Research covered 60 developing, emerging economies :

SL 22nd in Change Readiness Index

Sri Lanka was ranked 22 in the recently published based on research by KPMG and the Overseas Development Institute which offers a new and unique perspective on the ‘change readiness’ of 60 developing and emerging economies. The Change Readiness Index captures government capability and the capability of a country as a whole including the private sector and civil society to manage and respond effectively to change.

Around the world, countries, businesses and institutions are undergoing unprecedented change with new challenges and opportunities every day. Yet some countries are better able to manage and mitigate the risks associated with change and capitalize on new opportunities than others. This report is based on the hypothesis that the capability to manage change or ‘change readiness’ as the publication has termed it is likely to be a key determinant of a country’s ability to achieve sustained growth over time.

The concept of a Change Readiness Index was born at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum and was developed in cooperation with key stakeholders and in-country experts to create a new framework for measuring and analyzing appropriate metrics and indicators. Many of the key determinants of the Change Readiness Index relate to conditions which affect the ability of private markets and enterprises to adjust to change, particularly rapidly evolving patterns of global demand and production.

Thus, many of the indicators included in the index relate to policies and capacities which facilitate healthy, dynamic, and responsive markets.

The Change Readiness Index takes a forward-looking perspective by capturing the underlying factors that are likely to determine a country’s capability for managing change,which in turn may be an important factor in supporting sustained growth in the long term.

The Index combines data from a number of existing indicators with new measures that have been identified to capture specific elements of change readiness that are not currently being captured, including risk management capabilities, efforts to promote economic diversification, strong governance, and social safety nets.

Commenting on the index, Reyaz Mihular - Managing Partner, KPMG Sri Lanka said, “There has been little focus on the concept of change readiness and few, if any reliable and appropriate measures to assess it.

“ This publication by KPMG and the ODI seeks to fill this gap by providing interested parties with an index that provides insight into the change readiness of a country.”

He said it was heartening to see Sri Lanka’s position in comparison to the other developing and emerging countries and mentioned that KPMG and the ODI, who hope to refine this index over time, anticipate that the results of the index may provide important new insight for policy development and donor action aimed at strengthening government and national capability.