Displaced Livelihoods in the Face of Armed Conflict

2018

This background paper was prepared as an input on the qualitative component of the "Socio-Economic Assessment of the Conflict Affected Northern and Eastern Provinces" conducted by the World Bank in 2017. The findings from this paper were summarized as Background Paper No. 1 to the main report. The qualitative component of the assessment was conducted by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies for the World Bank. The final version of this paper served as inputs to the World Bank publication:

Journal of Refugee Studies, 2009

This paper investigates how internal displacement affects the livelihoods of the displaced, using a group of IDPs currently living in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka. These Tamil IDPs have come from Sampur which is located in Trincomalee, in eastern Sri Lanka. As expected, displacement has had a statistically significant negative impact on livelihoods. However, the impact varies among four categories of livelihoods identified by us: Type I Labour, Type II Labour, government service, and entrepreneurship. Type I Labourers with a ready demand in the host community and the salaried class of public servants are able to make ends meet, while entrepreneurs are rendered worse off. Type II Labourers have skills but the demand for their services in the host communities is negligible. They are therefore significantly impoverished in spite of their skills. Though public servants' livelihoods were economically intact, our results show that displacement has had other forms of negative impacts on their livelihoods.

Nwanolue, BOG, Victor Chidubem Iwuoha & Adaeze Mary , 2013

There is a gross violation of the fundamental human rights of citizens as well as the International Humanitarian Law in Sri Lanka. Every democratic government is meant to hold power in trust and must be solely accountable for the welfare and protection of its citizens which is basically the reason for the formation of government, aside the maintenance of law and order, but this is not the case in Sri Lanka, especially with regard to the management of the internally displaced persons. Hence, this paper examines the Protracted Armed Conflicts and the Challenges of Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka. Methodologically, the generation of data was based on secondary sources. The research design was based on ex-post facto model. The theory of protracted social conflict was adopted as our framework of analysis. Accordingly, it was found inter alia, that the situation of the internally displaced citizens, clearly shows that many could not access land, shelter or housing, and those who could did not enjoy security of tenure over it. Also, their access to livelihoods and basic services were limited, which was as a result of negligence on part of the Sri Lankan government, which acts antagonistically towards international organizations’ voluntary measures to ameliorate the plight of the affected persons with respect to property restitution and sustainable return. Arising from the above, having a government that makes provision in its legislation about IDPs’ right to property restitution or compensation, would make the IDPs feel more protected by their government and therefore, less vulnerable. Again, there is also the need to explore the context of ‘sustainable return,’ especially from the IDPs who have returned to their origins and settled there. Their conditions should be understood in order to assess whether their return has been sustainable.

Regional Environmental Change, 2014

A quantitative survey of 1,377 households in three war-affected coastal districts of Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee in the north and east of Sri Lanka shows that inflation or price hikes, specially fuel, and natural disasters such as floods and droughts are highlighted as the shocks with the biggest impacts on fisher and non-fisher households. We hypothesise that the pattern/severity of households' coping strategies to face these shocks depends on a set of household characteristics: livelihood diversity, asset ownership, level of education and the ability to borrow. Livelihood diversity, asset ownership and borrowings correlate significantly with the severity of coping strategies adopted by households for both fisher and non-fisher households. Education and livelihood diversification does not show a significant correlation for fisher households although it significantly affects livelihood diversification of both types of households.

All rights reserved ISBN : 955-612-069-6 Cover Page Designed by : Miss Rajika Shayamelie Ranasinghe, HARTI

All rights reserved ISBN : 955-612-069-6 Cover Page Designed by : Miss Rajika Shayamelie Ranasinghe, HARTI

2018

Using a wide range of information collected through key informant interviews, FGDs and Stakeholder Consultations, this report documents the livelihood shifts in the Northern and Eastern Provinces since the end of war in May 2009. For a vast majority of impoverished people who have survived the war, casual wage labor in an unstable labor market characterized by low wages, absence of continuous work and terms and conditions dictated by the employers, have become the main source of livelihood, replacing farming and fishing, the two leading livelihoods in the area for generations. The demand for wage labor has obviously increased in the postwar era due to the construction boom associated with new constructions including roads and other infrastructure as well as housing. In spite of multiple investments by GOSL and partner organizations including donors and civil society organizations the progress achieved have been slow also due to new challenges such as high cost of production inputs, ...

VISTAS , 2010

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic society. Although the exact time when this ethnic divisiveness began is difficult to identify, its ancientness can be presumed. As a consequence, the two main communities functioned differently in terms of the linguistic pattern, religious order, norms and practices. In the fold of a unitary state, ethnic divisiveness resulted in a conflict between the Sinhalese-majority and the Tamil minority, the latter blaming the causes of exploitation and deprivation. At one stage Tamils raised the demand for a separate State and started an armed campaign, which escalated into a prolonged civil war, which resulted in internal displacement and other social problems. The Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka were seriously affected by the civil war for the last two decades. The civil war led to intensify greatly the threshold of multiple vulnerabilities associated with agricultural, fishing, small-scale industries and other livelihood activities of these areas. This paper will trace these negative social consequences, particularly the implications for poverty. The paper will also theoretically examine the relationship between the ethnic conflict, displacement and poverty.

The Journal of Asian Studies, 2001

Political background 9 The context of humanitarian relief 10 List of abbreviations AGA CARE FORUT GA GS INGO ICRC IDPs LNGO Assistant Government Agent (head of a sub-District) CARE International in Sri Lanka Norwegian acronym for the Campaign for Solidarity and Development Government Agent (head of a District) Grama Sevaka (head of a number of villages) international non-government organisation International Committee of the Red Cross internally displaced persons local non-government organisation LTD LTR

2010

The high level of poverty in the North and East of Sri Lanka has been linked to the nearly 3 decades of civil conflict. In this paper we examine the gendered aspects of impoverishment in Batticaloa district from the Eastern Province in Sri Lanka. We did extensive fieldwork in five Grama Sevaka (GS) divisions in Batticaloa district which yielded information on 153 Tamil households. There were 654 individuals in our sample consisting of 207 income earners (39 females and 168 males). The field visits were done in April, 2008, a few months after GoSL declared the Eastern Province under its control. The results show statistically significant differences in female and male income levels (female Rs. 8,190 males Rs.14,024). A closer examination reveals that this horizontal inequality is strongly related to education. We also examine the gendered nature of household level livelihoods by comparing the 22 female-headed and 131 male-headed households. These results indicate that the end of war ...