Human Development, SDG's and the Pandemic: Sri Lanka challenges for achieving SDG's

Seminar abstract

Sri Lanka achieved a high level of Human Development despite its persisting low level of per capita GDP.

Yet, a closer examination of the country's human development record showed considerable gaps in human development at sub-national and intra-societal levels. A similar picture has emerged in regard to Sri Lanka's progress towards achieving SDG's by 2030.

So, despite a substantial reduction in poverty, near universal enrolment in primary education, low level of unemployment and widespread access to primary healthcare by 2015, there are many challenges to reaching most of the SDG’s in the next decade.

Now that the pandemic has disrupted the global economy upon which Sri Lanka has depended a great deal for economic development, export earnings and employment creation, the country faces some unprecedented challenges in moving forward to solve key development, welfare and health issues, both short term and long term.

In fact, Sri Lanka today is faced with the unenviable task of simultaneously addressing persisting and emerging issues connected with health, climate change and other emergencies, human development and 2030 sustainable development agenda.

This demands an integrated national plan of action transcending horizontal and vertical divisions, both institutional and social.  

Booking

This seminar is free to attend with no need to register in advance.

We warmly invite you to share with your friends, colleagues and classmates.

Join this seminar on Wednesday 17 March at 11am.

Speaker bio

 Siri Hettige is Senior Professor of Sociology at the University of Colombo.

He is former Head of Sociology, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the same University and former President of the Sri Lanka Sociological Association.

His other current positions include Chairman, Social Science National Committee of the NSF, Sri Lanka, Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, Australia, and Adjunct Research Associate at Monash University, Australia.

He has many publications to his credit on such diverse topics as;

• social inequality,
• social protection,
• youth unrest,
• education and health policy,
• ethnic conflict and migration.

These include a number of books, edited volumes and more than a hundred papers published in edited volumes and refereed journals.

He has also served on a number of government commissions and committees as a member as well as an advisor over a period of 20 years.

He has been a consultant to a number of international organizations such as the ILO, the World Bank and IOM.