Most developing countries following
independence opted for strong central control and direction
of the education system, partly because of limited resources
and the... Show More +
need to plan carefully and partly because of a felt
need to create a sense of national unity among diverse
ethnic and linguistic groups. This meant that key areas of
control and decision making, such as management of resources
and personnel, curriculum, evaluation of performance, and
accountability, were under central rather than local
control. The empowerment of schools has two major
components: school-based management and the involvement of
parents and communities in the work of schools. The emphasis
given to one or other of these components depends on general
national policy, local traditions, and context, with the
result that almost every system is unique when one considers
who makes decisions, the actual decisions that are made, the
nature of those decisions, the level at which they are made,
and relationships between levels. Thus, there are
'strong' and 'weak' versions of school
empowerment. In some, only a single area of autonomy is
granted to schools, while in others the community management
of schools, even the establishment of schools, is encouraged
(World Bank, 2007). In this paper, the author will briefly
outline the history of school empowerment in Sri Lanka with
particular reference to the Program for School Improvement
(PSI), which commenced in 2006. The final section of the
paper contains suggestions designed to strengthen process of
empowering Sri Lankan schools and improving education outcomes. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper (Numbered Series)
Report#: 77759
Date: May 1, 2013
Author:
Kellaghan, Thomas ;
Shojo, Mari ;
Aturupane, Harsha
To regain the strong growth it had
before the global crisis, South Asia will have to manage a
combination of persistent external economic headwinds and
increasing regional... Show More +
macroeconomic and structural
vulnerabilities. Macroeconomic policies to tackle the
adverse effects of the global downturn have left the South
Asian countries with weaker fiscal and monetary options to
stimulate growth today. With the exception of Afghanistan,
economic growth across other South Asian countries-
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka-has been
moderating or stagnating. In Bangladesh, with export and
investment growth slowing, Gross Domestic product (GDP)
growth is likely to fall to around 6 percent in FY2013/14,
down from 6.3 percent in FY2012/13. Over the same period,
Bhutan saw its growth rate decline from almost 9 percent to
7.6 percent. India's economy slowed significantly. As a
result, growth of a subdued 3 percent is expected in
FY2012/13, down from 4.6 percent in FY2011/12. A significant
drop in the region's exports and fixed investment are
primarily responsible for South Asia's growth
moderation. Private consumption remained stable, helped by
resilient remittance flows, and is expected to only pick up
slowly due to effects of persistent inflation, fiscal
consolidation and slow recovery in disposable income. The
overall real effective exchange rate depreciation across
South Asia reflects weak economic fundamentals.
International reserves fell below critical levels of two
months of import coverage in Pakistan and one month in
Maldives, reflecting the two countries' difficult
external situations. During the first eight months of
FY2012/13, Pakistan's net international reserves fell
to 1.8 months, down from 2.6 months in the previous fiscal year. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 76885
Date: April 23, 2013
The Colombo metropolitan area is Sri
Lanka's commercial hub and accounts for almost 50
percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
However, Colombo is highly... Show More +
vulnerable to flooding, and has
experienced regular floods for the past 30 years, affecting
over 1.2 million people annually. In 2010, the city was
inundated by two major floods in the months of May and
November. These floods cost Colombo millions of dollars in
economic losses due to business interruption, in addition to
severe damages afflicted on public and private property.
Also, these events result in many hardships to citys
residents. In a bid to transform Colombo and its
metropolitan area into a modern, world-class middle income
country capital, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has
launched an ambitious economic and physical regeneration
program for the Metro Colombo area. The Metro Colombo Urban
Development Project (MCUDP) will consist of two main
components: First component will invests in urgent flood
mitigation infrastructure and support drainage improvement
activities; and second component will build the
institutional capacity of the government agencies to enhance
long term flood risk management. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 77904
Date: March 4, 2013
This study investigates the impact of
key business environment indicators on productivity,
innovation, and growth in Sri Lanka through a cluster-level
productivity analysis,... Show More +
a firm-level total factor
productivity analysis, and a firm-level innovation analysis.
