scholarly journals An Analysis of the Development Impacts of Establishing Kalmunai Administrative District in Sri Lanka

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Agus Yusoff ◽  
Athambawa Sarjoon ◽  
Mat Ali Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Development Discourse ◽  
Administrative District ◽  
The People ◽  
Coastal Belt ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Administrative Units

Decentralizing administrative powers to locally established administrative units has been the key goal of many governments in developing counties intended to boost socio-economic development at regional level. Sri Lanka has also introduced many decentralization initiatives with development motives. New administrative districts were formed in Sri Lanka with development as part of their motive, but, no new district has been formed in the last 30 years while demands have prevailed in many corners of the country. The demand calling for the establishment of the Kalmunai administrative district has been a prolonged and politically influencing demand for the last 15 years in Sri Lanka’s political-development discourse. This study attempts to examine the development impacts of establishing the Kalmunai administrative district that has been advocated by the people living in the coastal belt of the Amparai district (referred as ‘south eastern region’), a region which has been lacking in terms of development due to the severe impacts of thirty-year civil war as well as the 2004 Asian Tsunami devastation in Sri Lanka. The findings of the study reveal that the establishment of the proposed Kalmunai district will eventually contribute to multi-dimensional development in the region in the long run, however, a conducive institutional environment needs to be built in and around the district administrative machinery in order to ensure equity and justice in service delivery and resource allocation among different ethnic groups in the district which would be the pre-condition for the sustainability of any kind of development impact in the region.

scholarly journals The Muslims’ Quest for a Kalmunai Administrative District in South-Eastern Sri Lanka: An Analysis of the Challenges from Their Community and Politics

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Mohammad Agus Yusoff ◽  
Athambawa Sarjoon
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Administrative District ◽  
The Public ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Coastal Belt ◽  
The Government ◽  
Different Sources

The Muslim community living in the “South-Eastern Region” of Sri Lanka has long been urging the government authorities to establish a separate Kalmunai administrative district carved out of the coastal belt of the present Amparai district, as an institutional mechanism to improve public service delivery and development administration functions in the region. However, the establishment of the Kalmunai administrative district has continually been challenged, receiving criticism and oppositions from different sources, including from the Muslim community and its politicians. This study analyzes the perspectives of Muslim community and its politics towards the demand for the Kalmunai administrative district and its impacts on the political advocacy and methods to achieving it. This study has found that there are different and contradictory perspectives on the matter of the Kalmunai administrative district among the Muslim political parties and in different segments of the community. It is also discovered that the public understanding on the subject of the proposed district is very minimal. The establishment of the proposed Kalmunai administrative district has frequently failed on many crucial occasions mainly due to the lack of consensus among the Muslims leaders regarding the contested subjects of the proposed district. Additionally, this study has observed that the Muslim leaders have conceptualized the proposed Kalmunai district purely based on ethnicity only and have failed to justify it on public and rational grounds. The study has further found that the establishment of the proposed Kalmunai administrative district and its purported positive impacts would strongly depend on making the demand for the proposed district a more secular and public one.

scholarly journals Public Administration and Minority Language: The Case of District Administration in Amparai, Sri Lanka

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Mohammad Agus Yusoff ◽  
Athambawa Sarjoon ◽  
Nordin Hussin ◽  
Azmi Awang
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Severe Case ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Administrative District ◽  
District Administration

Even though minorities have gained international linguistic recognition, accepting and admitting minority languages in public affairs has been a contested issue in many countries. In Sri Lanka, the admitting of minority language — specifically Tamil — in public administration has continued to be a serious issue imposing a number of difficulties on Tamil-speaking minorities, although Tamil is legally recognized as an official language. The district administration of Amparai in the eastern province is a severe case where Tamil has been marginalized in the district’s administrative affairs, violating the constitutional recognition of conducting public administration in Tamil in the north-eastern region. The major objective of this study is to examine the nature and extent of Tamil language admission in the district administration of Amparai. The findings of this study revealed that the violation of constitutional provisions and administrative circulars on admitting the Tamil language in district administration has not only led to the domination of the Sinhala language and the Sinhalese in this district’s administration, but also has induced the Tamil-speakers of this district to demand and advocate for a new administrative district within the district for their administrative easiness. This research suggests that proper implementation of Tamil language provisions and institutional restructuring at the district secretariat level would help to reconcile the linguistic issues facing by Tamil-speakers in the district. This case study incorporates both primary and secondary data collected from different sources, and is presented through descriptive and interpretative analysis.

scholarly journals Classifications at Work: Social Categories and Dutch Bureaucracy in Colonial Sri Lanka

Itinerario ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Dries Lyna ◽  
Luc Bulten
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Negotiation Strategies ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Institutional Contexts

Abstract Feeding into current debates on ethnic identities in colonial South Asia, this article questions to what extent Dutch institutions articulated and impacted social categories of people living in coastal Sri Lanka during the eighteenth century. A thorough analysis of three spheres of Dutch bureaucracy (reporting, registering, and litigating) makes it clear that there was no uniform ideology that steered categorisation practices top-down throughout the studied colonial institutions. Rather, the rationale of the organisation as such affected the way people were classified, depending to a large extent on what level of bureaucracy individuals were dealing with, and what the possible negotiation strategies were for the people recorded. Future research should perhaps not ask “when” certain ethnicities were “made up,” but strive to understand the process in which they were created, the institutional contexts in which they were recorded, and how changing bureaucratic practices not only articulated, but also transformed, social categories in the long run.

