Pri's blog

The Human Development Report 2014 is entitled Sustaining human progress: Reducing vulnerabilities and Building Resilience, and if nothing else has foregrounded two of the key concepts in the current development discourse i.e. vulnerability and resilience. The concept of vulnerability In discussing vulnerability, the HDR aims to move beyond the traditional concept of vulnerability that comes from the disaster risk reduction discourse and  which is about exposure to risk and risk management including insuring against shocks and diversifying assets and incomes,    to what it calls ‘human vulnerability’ which is the prospects of eroding peoples’ capabilities and choices.  This definition can be linked to the idea of peoples’ agency, and also to Sen’s idea of entitlement  and serve to broaden the policy debate .   But unfortunately, at the outset itself the HDR then reduces human vulnerability to a categorisation of ‘who’ is vulnerable, ‘what’ th...

I think I am fast becoming the UNDP's MDG favourite! Was asked to talk this time at the launch of the "Gender Dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals in Sri Lanka" publication, researched and written by CENWOR (Centre for Women's Research). The other speakers were Anila Dias Bandaranaike and Pat Alailima. Unfortunately the only man invited to the head table to speak, Dr D S Jayaweera, Head of the National Council for Economic Development (NCED) was called away to attend to more important things, so there was a bunch of females talking to a largely female audience, who true to form raised some interesting questions - watch this space for what I said! While you are waiting, did anyone tell you the story about the multilateral agency that has its senior officers checking the minutae details of consulting firms' expense claims to the level of asking the firm to explain why they served 30 sandwiches at a workshop where there were only seven participants? The ...