For the cluster-level productivity analysis (as measured by
output and value added per worker), it combines two
established data sources in a novel way by importing average
'industry-size-location' cluster-level business
environment variables from the World Bank Enterprise Survey
to the comprehensive Sri Lanka Census of Industry
productivity data available for similar clusters of
enterprises. For the firm-level total factor productivity
analysis, it compares data from the 2011 World Bank
Enterprise Survey with those from 2004. For the firm-level
innovation analysis, it compares findings from the 2011
World Bank Enterprise Survey with a representative sample of
enterprises collected as part of the Sri Lanka Longitudinal
Survey of Enterprises. The empirical findings highlight the
importance -- for cluster-level productivity, firm-level
total factor productivity, and innovation -- of connectivity
to global knowledge (reflected by one or more of export
participation, directly imported inputs, foreign ownership,
and use of the internet), availability of skills, access to
finance, and competition. The paper also presents evidence,
under the assumption that the samples are statistically
representative, that both allocative and average technical
efficiency have improved, with allocative efficiency
increasing roughly four-fold between 2003 and 2010, and
accounting for the overwhelming share of the aggregate
increase in total factor productivity over this time period.
Most of the improvement in allocative efficiency has
occurred among larger firms, and in large rather than small cities. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6354
Date: February 1, 2013
Author:
Dutz, Mark A. ;
O'Connell, Stephen D.
In the aftermath of its long-standing
civil war, Sri Lanka is keen to reap the social and economic
benefits of peace. Even in the middle of civil conflict, the
country... Show More +
was able to grow at rates that surpassed those of
its neighbors and most developing countries. It is argued,
then, that the peace dividend may bring about even higher
rates of economic growth. Is this possible? And if so, under
what conditions? To be sure, Sri Lanka's high growth
rate in the past three decades did not come for free. It
took an increasing effort of resource mobilization in the
country, with a rise in national saving from 15 percent of
gross domestic product in the mid-1970s to 25 percent in
2010. This rise in national saving was fundamentally fueled
and sustained by the private sector. In the future, however,
the private saving rate is likely to decline because the
demographic transition experienced in the country is bound
to produce higher old dependency rates in the next two
decades. However, the public sector has much room for
reducing its deficits and increasing public investment.
Similarly, external investors are likely to encounter
attractive and profitable investment projects in the coming
years in a reformed and peaceful environment. The government
of Sri Lank has two goals regarding these issues. First,
increasing public saving to 1.5 percent of gross domestic
product by 2013; and second, increasing international
investment in the country by letting the current account
deficit increase to 4-5 percent of gross domestic product in
the coming years. If these goals are achieved, what can be
expected for growth of gross domestic product in the
country? To answer this question, this paper presents a
neoclassical growth model with endogenous private saving,
calibrates it to fit the Sri Lankan economy, and simulates
the behavior of growth rates of gross domestic product and
related variables under different scenarios. In what the
authors call the Reform Scenario, total factor productivity
would increase from 1 to 1.75 percent per year. This would
produce a gross domestic product growth rate of about 6.5
percent in the next 5 years, 4.6 percent by 2020, and 3.5
percent by 2030, the end of the simulation period. This
robust growth performance would be supported at the
beginning mostly by capital accumulation but later on mainly
by productivity improvements. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6300
Date: January 1, 2013
Author:
Hevia, Constantino ;
Loayza, Norman
This paper examines the population
changes and the related causative factors, namely fertility,
mortality and international migration in Sri Lanka. During
the past decades,... Show More +
the total size, as well as the age and sex
structure of the population, was exposed to irreversible
changes. The age structure transition has produced a
demographic bonus conducive for an economic takeoff. During
this period, the proportion of people of working age (15-59)
is larger than the fraction in the dependent age categories.
The paper includes a sector analysis of the employed
population in the agriculture, industry and service sectors
to identify the growth sectors of the economy and to reveal
the potential patterns and levels of utilization of the
demographic bonus. Finally, the social safety net
implications of the emerging population, such as the
dependency burden, aging, disability and the disintegration
of traditional family system in Sri Lanka are examined. Sri
Lanka's population has grown to 20 million in 2010, an
almost eight-fold increase since the census of 1871. The
population doubled 54 years after the first census (1925),
then again in 35 years (1960), as a result of the relatively
high population growth rate. The 2001 census calculated a
population 18.7 million. By 2003, the population was
estimated to be 19.2 million, a third doubling in 43 years.