scholarly journals Do Military Expenditure and Conflict Affect Economic Growth in Sri Lanka? Evidence from the ARDL Bounds Test Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Abdul Rasheed Sithy Jesmy ◽  
Mohd Zaini Abd Karim ◽  
Shri Dewi Applanaidu
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Military Expenditure ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Per Capita Gdp ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Gdp Growth Rate ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Bounds Test

Conflicts in the form of civil war, ethnic tensions and political discord are of enduring concern and a major bottleneck to economic development in Sri Lanka. Three decades of civil war and unethical political culture have caused severe economic problems for the country, including slower rate of growth and a huge defence expenditure. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of military expenditure and conflict on per capita GDP growth rate in Sri Lanka from 1973 to 2014 using the Solow growth model and ARDL bounds test approach. The results of the bounds test are highly significant and lead to cointegration. The negative and significant coefficients of the error correction term illustrate the expected convergence process in the long-run dynamic of per capita GDP. The estimated empirical results show that, the coefficients of military expenditure and conflict are negative and statistically significant in the short-run as well as in the long-run in determining per capita GDP growth rate in Sri Lanka. Hence, it is critically important to take necessary action to decrease military expenditure and provide an efficient political solution to the problem of minorities, specifically in the post-war period.

scholarly journals Institutional quality and the capital structure of microfinance institutions: the moderating role of board gender diversity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Michael Adusei ◽  
Beatrice Sarpong-Danquah
Keyword(s):  
Capital Structure ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Board Gender Diversity ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract We test the effect of institutional quality on capital structure in the microfinance setting. In doing this, we rely on data from 532 microfinance institutions (MFIs) located in 73 countries dotted across the six microfinance regions in the world. We observe that institutional quality exhibits a robust negative and statistically significant relationship with capital structure in both the short and long run, implying that MFIs in countries with a better institutional environment are less likely to utilize more debt. Our moderation analysis furnishes us with evidence that the presence of women on the board of an MFI significantly moderates the relationship between institutional quality and its capital structure. We show that in the presence of more female representation on the boards of MFIs, the tendency of MFIs using less debt is higher.

Risk of Mercury exposure during childhood: a review of Sri Lankan situation

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-232
Author(s):  
Himan K. A. Galappaththi ◽  
Inoka Suraweera
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Fish Consumption ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Mercury Level ◽  
Fluorescent Light ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Hair Mercury ◽  
Coastal Belt ◽  
High Mercury

AbstractSri Lanka had ratified the Minamata convention in the year 2017 and is planning to phase out Mercury by 2020. Mercury thermometers and compact fluorescent light bulbs are abundant at hospitals, households and schools. Limitations in safe disposal and containment mechanisms have enhanced the unregulated e-waste collection and extraction. Sri Lanka has plentiful lagoons, fishing bays, and inland irrigation systems. Fish consumption is high, especially around the coastal belt. Mercury can bioaccumulate in humans by the consumption of fish from contaminated sources. Children are at risk of exposure in their living environments and via food. A multicountry study done across three oceans on Mercury threat to women & children revealed, lagoon pollution from industrial Mercury emissions in Sri Lanka, possessing high Mercury among local females who consume fish from that lagoon. The mean hair Mercury level in coastal areas with high fish consumption exceeded the reference dose even among children. Aquatic life and crop studies revealed a mixed picture of Mercury levels which some are lower and some are higher than the permissible levels. Studies on environmental Mercury levels and correlations with health effects among children will help to fill the data gap. Public awareness of the health effects of Mercury and mechanisms of Mercury disposal should be established.

Responding to the mental health and psychosocial needs of the people of Sri Lanka in disasters

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 593-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mahoney ◽  
Vijay Chandra ◽  
Harrischandra Gambheera ◽  
Terrence De Silva ◽  
T. Suveendran
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Psychosocial Needs ◽  
The People

Decolonizing Cultural Probes in Ethnographic Research: Perspective of African Scholars

2021 ◽  
pp. 002193472110210
Author(s):  
Akpovire Oduaran ◽  
Okechukwu S. Chukwudeh
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
The People ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Conceptual Paper

The epistemological positioning that frequently validates the application of cultural probes in eliciting detailed exploration of phenomenon has not been sufficiently interrogated. Yet the epistemological assumptions behind the value of cultural probes continue to be drummed up and foisted on Africa’s emerging ethnographic researchers who actually need to be a bit more critical in its adoption and application. This conceptual paper explores the extant literature on data collection based essentially on cultural probes as espoused in habitus. It is proposed that profound amounts of decolonization of the spirit, content, and process of data gathering is urgent and critical at this stage. Until this is done objectively, African ethnographic researchers should “look at the gift horse in the mouth” before they can properly configure what is right or wrong for the people of Africa who should be in the hot pursuit of the ownership, production and utilization of relevant and sacrosanct knowledge aimed at rapid socio-economic and political development of the continent.

scholarly journals Disaster, Aid, and Preferences: The Long-run Impact of the Tsunami on Giving in Sri Lanka

2017 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 157-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Becchetti ◽  
Stefano Castriota ◽  
Pierluigi Conzo
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Disaster Aid
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