Op-ed/Special Reports

Regional integration to empower Sri Lankan women

Lakmini Fernando and Sulochana Silva

Thursday April 4, 2024 11:02 am

By Lakmini Fernando and Sulochana Silva

Thursday April 4, 2024 11:02 am

ECONOMYNEXT – Unlike in advanced economies, improvements in education, fertility and incomes have not been able to enhance women’s labour force participation in Sri Lanka, according to two researchers at the Institute of Policy Studies, Colombo based think tank.

“Inequality results in adverse economic, social and political consequences,” write Lakmini Fernando and Sulochana Silva.

“Addressing gender inequality is crucial to achieve stronger and more sustainable development.”

In 2021, female labour force participation was 22 percent for South Asia and 32 percent Sri Lanka, while all other regions except the Middle East and North Africa (18 percent) recorded more than 50 percent participation.

Also, a gender wage gap of 24 percent indicates that on average, women are paid approximately 20% less than men in Sri Lanka.

The full analysis is reproduced below;

A Lost Development Opportunity: Regional Integration to Empower Sri Lankan Women

Gender equality is a shared vision for social justice. Addressing gender inequality is crucial to achieve stronger and more sustainable development. While regional integration is seen as a potential development strategy to promote inclusive and sustainable growth and efforts toward women’s economic empowerment, gender equality tends to be sidelined in such discussions.

Inequality results in adverse economic, social and political consequences. Unlike the advanced economies, improvements in education, fertility and incomes have not been able to enhance women’s labour force participation in Sri Lanka.

Thus, identifying and implementing the right policy mix for meaningful regional integration is vital in creating gender inclusive sustainable growth.

The impact of greater economic opportunities for women

Greater economic opportunities for women create a domino effect. In South Asia, equal employment opportunities for men and women are estimated to enhance incomes by 25%, including increased intraregional trade of USD 44 billion.

Yet, despite the improvements in education and health outcomes, low women’s economic participation remains a critical development challenge for developing economies including South Asia.

In 2021, female labour force participation was 22% and 32% for South Asia and Sri Lanka, respectively, while all other regions except the Middle East and North Africa (18%) recorded more than 50% participation.

Also, a gender wage gap of 24% indicates that on average, women are paid approximately 20% less than men in Sri Lanka.

To achieve gender parity, South Asia will take 149 years, while this is 67 and 95 years for Europe and North America, respectively.

Regional integration: Current challenges and opportunities

Unlike South Asia, other regions like East Asia, Europe and North America are harnessing the potential benefits of regional integration by developing strong relationships with their neighbours.

Intraregional trade accounts for 50% of total trade in East Asia and 22% in Sub-Saharan Africa, but only 5% in South Asia.

Intraregional trade as a share of regional gross domestic product (GDP) is only 1% in South Asia while it is 2.6% and 11% in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and the Pacific, respectively.

South Asian regional integration has been restricted mainly by high tariff and non-tariff measures, lack of trust and political will, weak policy implementation and poor infrastructure.

Although the impacts are asymmetric, deeper regional integration benefits any country. Consumers gain access to cheaper goods and services; producers and exporters gain access to inputs, investment and production networks; and firms gain market access for goods and services.

Reforming stagnating dimensions of regional integration toward gender inclusive growth

To promote gender-inclusive growth, a recent IPS study shows that it is essential to improve the stagnating dimensions of regional integration. This process is complex and varies by country due to its multidimensional nature.

There are six key dimensions: trade and investment, movement of capital, regional value chains, infrastructure and connectivity, people’s mobility and legal and institutional basis for international policy cooperation.

Evenly distributed dimensions lead to better regional integration and higher women’s economic participation. With the most evenly distributed dimensions, the EU is recognised as the most advanced and consistent in regional integration (Figure 1) with more than 50% women’s economic participation.

In contrast, South Asia’s significantly uneven dimensional distribution makes it one of the least integrated and lowest women’s economic participating regions in the world.