By 2010, the population of Sri Lanka had passed the 20
million mark. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper (Numbered Series)
Report#: 74168
Date: November 1, 2012
Author:
De Silva, W. Indralal
Type: Working Paper
Report#: 74027
Date: October 23, 2012
As a result of low fertility rates and
high life expectancy, the current demographic trends in Sri
Lanka include a declining share of children and increasing
share of... Show More +
elderly, and (for now) an increasing working age
population. Sri Lanka has a unique window of opportunity to
take advantage of the high share of working age population
to stimulate economic growth, but the other two emerging
population issues spur questions on their own. In this
context, the report discusses some of the economic
implications of demographic transition in Sri Lanka,
focusing on employment and productivity related issues on
one side; and performance of cash transfer programs aiming
to assist the poor and vulnerable groups on the other. This
report quantifies Sri Lanka's demographic change by
providing updated population projections and by applying
National Transfers Accounts methodology documenting how the
demographic change and aging contribute to life-cycle
deficit and to Sri Lanka's employment and labor market.
The challenges and opportunities associated with the
upcoming demographic transition are highlighted, focusing on
the functioning of the labor markets and the social safety
net system. The report discusses different avenues that the
country can take to make its labor market more efficient and
inclusive, and offset some of the disadvantages faced by the
poor and vulnerable households. The analysis in this report
suggests that timely policy actions can enable Sri Lanka to
effectively cope with its changing demographic structure. Show Less -
Type: Other Social Protection Study
Report#: 73162
Date: October 10, 2012
Sri Lanka's demographic transition
has significantly shaped the age distribution of the labor
force and created a large working age population (World Bank
2008). Changing... Show More +
cohort sizes of young and old workers not
only affect their own labor market outcomes (job quality,
earnings), but also potentially affect growth prospects in
the economy. Recovering from a 30-year conflict in the North
and the East, Sri Lanka aims to accelerate growth in the
medium term by substantially increasing investments. What
will be the role of the labor market in delivering this
growth? The service sector is expanding and accounts for
nearly 60 percent of the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) and
almost 40 percent of employment. However, only 56 percent of
the working age population is employed, a result of low
participation and high unemployment rates among women and
youth. Any growth strategy will have to bring in more
working age people, particularly women, into economic
activity. The paper is organized as follows. The two
sections that follow present an overview of the supply and
demand side of the labor market. The next section discusses
the ways in which the demographic transition could shape the
labor market, particularly in terms of unemployment and
earnings. This discussion is followed by three sections
examining labor force participation and unemployment, job
type, and earnings respectively. The last section concludes
with some policy recommendations. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper (Numbered Series)
Report#: 74171
Date: October 1, 2012
Author:
Sinha, Nistha
The paper analyzes the labor market
during 1992-2009, the wartime years, and uses the findings
to help understand implications for the labor market as the
economy grows... Show More +
and recovers from the conflict. The analysis
is primarily based on annual Labor Force Survey (LFS) data
collected by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS)
between 1992 and 2009. The paper excludes the North and East
from the analysis because the labor market in these
provinces was functioning in atypical times, and was
affected severely by the security situation. The 2006 moving
out of poverty study conducted in conflict areas noted large
outmigration of the better off households and the reliance
on those left behind on remittances (Center for Poverty
Analysis 2006). The study also found that private sector
investment had largely dwindled in these provinces, and the
main source of jobs was public employment. Looking ahead,
over the next 15 years, demand for workers in industry is
likely to increase as rebuilding and recovery in the North
and East proceeds. In addition, demand for highly skilled
workers to meet the needs of the expanding services sector,
particularly higher-end services, will also increase.
