WHO WE ARE
Global Vision – Centre for Knowledge Advancement is a not-for-profit
research and consultancy institution registered in Sri Lanka. Stanley
W R de A Samarasinghe serves as its founder Executive Chairman
and K Ananda
Jayawardane as its Executive Director. It has an outstanding
Board of Management
drawn from a variety of fields and with wide experience. A group
of very distinguished persons serve as International
Advisors, Research
Fellows and Consultants.
VISION
Become a major knowledge centre in Sri Lanka and South Asia, seek
creative solutions to meet the challenges facing this region and
the world beyond and help achieve a united, democratic, dynamic
and prosperous Sri Lanka.
MISSION
Bring together talented individuals from Sri Lanka and abroad
to work for democracy, equity and sustainable human development
in Sri Lanka, South Asia and globally.
SCOPE OF WORK
Our program of work includes research, consultancy, education,
training, monitoring and evaluation, publication, conferences and
workshops, public outreach and advocacy.
We work in Sri Lanka, South Asia and elsewhere both singly and
in partnership with others.
SEMINARS
Towards
a Sustainable Peace: Going Beyond the Thirteenth Amendment
Speaker Lal Wijenaike, Attorney-at-Law and former Leader of the
Opposition, Central Provincial Council (April 05, 2008)
The Boxing Day Tsunami in Sri Lanka:
Natural or Political Disaster?
Speaker: Professor Randall Kuhn, Director Global Health Affairs
Program University of Denver, Colorado (March 02, 2008)
GLOBAL VISION BLOG
Read contributions from our Research Fellows and Consultants on
current topics of interest at the GV
Blog.
A New Dawn for Human
Rights in Sri Lanka?
S W R de A Samarasinghe
Don’t Mess
with Three Wheeler Fares
S W R de A Samarasinghe
GV VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE
Interview with Dr. Randall Kuhn on Tsunami
Reconstruction
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CURRENT ACTIVITIES
GV Research in Progress
Constraints that Small-Scale Women
Owned/Operated Businesses in the Central Province Face
Parental Involvement and Educational Attainment of Children
in the Plantation Sector
GV is currently completing two research projects,
one on “Constraints that Small-Scale Women-Owned/Operated
Businesses in the Central Province Face” and the other
on “Parental Involvement and Educational Attainment
of Children in the Plantation Sector.” More>>
Global Vision Research on Post Conflict
Sri Lanka
The Executive Chairman of Global Vision Professor S W R de
A Samarasinghe is currently working on a study titled "Military
victory and the implications for institutional design: Sri
Lanka." This is the second study under the GV Post Conflict
Research Project. The first titled “Sri Lanka: The Challenge
of Postwar Peace Building, State Building, and Nation Building”
was published in the journal “Nationalism and Ethnic
Politics, 15: 3, 436 — 461 (June-December 2009).
Strategies & Policies for Improving
Local Economic Governance
GV in Collaboration with The Asia Foundation (TAF) made a
presentation in Colombo on Monday March 15, 2010 at an invitees-only
meeting on “Strategies & Policies for Improving
Local Economic Governance.” The participants included
senior officials and representatives from the Ministry of
Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Ministry
of Local Government and Provincial Councils, Provincial Councils,
Local Government Authorities (LGA) and Trade Chambers. The
National Enterprise Development Authority (NEDA) organized
the meeting. More>>
Global Vision at Dublin Conference
on
Post Conflict Countries
The Executive Chairman of Global Vision Professor S W R de
A Samarasinghe presented a paper on “Peace Building
Challenges in Post Conflict Countries” at a conference
in Dublin, Ireland organized by the Institute for British-Irish
Studies (IBIS) of University College Dublin (UCD) in March
2010. The Conference titled “Breaking the Patterns of
Conflict: The Irish State, the British Dimension and the Northern
Ireland Conflict” discussed the progress that Northern
Ireland has made in the past decade following the Good Friday
Agreement signed in April 1998. Professor Samarasinghe’s
presentation looked at post-conflict peace building from an
international comparative perspective drawing on the experience
of, among other countries, Sri Lanka.
Kandy Urban Traffic Study
Global Vision recently completed an interdisciplinary
evidence-based research study sponsored by The Asia Foundation,
Colombo. Wide community and stakeholder consultation was a
special feature of the research methodology adopted for this
study.
The President of the Chamber of
Commerce and Industries Central Province Anurudda Warnakula
presenting the Kandy Traffic Study Report to the Governor
of the Central Province Tikiri Kobbakaduwa in the presence
of the Mayor of Kandy L B Aluvihara and the DIG of the
Central Province Pujitha Jayasundera.
