Adopting Green Growth strategies in Sri Lanka
L. Padmini Batuwitage Ph.D. Hon. Advisor to the
Ministry of Environment, Sri Lanka, Former Additional Secretary
(Environment and Policy), Ministry of Environment, Sri Lanka.
Follwing is the summary of a research paper
written for the Symposium on Facing Contemporary Development Challenges
of Sri Lanka: Relevance of Dr. E. F.Schumacher's Work Presented by
Practical Action South Asia.
The present multiple global crises related to finance, economics,
energy, fuel, food, security and wider environment bear testimony to the
ill effects of profit oriented economic growth models that ignored
limits to growth.
While technological advancements have improved the standards of
living of communities dramatically, such achievements have created mixed
results with global environmental degradation and widening the gap
between rich and poor due to uneven and unsustainable development. Today
we face more complexities in making choices in day to day living as the
natural resource usage and pollution are exceeding the carrying
capacities of the ecosystems. These challenges are increasingly daunting
due to the net addition of more than 70,000,000 humans to our planet
each year.
Developing countries such as Sri Lanka are more vulnerable as the
present crisis continues spreading in different scales in different
forms in all the countries irrespective of the magnitude of their
contribution to the root causes of the crises.
Sri Lanka has made significant comparable achievements in social
indicators of human development with nearly ten times lower income than
that of highly developed countries.
This unique historical societal development provides a valuable model
to both national and global leaders, about the benefits and
possibilities of adhering to the “middle path” focusing on the
distinction between income and capital. Major challenges that government
has to face today are: ensuring growing economic prosperity in the
country and ensuring that the benefits of the developments filter down
to all Sri Lankans with long term sustainability, which is an imperative
to achieve sustainable and equitable development.
Prudent investments in application of green growth strategies will be
a way forward. Ample policies are currently available in the country to
improve efficient resource use and reduce wastage. For effective
implementation of these policies, an integrated approach is necessary
combining policies, regulations, incentives, technologies and financial
resources with public, private and people sector engagement.
Absence of or deficiencies in one of these elements will have
negative impacts on achieving the desired outcomes. The root causes of
failures of many significant initiatives to achieve expected outcomes in
the country is due to either failure of or inability to follow an
integrated approach and identify the right mix of interventions
necessary to address the challenges during implementation through
effective monitoring and reporting systems.
Ideas expressed by Dr E.F Schumacher in his publication of “Small is
Beautiful” are specifically relevant to Sri Lanka as he has linked the
modern economic perspectives with the Buddhist philosophies which have
strongly ingrained into our culture and thereby into the national
policies from the ancient times.
Schumacher underscored the significant insights of Buddhist way of
life that can be called as ‘Buddhist Economics’, just as the modern
materialist way of life has brought forth modern economics. He argued
that while the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist
is mainly interested in liberation, but, Buddhism is “The Middle Way”
and therefore in no way antagonistic to physical well being. He pointed
out that from an economist's point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist
way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern - amazingly small
means leading to extraordinary satisfaction of results.
Schumacher recognized the duality of the human requirement when it
comes to the question of size and specified that there is no single
answer for it.
He recognized that human needs many different structures both small
and large, some exclusive and some comprehensive and recommended to
restore some kind of a balance in decision making,
In line with Schumacher's framework, Sri Lanka can transform many of
the challenges of the present multiple crisis into opportunities if the
citizens are sufficiently empowered with necessary skills and knowhow to
identify appropriate technologies for the country, engage in responsible
livelihoods and responsible lifestyles. As Schumacher emphasized,
‘Knowledge, Organization and Discipline’ are the three elements that
make development interventions effective to produce desired outcomes.
Sri Lanka needs a skilled human resource base to support application
of green growth Strategies Island wide.
It is necessary to take steps to integrate environmental concerns
sufficiently into the school, vocational, technical and university
education systems to face the present and emerging global and local
challenges effectively and efficiently. This approach will eventually
create more green and decent jobs for the youth island wide securing
their future more sustainable. |