Equity and well-being in Sri Lanka

Address by Finance and Planning Deputy Minister Gitanjana Gunawardena at the launch of the study titled ‘Equity and well-being: measurement and policy practice’ at the IPS auditorium on March 13. The study is a collaborative product of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka and the ADB.

The development policy of the government aims to reposition Sri Lanka in the global arena as a developed country with leading knowledge hub in the region. The Vision of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the future of Sri Lanka, The Mahinda Chintana, envisages the country to aspire to be a nation with a high quality of life for all of its people having access to decent living, electricity, water, schooling and health facilities. The government development policy framework also stresses inclusive growth, to share the benefits of growth across all segments of the population and also to prevent inequities as well as social exclusion.

Sri Lanka has long been recognized for its achievements in human development. Sri Lanka is an early achiever of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of universal primary education, gender equity in primary education and also in respect of better health outcomes such as reduced infant and maternal mortality rates. Over the years, several policy interventions in the areas of education, health and social welfare have been carried out with the intention of upgrading the human development of the country. In the latest Human Development Report, released by the UNDP, Sri Lanka is categorized in the ‘Medium Human Development’ group. Sri Lanka has the highest level of human development in the South Asian region.

Development strategy

The creation of prosperity to the majority of the people requires connectivity through roads, electricity, telecommunication, information technology and education and ensured quality in the fields of health services, sanitation and in water supply. Hence, the development strategy relies not only on promoting investments for infrastructure based on commercial and economic returns, but also on the creation of equitable access to such infrastructure development to enable people to engage in gainful economic activities. Providing quality services and improving service delivery, which cater to the changing demands of rapid economic growth and social development of the country has been a central concern of the government.

Various policy measures such as Gama Neguma, Divi Neguma and Maga Neguma have been introduced to improve living conditions of people, in particular with respect to access to roads, rural industry and agriculture, electricity, safe water and sanitation facilities. During the last five years, more than 100,000 houses were constructed all over the country under different schemes such as Gama Neguma, estate housing, Jathika Saviya, fisheries community housing, roofing sheet assistance and other upgrading programmes.

Poverty alleviation programmes

Maintaining and upgrading the existing social services while the restoration, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the services in conflict-affected areas are the foremost concerns in the post-conflict era. These are more challenging when we consider them in the perspective of inclusive growth.

The country’s economy has been growing at an impressive rate of 8 percent during 2009-2011 in the follow-up of establishment of peace and stability. The government envisages continuing the momentum of development to achieve the targets of its vision. All key sectors of the economy demonstrated a commendable performance in the last two years, underpinned by the peaceful domestic environment, and improved investor confidence, favourable macro-economic conditions and gradual recovery of the global economy from one of the deepest recessions in history.

Despite the conflict, government’s policy of ensuring basic infrastructure has improved. This allows benefits to trickle down to low income households. The incidence of poverty in Sri Lanka has significantly reduced from 26.1 percent in 1990/91 to 8.9 percent in 2009/10. All the sectors have experienced a fall in poverty levels significantly during the period 2006-2009. Particularly in the estate sector, the percentage of poor has almost reduced to one third of the level that existed in 2006/07. Sri Lanka has achieved the MDG goal ‘halving the incidence of poverty’ ahead the target. Poverty alleviation programmes of the government and improved infrastructure facilities, industrial and commercial activities have largely contributed to this progress.

Education is part and parcel of economic and social development of the country. We have been providing access to Free Education for over six decades. Sri Lanka takes pride in supporting its free education system throughout primary and secondary school levels as well at university level and in adhering to ethics and standards as proclaimed by provisions in international conventions. Our sustained efforts in free education has achieved for Sri Lanka and outstanding 91.4 percent literacy rate.

The free public education system remains the predominant education service provider of general education in the country. The present schools system comprises 10,492 schools, of which 92 percent are government schools.