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GV researchers presented the main findings
and recommendations of the report at a meeting last December
attended by key stakeholders including senior government officials
and business leaders. The main recommendations include the
establishment of a rapid transit train service in Kandy and
a series of cost-effective short-term measures to improve
bus transport, parking and the road network.
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Kandy Traffic Study
Complete Report
Summary Reports: English,
Sinhala,
and Tamil
Environment
Environmental Geographer and GV Research Fellow Dr.
Ram Alagan draws attention to the rapidly declining environmental
condition in Sri Lanka and warns that Sri Lanka is facing great
challenges to conserve its environment than ever before. Dr. Alagan
states that it is time for us to adopt new environmental concepts
and thoughts to conserve Sri Lanka’s environment. If we allow
the current rate of decline in the environment to continue for another
decade, Sri Lanka will face unprecedented environmental challenges
to recover its bio-physical and human environments. Read
the Full Report
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PUBLICATIONS
Review of the Sri Lanka Economy: June 2010
Dr. Stanley W R de A
Samarasinghe in his monthly economic review notes that the budget
and trade issues dominated the economic discourse during the month.
The government is under pressure from the IMF to reduce the budget
deficit. The government’s various political constituencies
demand more spending and cut taxes. Chinese loans are augmenting
foreign reserves and helping fund large infrastructure projects.
These loans have to be paid back and most of the projects do not
yield a quick return to augment growth and ease pressure on domestic
prices. EU appears to be determined to suspend the GSP+ tariff concessions
in August. Sri Lankan business community mostly sees the proposed
Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CESPA) between India
and Sri Lanka not as an opportunity to access a massive and growing
market but as a threat to the relatively protected and small market
in Sri Lanka that they have.Read
Full Review.
Read past Monthly
Economic Reviews: May
2010,
April
2010,
March
2010,
February
2010,
January
2010,
November
2009,
October
2009, August
2009, July
2009, June
2009, May
2009, April
2009, March
2009, February
2009, January
2009
Sri Lanka Business Review: April/May 2010
In his business review, Dr.
K. Ananda Jayawardane highlights that tourism and construction
have emerged as the most attractive areas for the investors and
the government of Sri Lanka. Exports to Europe have become less
attractive due to the depreciated Euro and the Indian government
is in the process of easing Sri Lankan imports. IT , BPO, Crop diversification
in plantations and Palm oil industry are some other focus areas
at present. In this context business organizations have produced
mixed financial results. Read
Full Review
Read past Monthly
Business Reviews: February-March
2010,
December
2009-January 2010, October-November
2009, August
2009, July
2009, June
2009, May
2009, April
2009.
By: Ram Alagan and Seela Aladuwaka
 International
Women’s Day (IWD) is one of the most important days for global
women and their solidarity. GV Research Fellows and Board Members
Dr Ram Alagan and Dr. Seela Aladuwaka pen their thoughts on the
status of Sri Lankan women and present some ideas to make the country’s
development and peace building effort more gender sensitive. Read
the full article
Presidential Election 2010
By S W R de A Samarasinghe
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa convincingly defeated his
main rival, former army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, by 58
per cent (6.0m votes) to 40 per cent votes (4.2m) — a margin
of 18 points — in the island’s presidential election
held last Tuesday. The turnout was high: of the 14m registered voters
74 per cent turned out to vote. But the large margin of victory
was a surprise to many. Read
more>>
Political Commentary
GV Research Fellow Rajeewa
S Jayasinghe who analyses post war political developments and
the recent provincial council elections does not see much cause
for optimism in so far as the nation’s political future is
concerned. Everybody is happy that terrorism has been defeated.
But that is only the beginning of the long and arduous task towards
building a nation. Unfortunately, Jayasinghe sees signs of disunity
and factionalism in both the results of the recent elections and
other political developments. The only hope, he argues, is to think
“Beyond Borders.” Read
the full article
General Election April 2010
The following op-ed article by Dr S W R de A Samarasinghe was
published in the Monday April 12, 2010 edition of the Indian Express.
See www.indianexpress.com/news/a-third-victory/604941/0
Last week week’s landslide victory of President Mahinda
Rajapakas’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA)
in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections –the first since
the twenty five year old civil war ended last May –tightened
the grip of the president on power in that country. Rajapaksa was
reelected president last January. The UPFA is likely to win about
145 seats in a parliament of 225, a few short of a two-thirds majority
that Rajapaksa wanted so that he could change the constitution without
relying on opposition support. The main challenge he faces in the
next few years will be to raise the quality of governance and improve
the economy. Read
the full article
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