrogations on the Kenya – Somalia border-area ‘habitats’, this paper seeks to position research in a juxtaposition posing both analytical and ethical consideration of two lines of enquiry. Firstly, can international development mediate with politics in engaging with post-conflict habitats with a certain ‘benchmarked’ dignity considering complexities in the background? Secondly, how does this therefore challenge conventional thinking in planning and organization schemes that have largely driven habitat response and development in post-conflict spaces?

THE NEW REGIME OF URBAN ACCUMULATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLOMBO AFTER THE SRI LANKAN CIVIL WAR

Devaka Gunawardena

Since the end of civil war in 2009, the city of Colombo has seen a massive expansion in infrastructure and real estate development. Critics have focused on aspects of militarization, citing the involvement of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development in the “beautification” of the city, including displacement of slum dwellers. Nevertheless there has been less theoretical discussion of the economic logic behind current efforts to transform Colombo and their implications for the state. Accordingly the proposed paper seeks to address why the state retains a significant role in guiding urban development, including leasing state lands and issuing bonds through state banks. In contrast to predominant debates emphasizing the role of economic liberalization, the paper will argue that the current regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa is in fact attempting to maintain the fiscal basis of the state in the context of growing economic constraints. The former includes the directive role of the state in urban development through various institutions, whereas the latter entails comparatively declining tax revenues and a shift in focus from industrial to service-oriented activities. While the current regime articulates Colombo’s transformation in relation to contemporary discourses of Asian prosperity, the paper will offer an alternative fiscal explanation of post-war efforts to transform Colombo. Finally, the paper will contribute to Marxist analyses of the varied levels and dimensions of state-making as well as policy-making discussion about the long-term prospects of planning.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LAND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE TRANSITION OF MYANMAR

Soe Nandar Linn

It has been 36 months since the government of Myanmar has initiated a range of political and socio-economic reforms in order to reintegrate into global economy and international communities. One of the reform priorities related to rural economic development and poverty reduction set up by the government is to expand and strengthen old industrial zones as well as to establish new industrial zones throughout the country.

However, it is important to consider that the majority of population relies on agricultural activities. Thus, access to land is vital for them. While the rural population is already facing with old land-grab problems by the previous administration, new land-grabs are still taking place especially in States and Regions where industrial zones and extractive- resource businesses are located. Due to the emergence of civil society groups and openness of media, there have been protests against land acquisitions. Although farmers in some areas were compensated to relocate to new areas, little is known about the livelihood changes of the affected population.

This paper focuses on institutional settings in the process of land reform undertaken by the government of Myanmar and addresses the importance of land rights in transitional countries in order to promote inclusive growth and rural development.

7. LIVELIHOODS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION (SLRC PANEL)

HOW TO MAKE PICKLE DURING CEASE-FIRE: DISCUSSIONS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT IN NAGALAND (INDIA)

Dolly Kikon

In 2001 the government of India set up the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER) to plan, execute, and monitor the social and economic development schemes in Northeast India, a region that has remained an armed conflict zone since India’s independence in 1947. This increasing interest to determine the potentials and drawbacks of Northeast India has also found its way into India’s Five Year Plans in the last decade. The section on “Spatial Development and Regional Imbalance” in the Eleventh Five Year Plan Vol. 1 Inclusive Growth (2007-2012) devotes a separate segment to Northeast India and describes how development has been “slow” in the region. It defines all the states in Northeast India as “Special Category States”, which require special attention in areas of governance as well as social and economic sectors. This Eleventh Five Year Plan is an important document to gauge the government of India’s sense of urgency to “develop” Northeast India. It is like an official roadmap that spells out how to reduce the imbalances between the Northeast and other parts of India. Given the grand projects and programs to develop Northeast India in the last decade, this paper will examine how residents in Nagaland, a federal unit that has witnessed one of the longest armed conflicts in South Asia, perceives the various development schemes and projects in their lives. The social worlds of militarized societies in Northeast India are often subsumed within the dominant discourse of security and armed conflict. In this paper, I will illustrate how land, natural resources, and the ongoing development discourse deeply shapes everyday relations in Nagaland since the 1997 Indo-Naga ceasefire agreement.

SURVEYING LIVELIHOODS, SERVICE DELIVERY AND GOVERNANCE: BASELINE EVIDENCE FROM UGANDA

Teddy Atim and Jimmy Opio

The SLRC-Uganda programme implemented the first round of a sub-regional panel survey in 2013 to produce information on the SLRC’s primary research questions around people’s livelihoods, access to basic services, social protection and livelihood assistance, and relationships with government. The Uganda survey was unique in that it also examined the impacts of serious crimes committed by parties to the conflict between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on these research areas, thereby producing the first representative findings on these topics from both Acholi and Lango sub-regions of northern Uganda, representing some 3.63 million people. Key findings include: (1) Livelihoods and social protection assistance is minimal, and even receiving households report little benefit; moreover, assistance appears to be targeted (passively or actively) at better-off households, rather than those most in need; (2) Views of the government are dim overall. Households with greater wealth and access to services and social protection appear to have more positive views of government, though the direction of causality is unclear, as having relatives working for the government, may result in better access; (3) 55 percent of households in Acholi and 28 percent of households in Lango have at least one member that has experienced serious crimes, and the impacts are severe. Such households have less wealth, less access to food, healthcare, satisfactory education, and improved water sources, and are much more likely to have negative perceptions of local and central government; and (4) Recovery takes much longer than previously thought, with asset accumulation improving only after ten years back from displacement, with female-headed households left behind entirely. These findings contradict government and donor claims that recovery and social protection programming can target the most “viable” households and they will help pull up struggling households, as well as current policy frameworks that apply a generalized development approach to the ongoing complex recovery challenges in Uganda’s Greater North. We present several recommendations for the Government of Uganda and international donors and agencies.

SOCIAL PROTECTION DELIVERY, ACCESS AND USE: (MIS) MATCHING EXPECTATIONS WITH PERCEPTIONS: THE CASE OF POST WAR SRI LANKA

Nayana Godamunne

Can social protection contribute to peace building and stability? The theoretical link between social protection provision and state legitimacy, particularly in post war contexts, has been suggested (Babajanian, 2009). However there is little empirical evidence to support this view.  Sri Lanka’s long history in social welfare provision and the country context provide an opportunity to explore this relationship, particularly where building state-society relations is an important factor in the aftermath of a protracted ethnic based conflict. This study was conceptualised to address the knowledge gap regarding the social protection-state legitimacy relationship by looking at how state-society relationships begin to emerge through social protection program delivery and access. Fisher communities in Trincomalee, Jaffna and Mannar districts were the sample sites as they provide ethnic, geographic and program diversity enabling deeper insights on how these variables impact on perceptions of state- society relations through the lens of social protection program delivery. The exploratory study used qualitative methodologies in the form of household interviews with program recipients and key person interviews with state officials delivering programs to understand how the state delivers and how citizens access and use programs and through these experiences how citizens’ perceptions of the state are framed. Given the complexities of making the causal link between program experience and legitimacy, the study used an analytical framework, which explored the relationship based on symbolic values, which underpin both program delivery and experience.

Whilst the study provides insights on how citizens perceptions of the state are shaped by every day encounters with the state through access and use of social protection programs, it also highlights the complexities in making the causal link as peoples’ perceptions on how social protection is delivered  is influenced by their  expectations from the state, i.e. what the state should deliver and how it delivers, which vary considerably give the nature of peoples’ trajectories of  war and post war experiences.

LIVELIHOODS, ACCESS TO SERVICES AND PERCEPTIONS OF GOVERNANCE IN UROR, NYIROL AND PIBOR COUNTIES, SOUTH SUDAN

Rachel Gordon

The assumption that enhanced access to basic services improves the perception and also the legitimacy of government institutions and thereby fosters state building is widespread (Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium 2012). This paper critically discusses the anticipated nexus between access to basic services and people’s perceptions of participation and governance in three areas in South Sudan in Uror, Nyirol and Pibor counties. This paper is based on qualitative data, which was collected in January/February and November 2013 by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) South Sudan team, and on quantitative data, which was gathered in collaboration with FAO in 2012.

