Centre for Poverty Analysis

15/05/2026

This International Day of Families, we are looking at the inequality that happens inside the home.

When electricity became unaffordable during Sri Lanka's economic crisis, women paid the price. Across 12 districts and 2,613 individuals, our research found that labour-saving appliances were the first to go and the hours women spent on household work grew.

57% of women spent more time on chores. 84% sourced firewood in firewood-reliant homes. 13% pawned jewellery to keep the lights on.

(Source: CEPA Household Survey, 2024).

Read the blogs at the links below:

🔗 https://cepa.lk/blog/what-recent-electricity-tariff-cuts-really-mean-for-sri-lankan-households/

🔗 https://cepa.lk/blog/living-in-the-dark-unraveling-sri-lankas-energy-vulnerability-crisis/

12/05/2026

Daily Mirror features highlights from CEPA’s 25th Annual Conference, “Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis,” which focused on inclusive growth, economic resilience, trade, and long-term policy reform.

Read more: https://www.dailymirror.lk/business-news/CEPA-conference-culminates-with-economic-policy-push-for-inclusive-growth-and-resilience/273-339923

The Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) marked its 25th anniversary with the inauguration of the international conference on ‘Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis’, held at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, on May 7 and 8, 2026. ..

11/05/2026

Poverty is not a single problem. It is the outcome of decisions about how risk and opportunity are distributed.

That was the thread running through the International Conference on Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis, held on 7 and 8 May 2026 at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo to honour 25 years of the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and ODI Global. Two days, two plenaries, seventeen thematic tracks, and the Young Researchers’ Platform, with a closing conversation on national strategies and donor partnerships.

A wrap up of the conference.

11/05/2026

CEPA’s 25th anniversary conference as featured in FT Sri Lanka

CEPA Chairperson Nelun Gunasekara, Executive Director Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Deputy Governor Dr. Chandranath Amarasekara and Asian Development Bank Country Director Shannon Cowlin on why Sri Lanka’s earlier development gains proved too shallow and what resilience must look like going forward.

🔗 https://www.ft.lk/business/Sri-Lanka-faces-shrinking-room-for-policy-mistakes-warn-experts/34-791727

Sri Lanka’s post-crisis recovery has stabilised key macroeconomic indicators, but tightening global conditions leave little room for policy mistakes or short-term stimulus, officials and development experts warned recently.

They shared these views at the inauguration of the international conference on ‘Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis,’ organised to mark the 25th anniversary of the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA).

Speakers reflected on how the multiple shocks Sri Lanka’s economy had faced in recent years had significantly affected incomes, savings, and cost of living, exposing deeper vulnerabilities in the economy.

Read The DailyFT for more: https://www.ft.lk/business/Sri-Lanka-faces-shrinking-room-for-policy-mistakes-warn-experts/34-791727

11/05/2026

What role do think tanks and researchers play in shaping Sri Lanka's poverty agenda?

Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Executive Director and Dr. Mohamed Munas, Senior Researcher and Team Leader - Social Cohesion and Reconciliation thematic area of CEPA, join Newsfirst.lk English's "Face to Face" programme to discuss evidence-based policymaking, lessons from global poverty reduction, and what it takes to build a more resilient Sri Lanka.

🎬 Watch the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/live/83dn_bLX4rA

10/05/2026

“Sustained growth and job creation remain the most effective antidotes to poverty.”

At CEPA’s international conference on Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. Chandranath Amarasekara, reflected on Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, recovery, and what it will take to protect the most vulnerable going forward.

In today’s Sunday Observer:
🔗 https://www.sundayobserver.lk/2026/05/10/business/77069/growth-is-the-best-poverty-antidote/

10/05/2026

“The calculator, not patriotism, will decide what grows on that land.”

Sri Lanka’s famed Nuwara Eliya tea is quietly losing ground to potato and it’s not hard to see why. When vegetables yield six times more profit per hectare than tea, farmers follow the numbers. But who created those numbers?

Our Executive Director Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne examines the policy incentives driving this shift in today’s Sunday Times.

🔗 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/260510/business-times/champagne-of-teas-vs-potato-curry-641059.html

Sri Lanka’s famed Nuwara Eliya tea – the “champagne of teas” – is quietly losing ground to potato. As last week’s Sunday Times reported, the tea industry is facing a significant decline as large swathes of tea‑planted land are being cleared for vegetable cultivation like potatoes, carr...

09/05/2026

Plenary Session 2 of CEPA's International Conference on Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis brought one of the most urgent conversations of the conference to the floor. Researchers, activists, and policy practitioners unpacked a hard truth: inequality in Sri Lanka is not stabilising, it is diverging, and economic growth alone cannot close a gap that is structural in nature. When a third of households rely on Aswesuma support, headline indicators tell only part of the story. Addressing poverty and addressing inequality are not the same task, and the policies needed to tackle each are fundamentally different.

Moderated by Nilakshi De Silva with remarks by Vagisha Gunasekara and panelists Dr. Gayathri Lokuge, Sandun Thudugala and Niyanthini Kadirgamar.

Asian Development Bank ODI

08/05/2026

Delivering the keynote at the inauguration of the International Conference on Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis on 7 May 2026 at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, Dr. Chandranath Amarasekara, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, made the distributional case for price stability. Inflation, he argued, is the most regressive levy a population can bear, concentrating its weight on households and small firms with the least room to absorb it.

Asian Development Bank ODI

08/05/2026

Sri Lanka must focus more on trade and finance, argued Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne at CEPA’s International Conference on Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis.

🔗 https://hirunews.lk/en/business/464597/sl-must-focus-more-on-trade-finance-than-tourism-and-remittances-prof-abeyratne

07/05/2026

Delivering an address at the inauguration of the International Conference on Poverty and Development in Times of Crisis on 7 May 2026 at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne, Executive Director of CEPA, situated poverty beyond the income line.

Set against Sri Lanka's two decades of poverty decline and the sharp reversals of the recent crisis, he argued that the task ahead is not a return to pre-crisis trajectories but the construction of a more equitable one.