Sri Lanka Reports
 | Report on Results, and Documentation of Lesson Learned of the “Young WILL” project in Ampara, Batticaloa, Kurunegala and Puttalam (2021-2022)The Young Women in Learning and Leadership Project, Sri Lanka was funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka and ran from 09/01/2021 to 05/31/2022. Search for Common Ground (Search) has been working on women’s empowerment and leadership in Sri Lanka since 2012 at the national and local levels. This work encompasses the capacity building and professional development of women political leaders at the various levels of government, addressing issues of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), SGBV (Sexual and Gender Based-Violence) and Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) and empowerment the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. With nearly a decade of experience engaging multiple stakeholders to advance women’s empowerment in Sri Lanka, we recognize the inability of young women to take a leadership role in their community and critical aspects of their livelihood, such as Peacebuilding, gender-based violence not to be addressed, and WPS due to lack of opportunities and hindering structural and cultural barriers. To address this issue, we have already implemented and are currently implementing two initiatives: Young Women as Drivers of Peace: Deploying 360, an 18-month initiative to empower young women funded by UNPBF, and Women in Technology – Young Women in Combating Hate Speech, a 5-month digital capacity building initiative for young women funded by UNDP. Through these initiatives we have a group of motivated young women who have acquired significant skills in collaborative leadership, social cohesion and digital literacy. They have established networks and relationships with key stakeholders in their community as well as with their peers in the districts. To drive these successful initiatives forward, this project focuses on the next level of support for these young women to continue to improve their skills and abilities and enable them to take the lead to advance gender equality, the WPS agenda and further promote social cohesion in their communities to work together and strengthen their relationships with key stakeholders. |
| Young Women as Drivers of Peace: Providing 360° Support to Emerging Women Leaders Project Learning DocumentProject: Young Women as Drivers of Peace: Providing 360° Support to Emerging Women An objective of the overall project was to promote inter-ethnic and religious harmony on a community level. YWLs successfully brought together community members of different ethnic and religious identities, in an initial step in the direction of restoring inter-ethnic and religious harmony. This project suggested an alternative approach to peacebuilding namely, a youth-led, youth oriented one, firmly in hand with youth-led research. This youth driven project engaged, otherwise excluded youth in the peacebuilding process, thereby, achieving one of the primary objectives of the project. The project’s success can only be measured in the long term, as it will hinge on how it will unfold in the future, as empowered YWLs forge ahead, undeterred on peacebuilding initiatives. |
| Achievements, Good Practices and Lessons Learned “WT2: Work Together, Win Together” Project – Phase 2Donor: GIZ Analysts have argued that banning social media does not prevent violence, since social media is a tool which can be used both for positive and for negative. This is evident from the violent attacks against minorities that took place, even after the social media ban was in place. Percentage of youth across all regions that indicated their awareness level at ‘extremely aware’, ‘very aware’, and ‘moderately aware’ was only 2%, 3%, and 28% respectively (aggregate 33%). However, post project, awareness levels with those three categories significantly increased to 29%, 38% and 27% (aggregate 94%) respectively. Majority of the participating youth (60%) had the opportunity to dialogue with counterparts from other religions or ethnicities. Others could not due to various reasons such as fellow participants in the boot camps were either from the same ethnicities and religions or the online delivery of the boot camp was considered as a limiting factor. Majority of the participating youth were unaware (61%) of the monitoring reports provided by Search. However, the percentage of youth that were aware of the monitoring reports that found it ‘very useful’ and ‘useful’ were 30% and 49% respectively (aggregate 79%). This project implemented from February 2020 to October 2021 (actually July 2021 should have ended but NCE given till October 2021- But this assessment was conducted based on activities implemented till July. NOT for additional activities suggested for NCE). |
| Search Sri Lanka Bi-Annual Newsletter 2020Are you curious about our latest programming in Sri Lanka and how we have adapted under COVID-19? Do you want to know more about what we are doing to support low income families in Colombo affected by the pandemic? Do you want to read about our work on countering online hate speech? Are you interested in how we mobilize women, youth, and civil society leaders in formal and informal decision-making processes? Then please read our latest bi-annual newsletter! |
| Baseline Study for EU Funded Project – Women in Learning and LeadershipThe objective of this baseline study is to support the above project by studying the existing situation of Elected Women Leaders (EWLs) and Women Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) leaders’ participation in decision making. This includes examining the barriers, supporting factors, opportunities, needs, and existing efforts of EWLs and female CSO leaders. The baseline was carried out in four districts: Badulla, Kurunegala, Ampara, and Jaffna. The baseline study employed a mixed-method data collection approach with both quantitative and qualitative methods. This included a primary data collection; a survey of EWLs (177) and CSO leaders (48) and key informant interviews (47) and a review of secondary data. The data were collected in May and June 2020 using remote data collection methods such as phone interviews due to the COVID-19 crisis. Quantitative data was entered into Google forms and the data analysis was done using MS Excel. The qualitative information from KIIs were coded under common themes and used in the analysis to answer the key questions. |
| LESSONS LEARNED REPORT – Implementing Experience of the WT2: Work Together, Win Together ProjectThis report delves into the lessons learned of the WT2 project implemented in ten districts covering the Northern, Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Provinces of Sri Lanka. The selected case studies of success stories have been compiled to showcase the impact of the project on participated youth groups while lessons learned document emphasized on the implementation experience of the partners that includes positive and negative experiences, challenges and their recommendations for future activities. The study is presented in six parts. The first part discusses the socio-political background of the country during the project implementation period. The second part gives an overview of the project. This includes the purpose, goals, objectives, beneficiaries and stakeholders of the project. The third chapter explains the project implementation experience in different districts. Here, the outputs and outcomes of the project are presented using available statistical data. The key achievements have also been analysed to understand how far this project met the intended objectives of the project. The next chapter discusses the project challenges and the mitigation measures adopted by the partner organizations to overcome the challenges. To be precise, time/project management, lack of knowledge and expertise, external challenges have been discussed in detail. The fifth chapter assesses the lessons learned of the project implementation. This chapter will certainly help improve future Search projects. The final one presents the concluding remarks of the report. |
| Rapid Conflcit Assessment on Young People Countering Hate Speech on Social Media in Sri Lanka“Hate speech” in Sri Lanka has been prevalent for many years and discussed by many including activists, researchers as well as policymakers, policy advocates and educators in various platforms and in various dimensions. It has been deliberated and examined over a long time. The issue has got more attention in recent times with the emergence of online and social media which has contributed to the evolution of greater forces producing hate speech than in the past. The extent of hate speech has grown many folds, especially after the Ester Sunday Attack on 21 April 2019. This rapid conflict assessment intended to understand the nature and scope of hate speech in Sri Lanka prevalent in social media and how it provokes violence among communities. It focuses on the involvement of youth and their contribution to hate speech. This will lead to conceptualizing – how youth can be involved to promote peace in the country. |