Uror, Nyirol and Pibor counties are located in Jonglei state, the largest state in South Sudan. Since the end of the civil war in 2005, South Sudan has been undergoing institution and infrastructure building processes. Moreover, security and service delivery has improved in large areas of South Sudan. Yet, in recent years Uror, Nyirol and Pibor counties have been affected by armed violence, which has negatively impacted the livelihoods of the populace (Gordon 2014, Maxwell et al. 2014). Lou Nuer youth from Uror and Nyirol counties on one side and Murle youth from Pibor county on the other side, engaged in cattle raiding and armed violence. Furthermore, members of the South Sudan army – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) – conducted counterinsurgency operations and committed atrocities against civilians. In the case of Pibor county, administrative centers and larger settlements were mostly abandoned due to insecurity by mid-2013. In all three counties, physical infrastructure existed only to a limited degree during field research. External actors mostly provided the few available services and the capcity of local government institutions to carry out activities was inadequate. Respondents had only limited expectations of service delivery from the government. In particular, the Uror and Nyirol county respondent explained that the government only recently came out of war. Therefore they did not expect much from the new government. Accordingly, the restricted capacity of the government to provide services did apparently not negatively impact on the perception of the state and its legitimacy. Respondents mainly demanded security and the settlement of armed conflicts of the government. Improved security was described as the key condition for improved livelihood and service delivery.

_____

[1] Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, 2014, Disaster Management Strategy 2014-217, Kabul.

[2] Harriss-White, B. 2010, “Work and Wellbeing in Informal Economies: The Regulative Roles of Institutions of Identity and the State”, World Development, vol. 38, no. 2, pp.170-183.

[3] Levine, S. & Pain, A. November 2012, A conceptual Analysis of Livelihoods and Resilience: addressing the ‘insecurity of agency’, HPG Working Paper, ODI, London.

[4]      IPS (2012), Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2012, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo.

[5]     Gallagher, M., (2005), “Benchmarking Tax Systems,” Public Administration and Development, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 125-144.

PARALLEL PANELS

1. FORUM ON CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

“GENERATION HAPPI”: THE SEARCH FOR NEW SENSES OF BELONGING AMONG RWANDA’S ORPHANS

Manuela E. Kühr

Rwanda’s post-genocide generation nowadays matures during a period of ambitious nation-building projects, inspired by an official development discourse that makes heavy demands on its so-called “Generation HAPPI”. “Generation HAPPI”, as termed by the Rwandan government, describes Rwanda’s young people as Healthy, with Attitude/Aptitude (skills and education), Patriotic, Productive and Innovative, which are all attributes young Rwandans are expected to acquire in order to create a sustainable future for the Rwandan nation-state

Since April 2012, Rwanda’s 3323 children, teenagers and young adults living in orphanages have also become part of the larger imaginary of a unified Rwandan nation, as the RPF-led government introduced an ambitious child deinstitutionalization (DI) policy. Since 1994, the Rwandan government has pursued a highly ambitious policy of reconstruction, reconciliation and development, where the DI policy became one of the most recent nation-building tactics. The DI program as such foresees the unification of all of Rwanda’s orphans living in institutions with their extended kin or foster families by the end of 2014.

In the face of this on-going process, my study takes a step back to consider a local, social and cultural analysis of the circumstances of Rwanda’s children and youth in institutional care to understand their views and socially constructed roles within society. Influenced profoundly by my first visit to Rwanda in 2012, this project began by broadly seeking to understand what can be said about the social world, societal changes and nation-building processes that Rwanda’s young generation experiences two decades after genocide. My study thus includes social and traditional pressures that the post-genocide generation needs to re-interpret and navigate in the course of creating their own identity and place in Rwandan society. More narrowly, my research focuses in particular on the lives of the post-genocide generation who grew up at the Nœl Orphanage, tracing their journey and experiences in preparation to leave the orphanage in the coming months. My research shows a particular necessity for continuous research on vulnerable youth and the need to beyond the conclusion that youth is a “contradictory” social category in order to understand this multifaceted position within society.

FAILING ADOLESCENTS: SOCIAL CONTROL, POLITICAL ECONOMY & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN POST-WAR SRI LANKA

Kusala Wettasinghe and Sarala Emmanuel

This paper reports on findings from the first phase of a qualitative study of gendered experiences of mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of adolescent girls (and boys) in two villages recovering from long years of conflict in Sri Lanka. The study was conducted in a ‘border’ village in Polonnaruwa and a conflict-affected village in Batticaloa.  This paper argues that adolescent wellbeing must be central to economic and social development concerns in the context of post-war Sri Lanka. The paper will examine how changing socio-cultural norms in the post-war context are shaping gendered adolescent experiences.  It will focus on how adolescent identities are formed and on the dynamics of adolescent self-perceptions and interactions, especially with regards to adolescent relationships and early marriage. The paper will also bring out how adolescents have been engaging in post-war economies and how this impacts on their family and social relationships. Finally, it will reflect on how post-war development programmes and services in the areas of health, education, employment and livelihoods are responding to the special challenges and needs of adolescents and what this implies in terms of development outcomes.

2. FORUM ON IDPS AND EX-COMBATANTS

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND DURABLE SOLUTIONS FOR THE DISPLACED: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen and Anuradha Gunerathne

This paper addresses the prevailing knowledge gap on examining the relationship between transitional justice and internal displacement. Sri Lanka has faced massive waves of displacement throughout its history of the twenty six year old deadly conflict between the Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). These displacements have resulted in massive human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and killings. Debates also concern whether certain waves of displacement were intentional and constitute a war crime. This also includes violations associated with displacement, along with specific abuses of rights associated to durable solutions.  Amidst these contexts, it becomes futile to address transitional justice without addressing the human rights violations of the displaced. For transitional justice incorporates the addressing of legacies of massive human rights abuses that occur during armed conflicts, which includes the displaced, as well as the rights of the displaced in the context of durable solutions.

Truth commissions, reparation programmes and reparative measures such as restitution of housing, land and property have directly addressed the aspect of human rights of the displaced which are the core attributes of transitional justice. The paper brings in a comparative approach based on best practices from different countries that have highlighted this relationship between displacement and transitional justice.

Based on an analysis of secondary literature, the paper highlights that effective transitional justice measures need to address the issue of displacement. The efficacy of such processes is dependent on the meaningful engagement of displaced persons through participation.  Engagement of women does assist in incorporating a gender perspective to transitional justice and also redress gender-based injustice. Transitional justice can also facilitate the political integration/reintegration of displaced persons by reaffirming basic norms that were systematically violated and thereby strengthening their rights as citizens of the country.

THE REINTEGRATION OF EX-MAOIST COMBATANTS BACK INTO NEPALI SOCIETY 

Chiranjibi Bhandari

On 21 November 2006, the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the then-Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) signed the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). The signing of the CPA marked the end of the decade-long conflict and Nepal’s transition into peaceful political competition. The agreement opened the door to manage arms and armies on both sides along with other subsequent activities related to constitution drafting, transitional justice, reconstruction, and reconciliation.

The issue of social reintegration, army integration, and voluntary retirement of Maoist ex-combatants was one of the most sensitive issues – both politically and technically – of the last five years. The process has now, however, reached its end: 1422 ex-combatants have been integrated into the army, 15,624 have taken voluntary retirement, and 6 have opted for rehabilitation. This process has taken place despite the lack of a Truth and Rehabilitation Commission and a Disappeared Commission, among other agreements envisaged in the CPA. Nonetheless, it is evident that key aspects of the peace process have been successfully concluded as per the CPA.

While the formal process of army integration and rehabilitation has been completed, it is equally important to consider whether the ex-combatants’ aspirations for a better life have also been fulfilled. Do the ex-combatants feel that the change in social and political relations for which they fought has been achieved? i.e., study shows that a significant number of ex-combatants have already run out of the cash compensation given to them; the bulk of the money was spent on buying property, building homes, and running their households.

At this juncture, what opportunities and challenges do these ex-combatants face in the current context? These are important questions as the very success of the peace process, to an extent, depends on the successful social reintegration of the ex-combatants. Academics, the media, and international actors working in the field of conflict and peace building have not adequately attempted to understand the ex-combatants perspectives on social reintegration. This paper will attempt to fill this gap.

This paper aims to explain an overview of the social reintegration process led by the Special Committee and its secretariat. It will then go on to consider the opportunities and difficulties former combatants face in integrating themselves into society. At its essence, this paper explores the opportunities and challenges of reintegration from the viewpoint of ex-combatants themselves and their current neighbors.