South Asia focuses more on infrastructure and connectivity and movement of people and less on money and finance.

Similarly, Sri Lanka’s regional integration is impacted heavily by infrastructure and connectivity and this is no surprise as nearly 60% of public investment has been allocated to infrastructure development in the last few decades (Table 1).

Figure 1: Heterogeneity in the contribution of multiple dimensions of regional integration

Notes: Regions with the most evenly distributed dimensions have the highest female labour force participation. eg: European Union.

Source: Adopted from Park, C. Y., & Claveria, R. (2018). Does regional integration matter for inclusive growth? Evidence from the multidimensional regional integration index. Asian Development Bank Economics Working Paper Series (559).

Table 1: Identifying specific dimensions of regional integration toward gender-inclusive growth

Notes: The multidimensional regional integration index (MDRII) provides a cumulative score of six dimensions: trade and investment; money and finance; regional value chain; movement of people; infrastructure and connectivity and institutional and social integration. A higher score indicates better integration. The least contributory dimensions (with scores below 0.4) require significant reforms to ensure that regional integration promotes gender inclusive sustainable growth.

Source: Author’s calculations based on Park, & Claveria (2018)

The IPS study further reveals that improvements to institutional and social integration and money and finance reduce nearly 50% of gender inequality in South Asia.

Furthermore, better institutional and social integration and movement of people positively impact women in industry and services sectors but not agriculture. In developing countries, women often engage in labour-intensive sectors, which are low-skilled and low-paid, referred to as the ‘feminisation of labour’.

Regional integration creates new employment opportunities in the manufacturing and services sectors. This results in technology-led ‘defeminisation of labour’ leading to increased demand for female labour and higher wages.

In contrast, trade and integration negatively impact women in agriculture. The reason is their limited skills and mobility. Regional integration alters the structure of production where sectors with export opportunities may expand, while import substitution sectors may contract.

Women in the contracting sectors may face job losses. Even in expanding sectors, women may not have benefitted due to horizontal and vertical gender segregation. Thus, selective opening of sectors and providing opportunities for upskilling and reskilling of women will help minimise the negative impacts.

Way forward

Sri Lanka is yet to receive the full benefits of regional integration. Inherently, regional integration is multidimensional, and its impacts are country-specific.

In boosting gender inclusive sustainable growth, a balanced contribution of different dimensions of regional integration is required.

Improvements to most stagnating dimensions like institutional and social integration and money and finance would reduce gender inequality by nearly 50%.

Thus, robust domestic policies that support the establishment of quality institutions and governance systems and financial conduct are most effective in making regional integration a strategy that stimulates inclusive growth and women’s economic empowerment in Sri Lanka.

“The World Bank South Asia Gender Innovation Lab’s (SAR GIL) Women’s Economic Empowerment in South Asia Community of Practice provided support for this research.” (Colombo/Apr4/2024)

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Weather and Climate

Water levels rising in Sri Lanka Kalu, Nilwala river basins: Irrigation Department

Monday June 3, 2024 2:17 pm

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Irrigation Department has issued warnings that water levels in the Kalu River basin are rising and major flooding is possible due to the continuous rain. People living in close proximity are advised to take precautions.

“There is a high possibility of slowly increasing prevailing flood lowline areas of Kiriella, Millaniya, Ingiriya, Horana, Dodangoda, Bulathsinhala, Palinda Nuwara and Madurawala D/S divisions of Ratnapura and Kalutara Districts, up to next 48 hours,” it said issuing a warning.

“In addition, flood situation prevailing at upstream lowline areas of Ratnapura district will further be prevailing with a slight decrease.

“The residents and vehicle drivers running through those area are requested to pay high attention in this regard.

“Disaster Management Authorities are requested to take adequate precautions in this regard.”

The island is in the midst of south western monsoon.

DMC reported that 11,864 people belonging to 3,727 families have been affected due to the weather in Rathnapura, Kegalle, Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kalutara, Gampaha, Colombo, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Moneragala, and Trincomalee districts.

