Dr Ganga Tilakaratna

Ganga Tilakaratna is a Research Fellow and Head of Poverty and Social Welfare Policy Research at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS). Her research and publications cover several areas, including social protection, poverty and vulnerability, financial inclusion, labour markets, ageing and demography, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She has over 20 years of research experience and has led several research projects funded by various bilateral and multilateral organisations.

She has worked as a consultant to several organisations, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She has also served on several government and private sector committees and is currently a co-editor of the South Asia Economic Journal.

Ganga Tilakaratna holds a B.A in Economics from the University of Manchester (UK), an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a PhD in Development Policy and Management from the University of Manchester (UK), along with a Postgraduate Diploma in ‘Universalizing Socio-Economic Security for the Poor’ from the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands.