CSPP National Seminar

As part of the Sri Lanka national consultations on 'Civil Society Organisations, Evidence and Policy Influence', ODI's Civil Society Partnerships Programme and the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) organised a national seminar on July 7, 2005. The seminar was held at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo and was preceded by a workshop. About 40 civil society organisations, policy makers, government officials and donors participated at this half day event.

The seminar began with Priyanthi Fernando, Executive Director of CEPA, welcoming the participants and setting out the objectives of the seminar. Two key note addresses were then delivered, first by Mr. Lalith Weerathunga, Secretary to the Prime Minister and by Professor Savitri Goonasekera, Emeritus Professor of Law and former Chancellor, University of Colombo. Mr. Weerathunga spoke from the perspective of someone close to the policy making process in Sri Lanka and put forward the view that it is necessary to understand how public policies are made, because only then can the policy making process be made more rational. In contrast, Professor Savitri Goonasekera gave her perspective of an outsider to the policy making process, and argued that contrary to popular view, CSOs have been successful in many instances of linking evidence with policy influence in Sri Lanka.

In addition, John Young and Naved Choudhury from ODI presented an overview of ODI, the CSP programme and the Context, Evidence, Links (CEL) framework. Following this presentation, Nilakshi De Silva of CEPA provided a summary of the case studies as well as the issues and ideas that arose from the preceding workshop.

Some of the main points that arose from the discussion that followed these presentations are summarised below:

Discussions about linking research with policy influence is held amongst those who already believe that policies should be based on evidence, thus these people are not the obstacles. What is needed is a strategy to involve policymakers, bureaucrats and the media in this dialogue.
There is an issue of language, in that there is a need to go beyond a discussion conducted exclusively in English and to reach decentralised administration structures. Research CSOs need to consider incorporating translation and dissemination costs.
Creating a responsible media is important, through for example, training good journalists, supporting journalism courses etc.
While directing research evidence at the bureaucrats and other stakeholders is an option, it is not possible to completely ignore politicians when attempting to influence policy.
Policies in Sri Lanka are often made due to pressure from the international community. How can we use this pressure to our advantage without getting coopted by it? International and regional agendas are shifting, so there is a need to be selective.
How can we get policymakers to listen to CSOs when they ignore the substantial research evidence generated by the state sector?