Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka experienced the Aragalaya movement in 2022, when an economic and governance crisis spurred thousands of people to protest on the street against rampant corruption and the government’s mishandling of the economy. Severely reduced government revenues and foreign reserves led to high inflation and significant shortages in essential items, such as food, medicine, gas, and fuel. People viewed the government as culpable, and protests led to the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in June 2022.

Evidence-based economic policies and transparent public financial management will be central to helping Sri Lanka overcome its current economic crisis. Public engagement is also critical. Easier access to credible information is among the needs cited to raise awareness, build capacity and resilience, and encourage widespread trust. CIPE and local partners are working to achieve this by gathering, organizing, and presenting information on public finance and overall governance in easy to-understand language and formats. Additionally, as part of one key initiative, partners identified critical points in the infrastructure-development process and how civil society can effectively engage at such times. This led to the establishment of the Alliance for Sustainable Infrastructure (ASI), Sri Lanka’s first inclusive and representative regional network of CSOs addressing large-scale infrastructure transparency.

Sri Lanka must contend with years of mismanaged public funds by successive governments and the active undermining of democratic values. This amplifies the importance of CIPE’s ongoing work to promote transparency and accountability in large-scale infrastructure projects and public financial management and improve the Sri Lankan private sector’s capacity in reducing internal corruption and promoting business ethics.

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Additional Resources

• Democracy that Delivers #383: Sri Lanka’s Anti-Corruption Efforts: Insights from Transparency International
• Sri Lanka’s Imminent Rebirth?
• Democracy that Delivers #319: Forex Crisis in Sri Lanka: The Road Ahead
• Building CSO’s Capacity to Engage in Large-scale Infrastructures in Sri Lanka
• CIPE Signs Grant Agreements in Sri Lanka
• CIPE-COSMI Work to Boost Participatory Governance in Infrastructure Projects in Sri Lanka
• Tracking the Right to Information in Asia
• Democracy That Delivers Episode #241: Using Sri Lanka’s New Right To Information Law To Follow The Money
• Impact of COVID-19 Response on Unemployment in Sri Lanka
• Due Process during COVID-19 in Sri Lanka
• Facing a Second Wave of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka: Economic Cost of a Lockdown Strategy
• Right to Information Act—Driving Accountability through Improved Access to Information
• Democracy that Delivers #93: Rezani Aziz on Women Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka
• Trail Blazing in Sri Lanka: the Sri Lanka Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce
• Blazing a Trail: The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce Sri Lanka
• Outcry Against Corruption Helps Drive a Change of Leadership in Sri Lanka