3. FORUM ON EDUCATION

EDUCATION INEQUALITY AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: TOWARDS A BETTER ESTIMATION

Nishan de Mel & Aloka Kumarage

Sri Lanka’s long history of universal public education has helped to develop a high rate of literacy (91.9% in 2010) and relatively high rates of secondary school enrolment. The national success rates however conceal regional disparities. The main difficulty in quantifying regional disparities lies in the limitations of the data – Sri Lanka does not publish details of enrolment and performance by each school; even though average district pass rates are available for the grade 5 Scholarship, O’level and A’level exams.

But each of these pass rate measures provide a different picture and each of them pose significant theoretical problems. Grade 5 rates are affected by selection bias since students in the better schools have less incentive to attempt the exam; O’level pass rates are biased by enrolment disparities and don’t distinguish performance beyond passing and failing; and A’level pass rates are biased by pass rate disparities at O’levels.

This paper grapples with the technical problem of deriving a meaningful regional educational inequality assessment for Sri Lanka. It proposes a solution to the problem of data paucity by reverse engineering the affirmative action based university enrolment criteria in Sri Lanka. Reversing the qualifying calculation and estimating the extent of positive affirmative action effectively applied to each district in major subject streams allows an alternate measure of education disparity. This measure is then used to build fresh insights into the extent and mapping of education inequality in Sri Lanka.

POST-CONFLICT RETURNS TO EDUCATION IN TIMOR-LESTE

Ricardo Santos

What is it known about the economic incentives for investing in education in a post-conflict country? What are the returns to education in such a setting? How were they affected by the conflict? Education is a key component of peace building and reconstruction strategies in conflict-affected countries, but these questions are rarely addressed. This paper addresses them in the case of post-conflict Timor-Leste. The paper establishes the theoretical channels through which conflict may affect returns to education, and tests these channels empirically. The results show that the conflict in Timor-Leste induced a reduction in the returns to education while creating a scarcity of qualified human resources, making labour more expensive. The empirical analysis uncovers also significant distortions in Timor-Leste’s post-conflict labour market.

4. FORUM ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP

SOCIAL ENTERPRISES IN CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT ZONES: THE CASE OF SRI LANKA AND PAKISTAN

Lina Sonne and Anar Bhatt

There has been a remarkable growth in social enterprises in the last decade across the world, and South Asia is no different, with a large number of social enterprises emerging across the region. India is known for its thriving social enterprise ecosystem, but Sri Lanka and Pakistan have more recently seen social enterprises emerge. In Sri Lanka, social enterprise is emerging in a post-conflict context with a large number of internally displaced people. In Pakistan, insurgency is ongoing, effectively cutting off large swathes of the country, while there are also a large number of displaced persons from Afghanistan.

In Sri Lanka social enterprise is beginning to be championed by individuals, including about 20 Ashoka fellows that mostly work on peace and humanitarian issues. There are many examples of social enterprises that have emerged to work in rehabilitating affected population through sustainable models. Future for Jaffna, for instance, aims to relieve poverty in the worst hit areas of the country by empowering widows of the civil war to set up their own businesses, from making clothes to weaving Palmyra bags. Educate Lanka Inc. enables the vast Sri Lankan diaspora and other international donors located across the globe to support the education of economically disadvantaged youth in the country. Etimos Lanka that was originally set up in Sri Lanka post Tsunami to provide microcredit to the affected founded an agro-based cooperative company in 2009 called Cooperation for Industrial Development Lanka (Coopid). Other sectors that see emerging social enterprise activities include eco-tourism, education, housing, livelihoods, and skilling.

Pakistan has, unlike Sri Lanka, a vibrant civil society, and recently a number of social enterprises have emerged, especially in and around the major metros. Individuals rather than a broad government-led push for inclusive innovation drive these initiatives. Despite the challenging environment, the social enterprise sector in Pakistan looks promising and there are several initiatives in the area of peace and conflict. Centre of Global Affairs (CGA), New York University (NYU), for instance, partnered with the SEPLAA Foundation in Pakistan to conduct International Workshop on Peace-building through Empowerment for Global Change for social enterprises. Lettuce Bee Kids is a social enterprise aimed to enable displaced children on and off the street to reach their full potential by providing psychological, emotional, material and social support. Another example is YES Network Pakistan, which carried out a series of activities to integrate the concept of social entrepreneurship, and service learning in the curriculum of all Vocational Training Institutes of PVTC in security affected zones to engage the youth.

This paper explores social enterprises in conflict and post-conflict contexts, by studying the emergence of social enterprise across Sri Lanka and Pakistan, particularly focusing on, and highlighting, social enterprises that work directly with issues related to conflict, such as displacement, loss of livelihoods and housing, for instance. The paper is based on fieldwork across Pakistan and Sri Lanka undertaken February-March, 2014, and will explore the emergence of social enterprise in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and the role it is playing in terms of enabling development in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

ROLE OF PRIVATE SECTOR IN POST-CONFLICT ECONOMIC RECOVERY: A CASE STUDY OF NEPAL (2006-2013)

Rajya Laxmi Gurung, and Puskar Dhungel

Studies on the private sector in conflict contexts present them as either exacerbating conflict or as potential peace builder. The last decade was dominated by much normative research that highlighted the potential of private sector in peace building, especially in post-conflict societies.

This paper uses the case study of Nepal in its post-conflict phase (2006-2013) to evaluate the role of private sector in post-conflict economic recovery.  The study concludes that in post-conflict societies with a weak state, the private sector is the major driver of the economy as well as a source of employment. The private sector, with its massive network and grassroots reach, makes it a strong partner for post-conflict economic recovery initiatives, contributing not only to the national level but also undertaking targeted initiatives for conflict affected communities or people. This includes providing skills and job opportunities for conflict affected people and ex-combatants, initiating district level employment opportunities or in collaboration with various non-governmental organizations, skill enhancement training or increasing access to much needed financial resources.  Similarly, these associations with its democratic structure have legitimacy and political leverage to introduce and ensure implementation of much needed political and economic reforms in post-conflict societies. Using this case study, this paper attempts to present the framework to engage the private sector in post-conflict economic recovery as well as suggest factors that can impede or motivate it to contribute in peace building efforts.

5. FORUM ON HEALTH, WATER AND SANITATION

EXPANDING PRIVATE HEALTHCARE AFTER THE WAR

Ramya Kumar

Sri Lanka is among a handful of resource-poor countries that continues to implement a policy of publicly-financed “free” healthcare. State health services remain free-of-charge on a walk-in basis at clinics and hospitals spread throughout the country. Despite the availability of “free” health services, the public is increasingly turning to a growing private hospital industry. In 2011, over half of total health expenditure was private; and over 80 per cent of this was financed out-of-pocket. Between 1990 and 2011, the number of private hospital beds doubled. This transformation in healthcare dovetails with the post-war development agenda, an agenda that emphasizes the role of the private sector in economic development. In this respect, public healthcare holds potential as a market relatively untouched by previous phases of economic liberalization. With very little understanding of the social implications of privatization, Sri Lanka is setting the stage for a host of health reforms to be adopted in the next few years.

The objectives of this paper are threefold: 1) to bring attention to the rapidly growing private health sector in Sri Lanka; 2) to critically examine post-war developments in national health policy under Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the Future and; 3) to discuss their implications for public healthcare. In order to place recent health policy developments in context, I also interrogate the role played by the World Bank in health sector reform efforts in low- and middle-income countries, including in Sri Lanka. I argue that the health reform plans included in government policy aim to further consolidate the role of the private sector in the provision of health services. While the current policy trajectory undermines the policy of “free health” that has been in place for decades in the country, the impending reforms suggest that we can no longer remain complacent about public healthcare.

CASTE AND ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES IN POST-WAR JAFFNA

Aftab Lall

The equitable provision of and access to basic services to traditionally marginalised communities is a concern in post conflict contexts. One particular concern is discrimination based on caste. Caste based discrimination can stall recovery; inhibit people’s ability to build safe and resilient livelihoods; and reinforce the status quo- keeping traditionally marginalised communities in a state of chronic marginalisation and poverty. This paper is the first in a series looking at the role of caste in accessing and delivering basic services with a particular focus on health, education and water and sanitation. It attempts to explore two issues 1) How does caste shape perceptions of discrimination within a low caste (Parayar) community living in Jaffna Town? 2) In turn, how do the perceptions of the community and service providers shape provision of and access to water and sanitation?