To improve access to general education, the government has adopted a variety of demand and supply-side policies that include the Development of 1,000 fully fledged Secondary Schools Programme towards ensuring quality education for rural children, school mid day meal programme, subsidized transport, free uniforms and textbooks etc.

The government policy document, Mahainda Chinthana - Vision for the Future, aims for a Knowledge Hub within an education system which contributes to the rapid economic and social development of the country. It has recognized the need for promoting equity and enhancing the quality and relevance of general education.

Food consumption

The key policy priorities for the sector as identified by the government are: a) ensure that all students complete primary and secondary education successfully, b) ensure that education services are designed around the needs of each child, c) improve the quality and relevance of general education, d) ensure that children achieve competence in languages and Mathematics.

Health services are crucial for enhancing human development, promoting equity and contributing to the wealth and well being of a nation. Sri Lanka is regarded as a success story in achieving most of the vital health indicators much earlier than its regional counterparts. Most of the key health indicators for Sri Lanka are almost at the same level as that of developed economies.

Improving equitable access to quality services are key concerns of the government policies. A rapid demographic transition and aging population, and emerging health risks such as NCDs are major health sector challenges. Further, being a country which has experienced a 30 year civil war is another major challenge of realigning the country’s economy and regaining its lost opportunities for development.

Healthcare system

The government’s development policy framework has developed a strategy to stimulate economic growth and ensure it trickles down equitably. The strategy focuses on more equitable growth and augers for a more prominent role for the state in economic development by improving service delivery. At the same time the new strategy proposes to promote private sector development, and expand the role of public-private partnerships, especially in lagging regions, and focus on infrastructure development to accelerate growth and to narrow regional disparities

Sri Lanka has taken several initiatives to increase food consumption and ensure adequate nutrition intake among households and individuals. The main intervention has been the ‘Thriposha’ (a pre-cooked cereal based food) national programme, made available to pregnant and lactating mothers during the first 6 months and infants between 6-11 months of age. It is estimated to have catered to nearly 580,000 beneficiaries in 2007. A school-feeding programme under which poor children are given a hot meal in school, and provision of a food package for expected mothers (poshana malle) are some other interventions. In addition, a ‘National Nutrition Surveillance System’ was launched in 2008 to obtain timely data at provincial and central level.

The government has already launched a ‘National Nutrition Policy’ for the period 2008-18. The government has also identified the gravity of NCD-related health challenges and taken several policy initiatives. A ‘National Policy and Strategic Framework for Prevention and Control of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases’ was approved by government in 2010. In the Budget 2011, an additional allocation of Rs. 900 million was approved for a three year action plan targeting the control of NCDs, to be implemented from 2011 through improvements in the primary healthcare system.

The government has given high priority to the development of the conflict affected Northern and Eastern provinces. Allocations for investments in such lively hood, social and service infrastructure programmes under the Uthuru Vasnathaya and Negenahira Navodaya programmes in the North and East have been Rs. 19,770 million and Rs. 6,916 million respectively since 2009.

Cultural and religious tradition

In as much as equity and well-being needs to be looked at with consideration towards specific situations and circumstances in different settings, it is necessary to keep in mind the cultural and historical background.

Sri Lanka is home to more than 2300 years of civilization since Arahant Mahinda, the son of the Great Emperor Asoka brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka. The religion has since been practiced for centuries by dynasties of rulers and generations of Sri Lankans - impacting upon building up of centuries old traditions, values and practices in cultural, social and educational spheres as well as in matters of governance.

Bhutan, a country in the region with similar cultural and religious tradition depends on its ‘Gross National Happiness Index’ to assess progress in development - a practice which has evoked interest to emulate in other countries.

I congratulate Dr. Hyun H. Son on the Publication ‘Equity and well-being: measurement and policy practice’ and the IPS Researchers on their contribution to the publication. I am thankful to the IPS for inviting me to this book launch and providing me the opportunity to highlight some of the initiatives of the government of Sri Lanka which have strong equity component as well as share some thoughts.

May the Noble Triple Gem bless you all!