Market Competitiveness of the Tea Industry of Sri Lanka

Advocata Institute launches its latest report titled “Market Competitiveness of the Tea Industry of Sri Lanka” The report is written by Sudaraka Ariyaratne, Research Consultant at Advocata Institute.

The report begins with an introductory chapter that details the historical evolution of the island’s tea industry. The report finds that the present standing of the industry in the context of the international market is not too grim, but argues that issues related to the labour market, capital investment, value addition, and quality control limit the industry’s competitiveness in the global stage. The rest of the report takes the form of four discussion papers, each on the four areas of concern listed above, that present an economic theory-based lens to approach these issues, and discuss potential solutions.

You can access the report on ‘Market Competitiveness of the Tea Industry of Sri Lanka’ here

Housing For All: The Role of Competition Policy In Construction

The Advocata Institute hosted a conference on December 13th at the Lavender Hall, BMICH on the topic Housing For All: The Role of Competition Policy In Construction. The conference facilitated two separate discussion sessions on Trade and Competition Policy: Impact on Affordable Housing in Sri Lanka and Regional Housing Crisis: The Role of Competition in Construction Markets, with panelists who are experts in the relative conversations. This event was in partnership with the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

The agenda for the sessions can be found here

Access the presentation by Dr Roshan Perera here

Policy Briefs:

Access the policy brief on Unshackling Markets: The Case Against Import Controls and Price Controls in Sri Lanka by Advocata Institute

Access the policy brief on Impact of Anti- Competitive Practices in the Construction Industry on Housing for the Urban Poor in India

Access the policy brief on Impact of Anti-competitive Practices in the Construction Industry on Housing for the Urban Poor in Pakistan

Access the policy brief Impact of Anti-competitive Practices in the Construction Industry on Housing for the Urban Poor in Bangladesh

Women's Policy Action Network : Gender Discriminatory Land Inheritance Policy Brief

The Womens Policy Action Network launched their policy brief on 'Gender Discriminatory Land Inheritance' at a roundtable discussion. The discussions resulted in the identification of laws that are discriminatory directly and in its applications. Further laws that had the potential to be discriminatory were also identified.

You can access the policy brief on Gender Discriminatory Land Inheritance here

Women's Policy Action Network: Empowering Women :A Future-Ready Workforce

The Women's Policy Action Network hosted a conference on August 29th at the Lavender Hall, BMICH on the topic Empowering Women : A Future-Ready Workforce. The conference facilitated two separate discussion sessions on improving Social infrastructure and digital infrastructure, with panelists who are experts in the relative conversations. This discussion was supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and facilitated by the Advocata Institute.

You can access the presentation to the sessions on:

Social Infrastructure for Gender Equality & Empowerment

Unlocking women’s potential in the digital economy

The full video of the Women’s Policy Action Network conference can be found here.

The ‘Social Infrastrastructure for Gender Equality & Empowerment' policy brief can be accessed here

The ‘Unlocking Women’s potential in the Digital Economy’ policy brief can be accessed here

Launch of Women's Policy Action Network 'Reforms to Empower Women During an Economic Crisis'

The Advocata Institute launched the Women's Policy Action Network on Thursday, the 30th of March, 2023 at the Lavender Hall in BMICH at 6.30PM. The Women's Policy Action Network aims to bring about policy reform through advocacy for the economic empowerment of women. It will be a network run by individuals who are committed to women's empowerment. Harnessing advocacy, collating research, and identifying key problem areas that will impact the lives of women are a few of the targets to be achieved. The group will comprise representatives from Civil Society Organizations, policymakers, and women leaders to generate strong conversations advocating for women.

In light of the disproportionate impact of both the pandemic and the economic crisis on women , enhancing women’s participation in the workforce is even more critical. Therefore, the launch of WPAN was followed with a panel discussion on the thematic area of “Reforms to Empower Women During an Economic Crisis”. 

The keynote speaker was Ms.Shiromal Cooray, the Chairman and Managing Director of Jetwing Travels. Remarks were given by the Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Anouk Baron. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Roshan Perera, Senior Research Fellow, Advocata Institute.

The panel included, Shan Yahampath (Advisor to the Labour Ministry and the Foreign Employment), Sampath Thrimawithana (Director at Virtusa), Anarkali Moonesinghe (Former CEO, CIMB Investment Bank Sri Lanka) and Sumini Siyambalapitiya (Senior Research Analyst, Verite Research)

This WPAN launch was supported by the Kingdom of Netherlands and facilitated by the Advocata Institute

You can access the policy brief here

The full video of the launch of the Women’s Policy Action Network can be found here.

අපේ ඉරණම තීරණය කරන අයවැය with Prof. Abeyratne, Prof. Samarajiva & Pasan Wijayawardhana

With the current economic crisis, the 2023 budget is critical to setting the fiscal direction of the country. How will the government tackle reducing the budget deficit, what tax and expenditure reforms will be brought in, and how will they commit to tackling the rising socio-economic issues such as poverty and malnutrition

Advocata hosted an online post-budget 2023 discussion, with Prof Rohan Samarajiva (Founding Chair, LIRNEasia | Advisor, Advocata Institute), Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne (Professor in Economics | Department of Economics, University of Colombo), moderated by Pasan Wijayawardhana (Economic Research Analyst, Advocata Institute) on Thursday, November 17th at 6.00PM

Short presentations on government expenditure and revenue trends was also done by Udahiruni Atapattu (Research Analyst, Advocata Institute) and Thashikala Mendis (Data Analyst, Advocata Institute).

Watch the full video on our YouTube channel

You can access the presentation from the discussion by Thashikala Mendis and Udahiruni Atapattu below

Taxation, Stability and Growth by Thashikala Mendis

Government Expenditure Trends by Udahiruni Atapattu

#ReformNow Conference: Let's Reset Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since independence. Advocata Institute organised Sri Lanka’s first ever reset economic conference prioritizing economic recovery and growth. You can now watch these conferences once again on the Advocata Youtube channel and Advocata+ Youtube Channel.

Sessions of the conference were live-streamed on 05th and 06th August 2022 on the Advocata Institute Facebook page!

During the conference Advocata Institute launched it latest report and a policy product tracking the performance of State Owned Enterprises

To access the the platform and report visit https://soe.lk/

This report can be accessed below.

The State of State Owned Enterprises in Sri Lanka

Watch the full sessions on our YouTube channel

You can access the presentation from our sessions below:

Debt Crisis, Structural Adjustment and Trade Policy by Prof Prema-chandra Athukorale

Centralizing the State's Ownership Function by Daniel Alphonsus

State of State-Owned Enterprises by Ravi Rathnasabapathy

Air India Privatisation Story – takeaways for Sri Lanka by Thilan Wijesinghe

Taxation, Stability and Growth by Dr. Roshan Perera

Taxation, Stability and Growth by Prof. Mick Moore

Resetting Samurdhi -Social Safety Nets by Dr Stephen Kidd

Resetting Samurdhi - Social Safety Nets by Ms Gayani Hurulle

Context setting - Labour market Presentation by Udahirini

Labour market reforms for more inclusive growth by Ms Shyamali Ranaraja

Unlocking Land for development – Current Land Utilisation by Migara Rodrigo

Unlocking urban potential by Mr Nayana Mawilmada

Agricultural land by Dr Roshan Rajadurai

The Case For Private Industrial Zones – Lessons From The Dominican Republic by Mr Juan Jimenez

#ReformNow # Let’sResetSriLanka

Day 01 - August 05th

Day 02 - August 06th