Background to the Annual Symposium on Poverty in Sri Lanka
The Symposium is organised by the Centre for Poverty Analysis,
International Alert and Save the Children in partnership with the Ministry
of Health and Nutrition - Sri Lanka, Fedrich Ebert Stiftung Sri Lanka, and
Berendina Foundation Sri Lanka. The Symposium brings together national and international scholars and practitioners to discuss research on poverty and required action for poverty reduction. The symposium includes an alternative communications component showcasing documentaries and visual imagery as a means of communicating research on the theme. Papers presented at the event and proceedings are published in an Edited Volume within the CEPA Publication Series to encourage further dissemination of the research and discussion.
This year’s theme: Child Poverty: an alternative understanding to inform policy and practice
This year’s thematic focus on child poverty provides an alternative understanding to inform policy and practice. The body of research on children in Sri Lanka is vast, focusing on various contextual factors, and trying to understand the impacts of these factors on various facets of children’s lives. As such the Symposium will provide a platform to;
● Showcase the vast body of knowledge on child poverty in Sri Lanka by providing researchers a space to share their work with various stakeholders.
● Enhance the understanding of child poverty in Sri Lanka in order to inform policy and practice.
● Build partnerships amongst children, researchers and decision makers for more effective research communication that would inform child poverty practices.
Click here to download the concept note for the 10th Annual Symposium
Potential themes and panel sessions for the Symposium
Please note this section is being developed. Presentations/panels will explore these themes:
● Discourses on child poverty: changing debates and alternative frameworks of analysis
● Recent contextual changes and its effects on child poverty: economic crisis, conflict, climate change, and natural disaster
● Including children’s agency and improving their participation in research and practice
● Practices that are changing child poverty: policy processes and practice
● Bridging the research and policy gap: ensuring more effective use of child poverty research by various actors and stakeholders
Click here to download the Agenda for the 10th Annual Symposium
Working definition of child poverty for the Symposium
Poverty is caused by a variety of different reasons and can be experienced in different dimensions. CEPA has studied child poverty using a wide lens of analysis. This comprises an economic approach, that includes the lack of access to sufficient income and income sources as well as a non-economic approach that takes into account vulnerabilities and exclusion children face in their environments. This dual approach, emerging from Christian Child Fund’s global agenda, recognises that poor children are affected by a multitude of factors that perpetuate poverty.
This approach also recognises the importance of including children’s perceptions and agency in the debate about influencing change in their lives. Although organisations have started working with children in an effort to put them at the centre of development, research tends to be adult focused often involving children as respondents and not as influencers.