In the Northern Province of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, discrimination on the basis of caste (over many centuries) has created gross inequalities and deprived people belonging to low caste groups basic human rights. It has also impeded their access to basic services such as education, health and water and sanitation (Silva et al 2009; Thanges 2008; Ravikumar 2002; Pfaffenberger 1982, 1990).

In Jaffna the Panchamars (low caste group that includes the Parayars) have had a troubled history regarding access to services, at times resulting in violent confrontations against upper caste groups in a bid to gain equal rights and equal access to services. In the 1920s lower caste groups held protests and agitations against unequal seating in schools where low caste children were forbidden from learning or eating with higher caste children. Other forms of discrimination included the prohibition of wearing garments covering the upper body (for men and women), denying lowers castes access to public transport, and refusing them entry into temples and teahouses. These forms of discrimination have been prohibited under the Social Disability Act of 1957.

In conflict and disaster situations, lower caste groups’ are either barred or find it extremely difficult to access services provided by the state and NGOs during stages of recovery and rehabilitation (Thanges 2008; Gill 2007; Goonesekere 2001). During the Tsunami recovery phase in Jaffna, rehabilitation and recovery is said to have been the most challenging for the people belonging to the lower castes (Thanges 2008).

In the last stages of the war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan state, caste based discrimination against Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) belonging to low caste groups is alleged to have impeded their access to water and acquisition of land.  These allegations were recorded in research carried out in the IDP camps in Jaffna (Silva et al 2009). Surprisingly, there has not been further inquiry into how caste-based discrimination shapes their access to services in post war Sri Lanka. Caste, as a barrier to accessing basic services in post war Sri Lanka remains an under- researched issue.

Caste is part of the social fabric of Jaffna society. In other words, it is not only represented in the epidermis of social, cultural, historic, economic and political aspects of life, such as livelihoods, place of residence, marital relations, and access to basic services; but is enmeshed within people’s identity, in gender norms, cultural practices and local institutions.

Caste is an extremely taboo subject in Jaffna which means most people are uncomfortable discussing the issue. . Caste based discrimination is also no longer openly practiced (especially after LTTE rule) which makes it harder to identify and measure. In turn, access to services as well as how they are delivered can also be shaped by less tangible factors where access and service delivery is not purely technocratic but  ‘bound up with ideological norms, values and beliefs (Wild et al 2013)

Through the use of an ethnography (two and half months) coupled with unstructured and informal interviews with service providers at district, divisional and local level; focus group discussions with men, women and children in the community; and the researcher’s observations; valuable insight has been gained into how caste shapes perceptions of discrimination, especially in the provision and access to water and sanitation.

Research findings on perceptions of discrimination can be categorised into two groups in access and provision of water and sanitation.  One set of factors can be grouped in terms of historical legacies. These are legacies of livelihood and area of residence; both of which are closely associated to caste identity. The other group is representative of a relatively modern trend; that of discrimination on the basis of class (drawing on Bourdieu’s theorisation of class distinction, 1979). While historical legacies are strongly shaped by caste identity, in the latter, caste is non-existent or peripheral in perceptions of discrimination amongst community members and service providers.

The theory of intersectionality is helpful in explaining the ways in which these factors interact, overlap or ‘intersect’ to shape perceptions of discrimination in access to water and sanitation, which are seen to vary for men and women. Intersectionality is also used to illustrate how overlapping factors do not necessarily combine or add up to create a more severe form of discrimination (Crenshaw 1989) but at times work together or contrary to one another (Anthias 2005 cited in Levine- Rasky 2011) to impede or enable men and women to access.

The study is limited to a single community and single service provider and therefore the findings cannot be generalised in terms of low caste communities and their access to water and sanitation services in Jaffna. The findings re-affirm some of the conclusions in Silva et all (2009). These include a) caste identity continues to determine access to basic services including water and sanitation and needs urgent attention from researchers and policy makers; b) discrimination (when accessing water and sanitation- and other basic services) is not solely along caste lines and cannot be seen in isolation of class, gender, religion and other such identity markers; c) women in these groups may be seen as especially vulnerable and have more barriers to accessing services.

This illustrates the need for further research on caste in post war Sri Lanka and its implications when accessing services for traditionally marginalised communities. Importantly, the findings are based on a theoretical lens that allows us to explore the complex ways in which caste, class, and gender intersect to give a more nuanced understanding of the prevalence of caste and how it shapes people’s access to basic services in post war Jaffna.

PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ON HEALTH SERVICES PROVIDED BY GOVERNMENT OF NEPAL IN ROLPA DISTRICT

Suman Babu Paudel and Bishnu Raj Upreti

This paper focuses on public perceptions towards accessing basic health services. The purpose of the paper is to reflect on how people’s perceptions do vary relying on different variables in the Rolpa district of Nepal. The sampling strategy was designed by combining purposive and random sampling. Methodologically, the study takes a qualitative approach. For the field studies, two Village Development Committee (VDCs), Liwang VDC, district headquarters and Budagaun VDC, a rural village, far from the district headquarters, were selected.

Through the research it was found that people’s perceptions vary based on their affordability, awareness, and education level, their exposure to the outer world and quality and effectiveness of services rather than on ethnicity, caste, gender etc. The Perception of people also relies on the government’s health strategy. The state has three main strategies in health service: Preventive, Promotive and Curative. Among these three, people were found to be fairly satisfied on preventive and promotive strategy, while curative health strategy was found to be inefficient to fulfill the demand sites because of lack of equipment, human resources and infrastructure. Even people wee not satisfied with the partial functioning of health.  There was complete absence of monitoring and evaluation from Government (central and local) sites and hence, people did not believe that the government really cares about their health.  People are more satisfied with private health centers than government health services, but there does exist treatment by untrained people in some private health service centers, proving carelessness of the authorised body to check quality. All these limitations of health with partial functioning, lack of monitoring from government sites, inaccessibility of health service at doorsteps and services from untrained human resources have worsened the perception of people towards government.

6. FORUM ON FISHING

OUTSIDE THE NET: INTERSECTIONALITY AND INEQUALITY IN FISHERIES IN TRINCOMALEE DISTRICT OF            SRI LANKA

Gayathri Lokuge

The three decade long civil war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam has strong ethnic undertones, even though the war cannot be explained along simplistic ethnic lines. Authors writing within a post-war context urge for the need to look beyond the politicised ethnic lines and the need to understand the Tamil-Sinhala divide merely as a mask which hides gender, caste and class based inequalities. The intersection of social categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality or location, create inequality at the macrosociological level. This inequality mediates inclusion and exclusion, which impact men’s and women’s daily lives and participation in different activities including their livelihoods. However, faced with these inequalities at the microsociological level, men and women use their own agency to be more included. Therefore, the production of social inequality at the macrosociological level, the way people experience these inequalities and how they are reproduced or resisted in everyday life has to be studied as a process rather than a static picture. Using narratives of women in relation to the fish production and marketing from the conflict affected eastern district of Trincomalee, I aim to empirically discuss this process of production of inequalities, and how they are reproduced or resisted within everyday life. I present the intra-group differences of fisher women, how different sources of power affect these women, how certain groups of women subvert the existing power structures and carve out a space for themselves in the fisheries sector, albeit invisible at the sectoral level. While certain inequalities can be found in the intersection of above social categories, certain structural inequalities cut across these axis.

PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS OF LIVELIHOOD SERVICES DELIVERY: A STUDY OF FISHER COMMUNITIES IN THE POST WAR NORTH AND EAST

Geetha Mayadunne

A study of people’s perceptions of fisher livelihood service delivery to coastal fisher communities in the post war north and east of Sri Lanka, reveals that, just four years  after a protracted war of thirty years between the north east separatist factions and  the  government security forces, the coastal communities in the north and the east  have positive expectations from the government in delivering livelihood services, an important indication of  people’s trust in the government’s capacity to deliver services. Despite service delivery constraints arising from limitations in human and financial resources, evidence supports the visibility of the government in delivering fisher livelihood services. People perceive the existence of homogeneous procedures, inclusive participatory procedures supported by the government, functional accountability mechanisms however indicating otherwise in a few areas. Though politicization of fisher livelihood service delivery was not evident, gaps were evident in people’s perceptions about southern fishers.

