Action : the practical way

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

The smell of rotting garbage filled the air and Amila felt nauseous as he breathed. He was standing in a small little room and that room contained two of his sisters and two of his brothers and his parents. It was one of the worst shanties near the polluted canal. The neighboring shanties crowded around Amila's little hut.

A sense of hopelessness filled his being. Would he ever leave this hell hole with his family? It was a terrible way to live day in and day out. Poverty coiled around the shanties like a giant python crushing the will to live. Everyday Amila went to work as a garbage collector, earning a meager sum of money. That was how he supported his family. It was a disgusting job, but what else could he do?. Amila's eyes filled with tears as he watched the affluent in Colombo driving in their Toyota Yaris cars. Life was so unfair. What had he done to deserve poverty?

Practical Action Sri Lanka has organized a series of programmes to stimulate alternative thinking within Sri Lanka and create interest on viable solutions to face the challenges to national development and contribute to eradicate poverty more effectively. Practical Action believes that the philosophy of the eminent economist Dr. E.F. Shumacher, based on small, personalized solutions to poverty, work effectively in socio economic development.

Practical Action believes that it is timely for us, Sri Lankans, to review our strategies taken to alleviate poverty as we have moved a step ahead and become a middle income country. However as a country we have a longer way to walk, to come out of poverty, as it has become more complex than it was with the other social, economic and geographical issues.

As such the centenary commemoration programme envisages to focus on the following:

Create a platform for discussion on what insights and strategies promoted by Practical Action based on Schumacher philosophy can contribute towards addressing the issues of economic and social disparities within Sri Lanka.

To create an opinion pool on how to adopt development strategies that are not dependant on scarce resources and on the environment in Sri Lanka in the current context and help to reach Sri Lanka’s development goals effectively

To generate interest on future livelihood trends that Sri Lanka; as a country which still depends on agriculture for livelihoods of significant portion of its people, can adopt to face current challenges.

To create public discourse on how Sri Lanka can move forward to eradicate energy poverty and achieve goals of well being in the current context in which Sri Lanka is facing challenges of Climate change.

To generate discussion on the pros and cons of current strategies adopted and those that will have to be adopted by SL to be a significant country in Asia and South Asia.

A key action in this context is to conduct a study, which will be discussed at a symposium in Colombo on April 3 on the theme: 'The relevance of Schumacher's thinking in the future context of contemporary development planning.'

Five thematic areas have been identified and research papers on these themes being presented by eminent experts.

* Widening economic and social disparities in Sri Lanka,

* Adopting Green Growth strategies in Sri Lanka,

* Shift of emphasis from livelihoods development to (small) business development,

* Energy Policies in Sri Lanka,

* What is an appropriate path for Sri Lanka as an emerging economy?