Advocata’s Sathya Karunarathne Wins Asia Think Tank Shark Tank Competition

Originally appeared on the Daily FT, The Morning

Advocata Institute secures a $10,000 project grant for research work on improving women’s property rights.

Sathya Karunarathne, Research Analyst, from Colombo based independent policy think-tank Advocata Institute won the coveted Asia Think-Tank Shark Tank competition for the proposal to expand their work on economic freedom for women, specifically on women’s property rights in Sri Lanka.

The Asia Liberty Forum Think Tank Shark Tank competition is a rigorous project pitch that identifies the best project out of Think Tanks in the region. The winning think tank is awarded a grant to implement the proposed research project.

As highlighted by Sathya during her pitch “Sri Lankan women’s property rights are not firmly established in the legal system. A 2002 survey by the Agriculture and Environment Statistics Division highlighted that only 16 per cent of privately owned land in the country belongs to females. The lack of updated, gender-disaggregated data makes it difficult to fully understand the extent of this problem”.

The project has three major components; the research effort that will focus on formulating a policy brief on the issue, the communication effort to create awareness on the issue, and an advocacy campaign to highlight to policymakers the importance of property rights, and the urgency of revising these gender discriminatory laws.

As an independent public policy think-tank, the Advocata Institute looks forward to implementing this project in order to improve the ownership of property by women. Securing property rights for women will secure many more rights such as the ability to grow and sell crops, obtain agricultural services and assets, and access debt capital from formal financial institutions with lower interest rates.

Looking beyond awareness, the Advocata Institute hopes to lobby policymakers to amend existing gender-discriminatory land inheritance laws, in line with the equality provisions in the Article 12 of the Constitution of 1978 that recognises all individuals as equal in front of the law and worthy of equal protection.

Advocata is an independent policy think tank based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We conduct research, provide commentary and hold events to promote sound policy ideas compatible with a free society in Sri Lanka. Visit advocata.org for more information.