SUSTAINING THE LIVELIHOODS OF FISHERMEN IN THE NORTH

Vidya Nathaniel

The end of the civil war presented an opportunity to restore the livelihoods of families dependent upon fishing activities. However, fishermen in the North currently face a pressing problem in the form of Indian fishermen encroaching upon their fishing grounds in Palk Bay. Every week, around 500 to 1,000 Indian trawlers enter the territorial waters of Sri Lanka, encroaching upon the fishing grounds of the fishermen in the North of Sri Lanka, and thereby depriving these fishermen from being able to properly resume their fishing activities.

Mechanized bottom trawling is an ‘unsustainable fishing practice’ as it damages the fragile eco-system by ripping the seabed and destroys the sustainability of fisheries resources. During the war, fishing in the North and East were severely curtailed due to security restrictions; therefore, intrusions by Indian fishermen received little attention. However, in the post-war era, the encroachment by Indian fishermen and their use of mechanised bottom-trawlers has significantly harmed efforts to rebuild the livelihoods of the local fishermen from the North. The impact is clearly visible in terms of fishing industry of the Northern Province. In 2012, the total fish production from the Northern Province as of 2012 was 62,150 MT, which is only about 70% of total production in 1980. This illustrates a large potential for production growth in these areas. However, the action of Indian fishermen severely impedes the potential for such growth.

The failure to establish a sustainable solution to this problem raises the issue of inequality concerning the treatment of local fishermen in Sri Lanka, especially in the North. Inequality does not arise in respect of the outcomes alone, but also in respect of the processes involved. In this context, the issue of inequality concerns the guarantee of equal access to fishing resources between fishermen based in the North and East, and those based in other parts of the country. During the civil war fishermen in the North were denied equal access to fishing resources, due to security constraints. In the post-war context, the issue of inequality arises on an international scale concerning inequality in terms of access to resources between the Northern fishermen from Sri Lanka and Indian fishermen.

This research paper seeks to analyse the problem arising from inequality in respect of fishermen in the North. The study will explore the local and international legal norms and frameworks governing this issue, and assess the applicability of these provisions to the current dispute. Accordingly, the paper could prove to be useful for future negotiations and discussions, so as to solve the issue within the legal framework.

DAY 1

PLENARY PANEL I:

DEVELOPMENTAND CONFLICT RECONSIDERING DOMINANT APPROACHES

This Panel will take place on Day 1, September 1^st, from 10:30-12:30

CHAIR: PAUL HARVEY

Speakers:

DAVID CHANDLER, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER

d.chandler@westminster.ac.uk

David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, UK. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding and Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses and the Routledge book series Studies in Intervention and Statebuilding and Advances in Democratic Theory. His recent books include: Resilience: The Governance of Complexity (Routledge, 2014); Freedom vs. Necessity in International Relations: Human-Centred Approaches to Security and Development (Zed Books, March 2013); International Statebuilding: The Rise of Post-Liberal Governance (Routledge, 2010); Hollow Hegemony: Rethinking Global Politics, Power and Resistance (Pluto Press, 2009).

JENNIFER HYNDMAN, PROFESSOR, SOCIAL SCIENCE & GEOGRAPHY, YORK UNIVERSITY

jhyndman@yorku.ca

Jennifer Hyndman is Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada, and Professor in Social Science and Geography there. Her research focuses on the geopolitics and humanitarianism and securitization of forced migration from conflict zones and refugee camps to resettlement in North America. She addresses the intersection of war with the Indian Ocean tsunami and is the author of Dual Disasters: Humanitarian Aid after the 2004 Tsunami (2011), Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism (University of Minnesota Press, 2000), co-editor of Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones (University of California Press,2004), among other publications.

DAVID MOORE, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG

dbmoore@uj.ac.za

David Moore received a Ph.D. from York University in Toronto in 1989. He has taught in Canada, Australia and South Africa. His research and writing concerns the political history, political economy and politics of Zimbabwe; development discourse, political economy of violence, war and development; African political economy and development generally; international political economy

AYESHA SIDDIQA, INDEPENDENT SOCIAL SCIENTIST

ayesha.siddiqa@gmail.com

Dr Ayesha Siddiqa is an independent social scientist and author of two books on political economy of the military. She has a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College, London. She was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, the Bonn International Center for Conversion and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico. Dr Siddiqa has taught at various renowned universities like University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, USA. She has written on civil-military relations in South Asia and has contributed articles in various academic journals. She was also a civil servant and served as the first and only female Director of Naval Research for Pakistan Navy.

PLENARY PANEL II:

MACRO-POLITICAL ECONOMY AND POST-WAR DEVELOPMENT

This Panel will take place on Day 1, September 1^st, from 13:30-15:30

CHAIR: DUSHNI WEERAKOON

Speakers:

AHILAN KADIRGAMAR, PHD CANDIDATE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

ahilan.kadirgamar@gmail.com

Ahilan Kadirgamar is a PhD candidate at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). He holds an MPhil in Anthropology from CUNY and an MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research. He is a contributing editor for HimalSouthasian since 2008. He is currently based in Jaffna, and regularly writes on the political economy of Sri Lanka in forums such as the Sunday Island national newspaper, Samakalam magazine in Tamil and the Economic and Political Weekly in India.

Abstract: Neoliberal Development, Failure of Reconstruction and Challenges of Revitalising the War-torn North

MUTTUKRISHNA SARVANANTHAN, PRINCIPAL RESEARCHER, POINT PEDRO INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT

sarvi@pointpedro.org

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan (Ph.D. Wales, M.Sc. Bristol, M.Sc. Salford, B.A. Hons. Delhi) has authored a policy study titled The Economy of the Conflict Region: from economic embargo to economic repression http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/ps044.pdf and articles on Indo-Sri Lanka trade, poverty and income inequality, civil war and the economy, and economic policies and strategies in Conflict Trends, Contemporary South Asia, Economic and Political Weekly, Faultlines: Writings on Conflict and Resolution, Indian Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Contemporary Asia, South Asia Economic Journal, South Asian Survey, Sri Lanka Economic Journal, Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences, and Third World Quarterly.

Abstract: Post Civil War Economic Development in the Eastern and Northern Provinces of Sri Lanka: A Critical Comparative Analysis

SAHAR TAGHDISI-RAD, SENIOR ECONOMIST, AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

sahar.rad2@gmail.com

Sahar Taghdisi-Rad is a development economist with a focus on international financial assistance, political economy of development in conflict zones, trade and investment. Her work has primarily concentrated on the MENA region, with a particular attention to the economic development of the Palestinian territories. She is the author of The Political Economy of Aid in Palestine: Relief from Conflict or Development Delayed? (Routledge, 2011). Sahar has taught development economics at SOAS and the University of Westminster, and worked with UNCTAD, the ILO and ESCWA. She is currently a senior economist at the African Development Bank in Tunis, where she works on the transitional economies of North Africa.

Abstract: The Political Economy of Aid in Palestine: From Delayed Development to Faded Nationhood

RAJESH VENUGOPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

r.venugopal@lse.ac.uk

Rajesh Venugopal is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics (LSE).  He previously studied, worked and taught at the Universities of Oxford and York.

Most of his research is on the political sociology of ethnic conflict, particularly on the interface of nationalism and development in Sri Lanka and South Asia. He also writes on development theory, post-conflict reconstruction and liberal peace-building, neoliberalism, and lately, mass hysteria.

Abstract: Post-War Development in Sri Lanka: Three Contrasting Approaches

PLENARY PANEL III:

THE PROMISE AND PERILS OF AID

This Panel will take place on Day 1, September 1st, from 16:00-18:00

CHAIR: SUNIL BASTIAN

Speakers:

FARZANA HANIFFA, SENIOR LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF COLOMBO

farzana.haniffa@gmail.com

Farzana Haniffa obtained her Ph.D in Anthropology from Columbia University in New York in 2007 and works as a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department of the University of Colombo. Her research and activism has concentrated on the politics of Muslim communities in Sri Lanka. She has published on the Islamic reform movements in Sri Lanka, Muslims’ involvement in electoral politics, Muslims’ expulsion from the north by the LTTE in 1990, the Muslim community’s exclusion from peace processes, and more recently on the mobilizing of anti-Muslim hate rhetoric in post-war Sri Lanka. She is a member of the management council of the Social Scientists’ Association and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Secretariat for Muslims.

