Pri's blog

photo:ifrc In 1987 my friend, Paul Starkey, wrote a small book for GTZ called ‘Perfected yet rejected’ , sub-titled, ‘a cautionary tale of development’. The book provides a history of research, development and promotion of animal-drawn wheeled toolcarriers. Wheeled toolcarriers are multipurpose implements that can be used for plowing, seeding, weeding and transport. These implements have been universally hailed as "successful" and yet farmer adoption has been extremely disappointing. Farmers have rejected wheeled toolcarriers because of their high cost, heavy weight, lack of manoeuvrability, inconvenience in operation, complication of adjustment and difficulty in changing between modes. Farmer rejection was been apparent since the early 196Os, yet up to the time the book was being written the majority of researchers, agriculturalists, planners and decision makers in national programmes, aid agencies and international centres were under the impression that w...

Reading the Metro paper on the tube this morning I learned that Singapore, the city that our planners in Colombo are emulating,   is the most expensive city in the world.   Another news item about the transformation of London’s infrastructure (London is the 16th most expensive city in the world) suggests ideas actually WORTH emulating.  Talking about changes to the road infrastructure it says… …..  This programme is part of wider plans expected to help create 5,000 new homes and 4,000 new jobs in the area.  A public consultation will begin later this month and work will start early next year. [my emphasis]  ….  In addition, the IMAX roundabout at Waterloo will be redeveloped to create better facilities at Waterloo station as well as improved facilities for cyclists . [my emphasis]  All this to ensure that London “remains one of the most economically productive, vibrant, accessible and attractive world cities”. Creating ho...

Right now, there is a team of us at CEPA working with the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), a DFID funded research consortium led by the Overseas Development Institute ( ODI), London, on a six year programme looking at three research themes, namely 1.     Legitimacy. What are people’s perceptions, expectations and experiences of the state and of local-level governance? How does the way services are delivered and livelihoods are supported affect people’s views on the legitimacy of the state? 2.     Capacity. How do international actors interact with the state and local-level governance institutions? How successful are international attempts to build state capacity to deliver social protection, basic services and support to livelihoods? 3.     Livelihood trajectories . What do livelihood trajectories in conflict-affected situations tell us about the role of governments, aid agencies, markets and the private secto...

If we leave some of the rhetorical utterances such as the Small Wonder of Asia, aside, there are two frequently used descriptors of the Sri Lankan context.  One,   that Sri Lanka is a Middle Income Country, and two, that Sri Lanka is a post-conflict country.   I would like to examine these descriptions in slightly more depth.  Let’s take the  Middle Income Country idea.  It has significant impact in terms of Sri Lanka’s relations with the international donor community, and we have ostensibly lost some of our bilateral development partners and international NGO presence because of that.   But being a Middle Income Country merely means we fall into a particular GNI per capita category , and most of us should  realize by now that this is not a good enough measure to judge peoples’ well being. It is insufficient on a number of counts.  It does not take into account intra-country inequalities nor does it take into account the ...

I don’t really DO Christmas... and my best December 25ths have been spent in  London in my sister’s flat, drinking the rather lethal hot punch my brother-in-law prepares, watching Bond movies on television while the men (brother-in-law and son) prepare the Christmas meal; stuffing myself up with whatever fantastic menu they decide to lay out at whatever time (brunch, high tea, supper), and then full of good food and drink, falling asleep on the couch only to wake up on boxing day, happy that the whole event for that year at least, is behind me!  This year I am in Colombo.   As season’s greetings flood my inbox, facebook, twitter, etc etc  and the Christmas songs reach such a crescendo on Gold FM as I drive frantically to and from Arpico, Selyn, Barefoot, Paradise Road, Rhithi (cannot handle a pre-Christmas ODEL, I am afraid) filling in the gaps in my gift list, there are three thoughts I would like to share with you... The first thought  is related to ...

There was an interesting debate among colleagues that was triggered by the simple fact that I shared the official government calendar for 2014.  The Calendar has, as it has had in the previous year, and possibly many years prior to that,  the sub title -  Buddhist Era 2557-2558. This triggered a discussion on whether it was appropriate to have that on the calendar or not.  The argument against seemed to be based on it being seen as an imposition by the State of Buddhism, into areas that are perceived as secular and non-religious. [Though of course, as was pointed out,  the Gregorian Calendar is not really secular at all, based on the fact that it counts the years from the birth of Christ!] What was interesting was that we were having this debate at all.  Obviously, the current context has made us all ultra sensitive to certain issues, and the whole question of a state religion led some of us to be uncomfortable, others to be resentful (not overtly ma...