For those of you who missed the ‘Talking Economics’ Expert Voices panel on “The Jobs Challenge” held in August, here it is in a three part video series. The event featured 5 interesting panelists sharing their expert views and around 50 audience members who actively engaged in the discussion and asked incisive questions.

The UNDP recently launched the National Human Development Report 2012 for Sri Lanka recently, and in this video the Lead Author of the report, IPS Research Fellow Dr. Nisha Arunatilake talks about the main issues discussed in it.   IPS undertook extensive research and analysis for the preparation of this report, only the 2nd such [...]

The university system is in chaos again. Following the disruption of a month of academic activity due to an island-wide strike by university non-academic staff in June this year, the academic staff also took trade union action in early-July. The two strike actions have cumulatively taken two months off the undergraduate calendar and a suitable resolution has not been made to date. While this article excludes itself from commenting on the politics of such action, it rather serves to highlight how it impacts youth in Sri Lanka and the economy as a whole.

Each year 100,000 qualified students have to abandon their ambitions to enter university. Less than 4% of 20-24 year olds in Sri Lanka are enrolled in a university. As Sri Lanka’s aims to grow as a knowledge-based economy and become a ‘Knowledge Hub’ for the region, these numbers are concerning. Meanwhile, the debate on permitting private universities continues apace. A Bill to permit private universities was about to be presented by the government to Parliament, but was subsequently shelved, under pressure from certain student and teacher groups. In this article, Priyanka Jayawardena presents the key arguments put forward and opens them out for wider debate.

As Divi Neguma, the government’s latest grassroots economic development initiative, marks one year since its introduction, we took a look at the key features of the programme, its potential to help livelihood development and raise incomes, and the key improvements that need to be made