Abstract: The political economy of victimhood: the case of the Northern Muslims in Sri Lanka

RAJIB TIMALSINA, FACULTY MEMBER, DEPARTMENT OF CONFLICT, PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

rajib.timalsina@gmail.com

Rajib Timalsina graduated from Tribhuvan University with a Masters in Conflict, Peace and Development Studies of Tribhuvan University as a gold medalist. He was then awarded the Excellent Student Award by the President of Nepal. Currently, he is a part time faculty member in two masters programs in Kathmandu and another Masters in Innovation and Tourism Management at Salzburg University, where he teaches conflict theories and qualitative research methodology. Besides this, he has been involved in various academic and government research projects in the field of non-violence and post-conflict development since 2011.

Abstract: Policies and Practices of Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF) in Facilitating Post-conflict Development of Nepal

BISHNU UPRETI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEPAL CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH

bishnu.upreti@gmail.com

Bishnu Raj Upreti holds a PhD in Conflict Management from the Netherlands (1998-2000) and a Post-Doctorate (2001-2003) from the UK. He is currently working as Executive Director of NCCR and Team Leader of the Nepal Research programmes of: a) Sustainable Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), and b) Making Women Count for Peace: Gender Empowerment and Conflict in South Asia. Dr. Upreti is researching on conflict management, peace and unconventional security (water, food, health, environmental security issues), state building and is known in this field nationally and internationally. He has written and/or co-edited 36 books on his research subjects and is frequently published in peer-reviewed international journals and anthologies. He is teaching at Kathmandu University, supervising PhD students and is engaged as a Visiting Fellow at different universities in Europe and the USA.

Abstract: Conflict and contestation in the war and post war development: Reflections from Nepal

XIAO’OU ZHU, GRADUATE STUDENT, MONTEREY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

xzhu@mils.edu

Xiao’ou Zhu is a trade and development policy professional with a passion for the perpetual peace in South Asia via horizontally connecting NGOs, private sectors and government. She is working to combine stakeholders’ efforts to launch business-driven foreign development policy and programs where the investor’s interest and development priorities intersect, in order to use  the core business of private sector to solve social demand in post-war, high-risk countries. She runs quantitative analysis on impacts of trade agreements on countries experiencing post-war reconstruction and strives to provide war-affected populations the chance to better utilize such agreements.

Abstract: The challenges of China’s Foreign Assistance-led Economic Integration: Sri Lanka as Case Study

DAY 2

PLENARY PANEL IV:

SOCIAL MOBILIZATION, DEVELOPMENT, POLITICAL INCLUSION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

This Panel will take place on Day 2, September 2^nd, from 9:00-11:00

CHAIR: JAYADEVA UYANGODA

Speakers:

HARINI AMARASURIYA, SENIOR LECTURER, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES, OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

amarasuriyaharini9@gmail.com

Harini Amarasuriya is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka.  She completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Her dissertation work explored the nexus between the state, development policy and practice within the bureaucracy in Sri Lanka. .  Her recent publications include:  Ngos, the state and ‘cultural values: imagining the global in Sri Lanka, (2012) with Jonathan Spencer, Early Marriage and Statutory Rape in Selected Districts in Sri Lanka, (2012) with Savitri Goonesekere, Discrimination and Social Exclusion of Youth in Sri Lanka, 2010 and Why aren’t we empowered yet? Assumptions and Silences surrounding Women, Gender and Development in Sri Lanka (2010) with Asha Abeysekera.

Abstract: Tracking the dynamics of social and political spaces in post-war Sri Lanka (provisional title) 

SHEREE BENNETT, RESEARCH & EVALUATION ADVISOR, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE

sheree.bennett@rescue.org

Sheree Bennett joined the IRC’s Research, Evaluation and Learning Unit in 2011 as the Research & Evaluation Advisor. Sheree is a Political Scientist whose research focuses on local governance and the social psychological effects of externally-funded participatory development interventions. Her background is in community-driven development, political psychology and experimental research design and methodology. Sheree is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Yale University. She currently supports research and evaluation for IRC’s governance and rights portfolio, which includes its community-driven reconstruction programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia and a governance and justice program in Zimbabwe.

Abstract: Beyond Critique: Revised Approaches to Community-Driven Development in Conflict and Post-Conflict Contexts

KALANA SENARATNE, RESEARCHER & COLUMNIST

kalanack@gmail.com

Kalana Senaratne holds LLB and LLM degrees from the University of London, and has just completed doctoral studies at the Law Faculty of the University of Hong Kong. He has previously worked at the Peace Secretariat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He contributes regularly to the Sri Lankan press, and currently writes a column to The Nation newspaper.

Abstract: Sri Lanka’s Post-War Development Discourse and its Impact on Accountability and Autonomy 

PARALLEL PANEL I:

FORUM ON IDPS AND EX-COMBATANTS

This panel will take place on Day 2, September 2^nd, from 11:30-13:00.

CHAIR: NELOUFER DE MEL

DISCUSSANTS: MIRAK RAHEEM, AMBIKA SATKUNANATHAN

Speakers:

FATHIMA A. BADURDEEN, TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MOMBASA & ANURADHA GUNERATHNE, INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

azmiyab@gmail.com

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen is at present attached to the Technical University of Mombasa, Kenya. Her key area of research is forced migration where within this context she has gained research and academic experience in areas such as gender and post war development. She has held research fellowships at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, UK and Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, India. She has a Master in Public Policy and Management from the University of York, UK and a second Master’s in Development Studies from the Open University, Sri Lanka. She is presently reading for her PhD at the Pwani University of Kenya.

Anuradha Gunerathne has been involved in the field of forced migration since 2006, as the National Coordinator of the Project, ‘National Protection and Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons’ – A Project under the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and UNCHR. At present she works as an independent consultant for development projects in Sri Lanka.

Abstract: Linking Transitional Justice With Durable Solutions For The Displaced: Exploring The Case Of Protracted Displacement And Transitional Justice In Sri Lanka

CHIRANJIBI BHANDARI, FACULTY, DEPARTMENT OF CONFLICT, PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, TRIHUBAN UNIVERSITY

cbhandari1986@hotmail.com

Chiranjibi Bhandari is a graduate of Conflict, Peace and Development Studies from Tribhuwan University, Nepal. He is working as teaching faculty at Tribhuwan University, Nepal. Apart from this, Bhandari is teaching at Kathmandu College of Management, an affiliate college of Kathmandu University. In the past, Bhandari had served as section officer at the Secretariat of Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist Army Combatants, a historic work of Nepal’s peace process. Furthermore, Bhandari has completed a comprehensive crisis management course from Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, USA and Contact Peace building and education training at SIT graduate Institute, USA.

Abstract: Social Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Nepal: Implementation, Opportunities and Challenges

PARALLEL PANEL II:

FORUM ON CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

This panel will take place on Day 2, September 2^nd, from 11:30-13:00

CHAIR: PROF. SAVITRI GOONESEKERE

DISCUSSANTS: HARINI AMARASURIYA, RADHIKA COOMARASWAMY

Speakers:

MANUELA E. KÜHR, THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE GENEVA

manuela.kueher@graduateinstitute.ch

Manuela Kühr has gained extensive work experience over the past five years in East Africa, working within the development sector and conducting independent research. Her main area of study focuses on nation-building processes, youth empowerment and questions of gender among Rwandan orphans and youth.

Abstract: “Generation HAPPI” – The Role of Orphans in Rwanda’s Nation-Building Process

SARALA EMMANUEL, INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER

sarala@goodpracticegroup.org

Sarala Emmanuel is a development practitioner and researcher based in Eastern Sri Lanka. Her work has been with local women’s groups focusing on women’s right to development, responding to violence against women, responding to challenges of civil and political rights of communities living in conflict and post disaster contexts. She has also worked with psychosocial and child protection services for children at risk, especially documenting examples of good practice and conducting research on service gaps. Sarala has a MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Women’s Studies from Colombo University and a BA from the University of Bangalore. She is currently the executive director of Suriya Women’s Development Centre in Batticaloa.