Analyzing the empirical trends using the LFS, it is clear
that increasing female labor force participation, addressing
high youth unemployment and its causes, and addressing the
negative aspects of certain labor market regulations will be
key to meeting the needs of a growing economy. The paper is
organized as follows. The two sections that follow present
an overview of the supply and demand side of the labor
market. The next section discusses the ways in which the
demographic transition could shape the labor market,
particularly in terms of unemployment and earnings. This
discussion is followed by three sections examining labor
force participation and unemployment, job type, and earnings
respectively. The last section concludes with some policy recommendations. Show Less -
Type: Working Paper (Numbered Series)
Report#: 74169
Date: October 1, 2012
Author:
Cnobloch, Stefania Rodica
This note discusses one of a number of
recent impact evaluations of business training programs.
Further reading provides a link to a critical overview of
this new literature.
Type: Brief
Report#: 76387
Date: October 1, 2012
Author:
Mel, Suresh de; McKenzie, David; Woodruff, Christopher
Following the cessation of hostilities
in May 2009, the Government of Sri Lanka has announced a
suitably ambitious macroeconomic vision to capitalize on the
peace dividend.... Show More +
Its goals include growing at 8 percent or
more per year and lowering government indebtedness from
around 80 to 60 percent of GDP by 2015. This paper's
main finding is that while some post-conflict bounce is only
to be expected, sustaining high growth presents significant
challenges. A substantial rise in the national investment
and savings rates will be needed to sustain growth rates of
8 percent even when accompanied by a significant rise in
total factor productivity growth. With the government's
balance sheet constrained by its desire to lower public
indebtedness, private investment will need to become the
engine of growth. This places high priority on better
infrastructure, clear signals about the relative roles of
the public and private sectors, and hard budget constraints
and competition both to strengthen the investment climate
and spur technological upgrading in pursuit of faster
productivity growth. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6192
Date: September 1, 2012
Author:
Rowe, Francis ;
Fonseka, Daminda ;
Prasad, Mona ;
Pinto, Brian
The rate of household electrification in
Sri Lanka stands at 82 percent with a government target of
88 percent by 2016. Many villages within the distribution
remain... Show More +
unconnected due to the high cost of connections. The
main barrier was the lack of finance for the poor
population. The connection charges are prohibitively
expensive even if the actual cost of electricity is not. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76126
Date: August 1, 2012
Rates of access to electricity are very
low in rural areas of Sri Lanka, averaging at around 35
percent of households. The Sri Lanka renewable energy
program is a World... Show More +
Bank and Global Environmental Facility
(GEF) assisted program through two investment projects, the
Energy Services Delivery (ESD) project from 1997 till 2002
and the on-going Renewable Energy for Rural Economic
Development (RERED) project. The principal objective of the
program is promoting the provision by the private sector,
National Global Organizations (NGOs) and cooperatives of
grid-connected and off-grid energy services using
environmentally sustainable renewable energy technologies. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76128
Date: August 1, 2012
Traditional power sector models in Sri
Lanka are based on a large central generation model not
amenable to distributed generation (DG), the small scale
production of... Show More +
electricity at or near the demand site.
Although promising technologies, biomass, wind and small
hydro, are available, local developers, operators, and
financial intermediaries are not familiar with the
technologies. Access to credit is particularly difficult
given the banks high perceived risks and lack of adequate
capacity to identify, assess and structure this type
projects. In order to increase access to private financing,
International Finance Corporation (IFC) partnered with two
of Sri Lankas largest financial intermediaries, providing
them with pari-passu portfolio risk sharing facilities to
cover a portion of the potential losses from loans to
eligible small scale renewable energy projects. In addition,
the financial intermediaries are receiving advisory services
and project developers are benefiting from specialized
advice on the implementation of power purchase agreements
and other standardized commercial documents. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 76166
Date: August 1, 2012
The health equity and financial
protection datasheets provide a picture of equity and
financial protection in the health sectors of low-and
middle-income countries.... Show More +
Topics covered include:
inequalities in health outcomes, health behavior and health
care utilization; benefit incidence analysis; financial
protection; and the progressivity of health care financing.