KUSALA WETTASINGHE, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & PSYCHOSOCIAL PRACTITIONER

kw9198@gmail.com

Ms. Kusala Wettasinghe is a community development & psychosocial practitioner with specializations in the areas of gender and care & protection of children.  She is experienced in the use of participatory methods with children in the context of research and programme evaluation for local and international development agencies.  With almost 20 years of experience in development work in Sri Lanka, during the past five years Kusala has undertaken consultancies for Terre des hommes, Practical Action (ITDG), BasicNeeds, GiZ, The Asia Foundation, Save the Children, Care International, Participatory Rural Development Association, Plan International and the Centre for Family Services, Sri Lanka.  She has also conducted field research on children’s mental health in Sri Lanka for the Universities of London and Colombo, and field-tested a psychosocial well-being framework for the University of Colombo.  Most recently, Kusala completed a study on care of migrants’ children in post-conflict communities in Eastern Sri Lanka for Terre des hommes.  Kusala has a Post-graduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychosocial Work, and is currently completing a MA in Counselling and Psychosocial Support at the University of Colombo. She is also a published children’s author and illustrator.

Abstract: Adolescent wellbeing in post-war Sri Lanka: Identity, relationships and economic participation 

PARALLEL PANEL III:

FORUM ON EDUCATION

This Panel will take place on Day 2, September 2^nd, from 11:30-13:00

CHAIR: MAITHREE WICKRAMASINGHE

DISCUSSANTS: SHAMALA KUMAR, HARSHA ATURUPANE

Speakers:

ALOKA KUMARAGE, ASSISTANT ANALYST, VERITÉ RESEARCH & NISHAN DE MEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VERITÉ RESEARCH

aloka@veriteresearch.org

Aloka Kumarage is currently an Assistant Analyst at Verité Research. Her past engagements include research work with the Higher Education for the Twenty First Century (HETC) Project with the Ministry of Higher Education. Her expertise is in quantitative social analysis, survey and database design and sociology of education inequality in Sri Lanka. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of British Columbia.

Nishan de Mel is Executive Director of Verité Research, a think tank that provides analytical research and advisory services on economics, media, politics and law. He has held several governing, teaching and research positions including lecturing at Oxford University. He was Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. He was on the Presidential Committee for Tobacco and Alcohol, National Steering Committee on Social Security and Presidential Task Force on Health Sector Reform. He received his doctoral degree in Economics from Oxford University and his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University.

Abstract: Anatomy of Education Inequality (Sri Lanka)

RICARDO SANTOS, PHD CANDIDATE, INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

r.santos@ids.ac.uk

Ricardo Santos started his professional career in the private sector, in business research. He moved into International Development after volunteering in Timor-Leste. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the Nova University in Lisbon and an MA in Development Studies from IDS. He is soon to complete his PhD in Economics, also at IDS. He is also a visiting researcher at the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNIC) of the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL). His personal and professional career is, therefore, one that bridges the worlds of business, international development NGOs and academia, both “North” and “South”.

Abstract: Post-Conflict Return to Education in East Timor

PLENARY PANEL V:

POWER, DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE AND THE POLITICS OF POST-WAR RESOURCE TRANSFERS

This Panel will take place on Day 2, September 2^nd, from 14:00-16:00 

CHAIR: AHILAN KADIRGAMAR

Speakers:

GIULIA MINOIA & W. MUMTAZ, AFGHANISTAN RESEARCH & EVALUATION UNIT

giulia.minoia@gmail.com

Giulia Minoia has been developing her work as a sociologist conducting research on natural resources management, climate change, migrations and conflicts, collaborating with research foundations, NGOs, the UN and the Academia. She is currently based in Kabul with the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, where she is leading the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium team.

Abstract: On people’s agency in (post)conflict areas: The onion market in Nangarhar, Afghanistan 

MAREIKE SCHOMERUS, RESEARCHER, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

m.schmoerus@lse.ac.uk

Mareike Schomerus is a researcher on the dynamics of violent conflict and its resolution, the violence of democratization, civilian security, and the impact of living in militarised situations on personal lives. Her most recent publications are the edited volume “The Borderlands of South Sudan: Authority and Identity in Contemporary and Historical Perspective” and “’A situation of security pluralism’: Improvising border security on the border of South Sudan with the Democratic Republic of Congo”.

Abstract: Post-war Bureaucratisation of Conflict: South Sudan’s Resource Utilisation System

VANESSA VAN DEN BOOGAARD, RESEARCH OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR TAX AND DEVELOPMENT

v.vandenboogaard@gmail.com

Vanessa is a Research Officer with the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) and a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include local government taxation, informal taxation, and taxation, governance and statebuilding. In addition to her work with the ICTD, she has worked with the World Bank in the fields of public financial management and operational policy for fragile and conflict-affected countries.

Abstract – Informal Taxation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone

ANUSHKA WIJESINHA, RESEARCH ECONOMIST, INSTITUTE OF POLICY STUDIES OF SRI LANKA

anushka@ips.lk

Anushka’s research expertise is in private sector development, innovation policy, international economics, and taxation, and heads the Industry, Competitiveness and Regulatory Policy Unit at IPS. He has previously worked with the Presidential Commission on Taxation, World Bank, and Government Peace Secretariat. He is passionate about using research to influence policy and shape policy debates, and serves on several advisory committees in government agencies and private sector bodies. In 2013 and 2014 he was recognized in the “40 Under 40” list of influential Sri Lankans by ‘Echelon’ magazine. He uses social media and photography to take his insights to wider audiences.

Abstract: Financing Development in a Middle-Income Transition: Role of Taxation in Moving Away from Aid

PLENARY PANEL VI:

LAND NATURAL RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

This Panel will take place on Day 2, September 2^nd, from 16:30-18:30

CHAIR: PAKIASOTHY SARAVANAMUTTU

Speakers:

HARSHAVARDHAN BHAT, INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER

harsh.s.bhat@gmail.com

Harshavardhan Bhat is a Bangalore based Researcher currently Lead at the criticality.is project. Previously he was a Research Fellow with CALACS (Africa Studies Cluster Lead) at the Jindal School of International Affairs and a KN Raj Fellow at the Centre for Development Studies – Trivandrum. He is currently interested in the study of violence, habitats, political systems and strategic policy. He is a Graduate of the London School of Economics and has previously worked on private external advisory projects serving Government of Rwanda’s communications agendas.

Abstract: Via Architecture: post-conflict infrastructure and its discursive curve (focus on Kigali and east Africa) 

DEVAKA GUNAWARDENA, PHD CANDIDATE, UCLA

devakagunawardena@gmail.com

Devaka Gunawardena is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. The focus of his dissertation research is on urban development in Colombo, particularly the creation of mass housing projects. His theoretical interests include anthropology of the state, history and anthropology, political economy, and urban studies, with a more general regional focus on South Asia.

Abstract: The new regime of urban accumulation: The development of Colombo after the Sri Lankan civil war

SOE NANDAR LINN, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, MYANMAR DEVEOPMENT RESOURCE INSTITUTE

ladynandar@gmail.com

Soe Nandar Linn is a Research Associate working for a think-tank led by the Chief Economic Advisor to the President of Myanmar. Her recent studies focusing on public finance, resource allocation and the role of local governance, contributed to the macroeconomic reform framework of Myanmar. She used to be the short-term national consultant to the World Bank’s Public Finance and Administration missions. She also conducts training on research methodology and participatory budgeting for journalists and leaders of civil society organisations. Coming from eight-years working in the non-governmental sector, she is interested in the link between local economic development and macro-level planning.

Abstract: Land-grabbing: Challenges for Rural Development during the Political and Socio- Economic Reforms of Myanmar

DAY 3

PLENARY PANEL VII:

LIVELIHOODS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION

This Panel will take place on Day 3, September 3^rd, from 9:00-11:00

CHAIR: PRIYANTHI FERNANDO

Speakers:

DOLLY KIKON, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

dollykikon@gmail.com

Dolly Kikon is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Her dissertation titled Disturbed Area Acts: Intimacy, Anxiety and the State in Northeast India, examined how the modern state and development programs have emerged as attractive propositions for people who were presumed to be averse to it. Based on fieldwork conducted over 24 months in Northeast India, she investigated how natural resources played a central role in shaping territorial aspirations for an ethnic state or autonomous area in this long drawn armed conflict region.

Abstract: How to Make Pickle During Cease-Fire: Discussions about Development in Nagaland (INDIA)

TEDDY ATIM, RESEARCHER, FEINSTEIN INTERNATIONAL CENTER, TUFTS UNIVERSITY

atimapunyo@gmail.com

Teddy Atim was born and raised in Lira, Northern Uganda. She started work as a practitioner, and later as a researcher, with conflict affected populations of northern Uganda in 2000. She has worked with different national, international and funding organizations on humanitarian aid, recovery and development. Presently, Teddy works at the Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, where she leads research on community recovery in northern Uganda. In Sept 2012, Teddy started a PhD at Wageningen University, Netherlands with a focus on youth. She completed a Masters in Humanitarian Assistance at Tufts University in spring 2008 and also holds a B.A. in Social Sciences from Makerere University, Kampala.