The tables in this report show how health outcomes, risky
behaviors and health care utilization vary across asset
(wealth) quintiles and periods. The quintiles are based on
an asset index constructed using principal components
analysis. Benefit-Incidence Analysis (BIA) shows whether,
and by how much, government health expenditure
disproportionately benefits the poor. The distribution of
subsidies depends on the assumptions made to allocate
subsidies to households. Under the constant unit cost
assumption, each unit of utilization is assumed to cost the
same and is equal to total costs incurred in delivering this
type of service divided by the number of units of utilization. Show Less -
Type: Brief
Report#: 72182
Date: August 1, 2012
The authors conduct a randomized
experiment among women in urban Sri Lanka to measure the
impact of the most commonly used business training course in
developing countries,... Show More +
the Start-and-Improve Your Business
program. They work with two representative groups of women:
a random sample of women operating subsistence enterprises
and a random sample of women who are out of the labor force
but interested in starting a business. They track the
impacts of two treatments -- training only and training plus
a cash grant -- over two years with four follow-up surveys
and find that the short and medium-term impacts differ. For
women already in business, training alone leads to some
changes in business practices but has no impact on business
profits, sales or capital stock. In contrast, the
combination of training and a grant leads to large and
significant improvements in business profitability in the
first eight months, but this impact dissipates in the second
year. For women interested in starting enterprises, business
training speeds up entry but leads to no increase in net
business ownership by the final survey round. Both
profitability and business practices of the new entrants are
increased by training, suggesting training may be more
effective for new owners than for existing businesses. The
study also finds that the two treatments have selection
effects, leading to entrants being less analytically skilled
and poorer. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6145
Date: July 1, 2012
Author:
McKenzie, David ;
de Mel, Suresh ;
Woodruff, Christopher
Type: Summing Up
Report#: 69149
Date: May 22, 2012
Sri Lanka's country vision is to
become a global hub between the East and the West and an
upper middle-income country by 2016. Sri Lanka's urban
vision, as defined in... Show More +
the government's development
policy framework is to develop a system of competitive,
environmentally sustainable, well-linked cities clustered in
five metro regions and nine metro cities and to provide
every family with affordable and adequate urban shelter by
2020. This policy note provides an initial assessment of Sri
Lanka's urban characteristics, outlining the challenges
ahead and broad policy directions for turning the urban
vision into action. The policy note has six main sections.
First section briefly outlines Sri Lanka's urban
characteristics today. Second section discusses the main
economic drivers of Sri Lanka's cities. Third section
presents the main themes of Sri Lanka's Urban Vision
(which includes the System of competitive cities vision and
the adequate and affordable urban shelter for all vision)
and discusses its economic rationale and viability given the
urban characteristics and economic drivers of the
country's cities. Fourth section outlines the main
challenges for achieving the Urban Vision, based on the
results of a diagnostic assessment carried out as an input
to the policy note. Fifth section discusses recent
government initiatives for implementing the urban vision,
and how they have helped tackle the challenges. And sixth
section offers broad policy directions and priority actions
to achieve the Urban Vision. Show Less -
Type: Policy Note
Report#: 73182
Date: May 10, 2012
The end of the Multi-fiber
Arrangement/Agreement on Textiles and Clothing in 2005 was a
major policy change that affected the allocation of global
apparel productions... Show More +
well as the lives of workers involved in
this sector. Since the apparel industry is often the major
female employer in developing countries, this policy change
was expected to have major implications for women. This
paper analyzes the wages and working conditions of women in
the apparel sector in Cambodia and Sri Lanka following the
phase-out the Multi-fibre Arrangement. In both countries,
apparel is a major source of exports, and women constitute
70 to 80 percent of the workers employed in the apparel
industry. The paper finds that after the removal of the
Multi-fibre Arrangement, apparel prices declined as a result
of the increased competition. The theoretical model suggests
that a decrease in prices would lead to a decrease in
apparel wage premiums relative to other industries in the
short run and the widening of the male-female wage gap in
the long run. The empirical findings support these
theoretical predictions. Wage premiums in the apparel sector
relative to other industries went down post-Multi-fibre
Arrangement in Cambodia and Sri Lanka and the male-female
wage gap increased. The paper finds mixed results in terms
of working conditions in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. Show Less -
Type: Policy Research Working Paper
Report#: WPS6061
Date: May 1, 2012
Author:
Savchenko, Yevgeniya ;
Acevedo, Gladys Lopez