Abstract: Survey of Livelihoods, Social Security and impact of serious crimes in Northern Uganda (provisional title)

NAYANA GODAMUNNE, SENIOR RESEARCHER, CENTRE FOR POVERTY ANALYSIS

nayana@cepa.lk

Nayana holds a Masters in Forced Migration from the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. She started her career in the financial sector but moved to work in development, working on program designing, project implementation, policy development and independent consultancy on issues of displacement, resettlement, livelihood development and gender. At CEPA, she has worked on issues of post-war reconciliation, development induced displacement and Diaspora engagement. She co-leads the Vulnerability and Poverty thematic and is currently engaged in a long-term research program, which explores the links between state legitimacy and social protection in a post-war context, but continues to be engaged with her interests in aspects of forced migration.

Abstract: Social protection delivery, access and use: (mis) matching expectations with perceptions: The case of post war Sri Lanka.

RACHEL GORDON, RESEARCHER, FEINSTEIN INTERNATIONAL CENTER, TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Rachel.Gordon@tufts.edu

Rachel Gordon is a Researcher and Program Manager with the SLRC South Sudan and Uganda programmes, based at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University in Boston, USA. She also co-leads the SLRC’s gender mainstreaming strategy. Prior to working with SLRC, she received dual Master’s degrees in urban planning and international affairs from Tufts and its Fletcher School, focusing on disasters, chronic violence, and informality in urban contexts. She has been actively involved with a number of international social justice organizations including the Gender and Disaster Network, American Jewish World Service, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Abstract: Livelihoods, access to services and perceptions of governance in Uror, Nyirol and Pibor counties, South Sudan

PARALLEL PANEL IV:

FORUM ON FISHING

This Panel will take place on Day 3, September 3^rd, from 11:30-13:30

CHAIR: MARIO GOMEZ

DISCUSSANTS: OSCAR AMARASINGHE, S. ANANDAN,

Speakers:

GAYATHRI LOKUGE, SENIOR RESEARCHER, CENTRE FOR POVERTY ANALYSIS

gayathri@cepa.lk

Gayathri Lokuge is a senior researcher at Centre for Poverty Analysis, Sri Lanka and is a PhD candidate attached to the Wageningen university, the Netherlands. Her PhD focuses on interesectionality and contested spaces of fisher communities in the east coast of Sri Lanka. Gayathri’s research interests include identity, sociology of economic life, livelihoods- specifically fisheries, poverty, conflict and post conflict development. She is methodologically inclined towards ethnography. She is also a trainer in qualitative research methods and enjoys documenting her research through photographs.

Abstract: Outside the net: Intersectionality and Inequality in fisheries in Trincomalee district of Sri Lanka

GEETHA MAYADUNNE, SENIOR RESEARCHER, CENTRE FOR POVERTY ANALYSIS

geetham@cepa.lk

Geetha has a Masters degree in Economics from the Monash University, Australia and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Geetha worked for the Government of Sri Lanka in senior staff positions before joining CEPA. At CEPA, Geetha has been involved in research on poverty measurement and analysis, food security, livelihoods & related studies in the urban sector, plantation sector and in the post-war North and East of Sri Lanka.

Abstract: People’s perceptions of livelihood services delivery by the government: a study of fisher communities in the post war north and east.

VIDYA NATHANIEL, ANALYST, VERITÉ RESEARCH

vidya@veriteresearch.org

Vidya Nathaniel, (Attorney at Law, LLB (Hons) ) is an Analyst at Verité Research. She works on legal and economic research. She is the co-author of ‘Illegal Dispossession of Lands’, published by Transparency International Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka Governance Report 2012/2013 and ‘Secure Land Tenure and Property Rights in Sri Lanka: Annotated Bibliography’, published by Habitat for Humanity in February 2013.

Abstract: Sustaining the Livelihoods of Northern Fishermen in Sri Lanka (looks at Indo-Sri Lanka angle)

PARALLEL PANEL V:

FORUM ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP

This Panel will take place on Day 3, September 3^rd, from 11:30-13:30

CHAIR: JOHANN REBERT

DISCUSSANTS: ACHALA SAMARADIVAKARA, MURTAZA ESUFALY

Speakers:

LINA SONNE & ANAR BHATT, OKAPI RESEARCH & ADVISORY

abhatt@okapia.co

Anar Bhatt has extensively worked in the development sector, especially on social enterprises and rural policy development research projects. She is a Legislative Fellow supported by the US State Department’s Professional Fellow’s Program and specializes in entrepreneurship development. At Okapi, she worked with the British Council to assess the Social Enterprise Eco-system in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and to identify ways to support the social enterprise sector in the region through international collaboration with the UK social enterprise sector. She has also worked with Intellecap, Centre for Micro Finance -IFMR and Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Abstract: The Role of Social Enterprises for Development in Conflict and Post-Conflict Zones: The Case of Sri Lanka and Pakistan 

RAJYA LAXMI GURUNG, PHD RESEARCHER, KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY & PUSKAR DHUNGEL, PHD RESEARCHER, SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY

rajya_gurung@yahoo.com

Rajya Laxmi Gurung holds a double Master’s degree, one in Business Administration (Marketing) and another in Computer Science, from Pokara University, Nepal. She worked in the education sector as faculty member as well as administrator. Since July 2010, she has been doing PhD research in the field of “Role of Private sector in peace building” at Katmandu University in association with NCCR North-South. Her research focuses on assessing the benefits, limitation and determinants of corporate engagement in peace.

Puskar Dhungel holds a Master’s degree in Economics. He worked as hydropower developer in Nepal. Since 2012, he has been pursuing PhD in the field of “Hydropower development in Post-conflict Context: A Case Study of Nepal” at Singhania University, India.

Abstract: Role of private sector in post-conflict economic recovery: A Case study of Nepal (2006-2013)

PARALLEL PANEL VI:

FORUM ON HEALTH, WATER AND SANITATION

This Panel will take place on Day 3, September 3^rd, from 11:30-13:30

CHAIR: ANANDA GALAPPATTI

Speakers:

RAMYA KUMAR, GRADUATE STUDENT, DALLA LANA SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

ramyasrilanka@gmail.com

Ramya Kumar is a graduate student in public health at the University of Toronto. Before commencing her postgraduate studies, she was a medical officer with the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka. She is currently carrying out a community-based assessment of health services to understand how privatization shapes access to healthcare in Kandy. Her work emphasizes social dimensions of health and illness, and she is interested in the application of social theory to understanding health problems.

Abstract: Expanding private healthcare after the war

AFTAB LALL, INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER, CENTRE FOR POVERTY ANALYSIS

aftab@cepa.lk

Aftab holds a BA Honors degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University, and a MA in Poverty and Development from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK. He has previously worked on slum rehabilitation initiatives in New Delhi. At present, he is part of the Secure Livelihoods Consortium (SLRC) at CEPA. He has recently co- authored a paper on the political economy of the resettlement process in post war Sri Lanka and is currently working on issues of caste and access to basic services in Jaffna. His areas of interest are poverty, vulnerability, conflict and post conflict contexts.

Abstract: Caste and Access to Basic Services in Post-war Jaffna

SUMAN BABU PAUDEL, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, NEPAL CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH & BISHNU UPRETI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEPAL CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH

Sumanpaudl123@gmail.com, bishnu.upreti@gmail.com

Suman Babu Paudel has a Masters in Human and Natural Resource Studies (HNRS) from Kathmandu University. He is currently engaged as a Research Associate at the Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research (NCCR). His study focuses on Livelihoods, basic services, social protection, youth, conflict and violence. His publications include edited books, reports and chapters in books.

Abstract: People’s perception on health services provided by the government of Nepal in Rolpa district

BLOG

CONTACT US

Participation at the Symposium is by invitation. If you wish to attend, please write to us indicating your interest, along with your name and affiliation, to the following address:

Centre for Poverty Analysis,
29, Gregory’s Rd, Colombo 7
T: 0094 11 2676955/11 4690200
E: symposium@cepa.lk
https://www.cepa.lk