Meanwhile, the Meteorology Department stated that showers are expected on most parts of the island today.(Colombo/June3/2024)

Politics

UNP gen secy defends call for postponing Sri Lanka poll, claims opposition silent

The UNP party headquarters in Pitakotte/EconomyNext

Monday June 3, 2024 1:59 pm

ECONOMYNEXT — United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara has defended his call for postponing Sri Lanka’s presidential election by two years, claiming that his proposal was not undemocratic nor unconstitutional.

Speaking to reporters at the UNP headquarters Monday June 03 morning, Bandara also claimed that neither opposition leader Sajith Premadasa nor National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake have spoken against his proposal.

“I have made no statement that’s undemocratic. My statement was in line with provisions of the constitution,” the former UNP parliamentarian said.

He quoted Section 86 of Chapter XIII of the constitution which says: “The President may, subject to the provisions of Article 85, submit to the People by Referendum any matter which in the opinion of the President is of national importance.”

Sections 87.1, 87.2 also elaborates on the matter and describes the parliament’s role, said Bandara.

“I spoke of a referendum and parliament’s duty. Neither of this is antidemocratic or unconstitutional. As per the constitution, priority should be given to ensuring people’s right to life,” he said.

“Some parties may be against what I proposed. They may criticse me. But what I ask them is to come to one position as political parties and make a statement on whether they’re ready to continue the ongoing economic programme,” he added.

Bandara claimed that, though thee has been much criticism of his proposal for a postponement of the presidential election, President Wickremesinghe’s rivals Premadasa and Dissanayake have yet to remark on the matter.

“I suggested that [Premadasa] make this proposal in parliament and for [Dissanayake] to second it. But I don’t see that either Premadasa nor Dissanayake is opposed to it. To date, I have not seen nor heard either of them utter a word against this. I believe they have no objection to my proposal which was made for the betterment of the country,” he said. (Colombo/Jun03/2024)

Politics

Support for AKD drops to SP’s level while RW makes gains, Sri Lanka poll shows

Monday June 3, 2024 12:47 pm

ECONOMYNEXT — Support for leftist candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake dropped six percentage points to 39 percent in April, levelling with opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, while support for President Ranil Wickremesinghe increased three points to 13 percent in a presidential election voting intent poll.

The Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) conducted by the Institute for Health Policy showed that, according to its Multilevel Regression and Poststratification (MRP) provisional estimates of presidential election voting intent, National People’s Power (NPP) leader Dissanayake and main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) lader Premadasa were now neck and neck while United National Party (UNP) leader Wickremesinghe had made some gains. A generic candidate for the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) had the support of 9 percent of the people surveyed, up 1 percentage point from March.

These estimates use the January 2024 revision of the IHP’s SLOTS MRP model. The latest update is for all adults and uses data from 17,134 interviews conducted from October 2021 to 19 May 2024, including 444 interviews during April 2024. According to the institute, 100 bootstraps were run to capture model uncertainty. Margins of error are assessed as 1–4% for April.

SLOTS polling director and IHP director Ravi Rannan-Eliya was quoted as saying: “The SLOTS polling in April suffered from a lower response rate owing to the New Year holidays, and we think this may have skewed the sample in favour of SJB supporters. The early May interviews partly compensated for this, and it’s possible that our June interviews may result in further revisions
to our model estimates.

Rannan-Eliya also noted that a number of other internet polls may be overestimating support for the NPP or its main constituent party the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) by about 10 percent.

“We’ve been asked about some other recent internet polls that showed much higher levels of support for the NPP/JVP. We think these over-estimate NPP/JVP support. SLOTS routinely collects data from all respondents on whether they have internet access, and whether they are willing to participate in an internet survey. These data show that NPP/JVP supporters are far more likely to have internet access and even more likely to be willing to respond to internet surveys, and this difference remains even after controlling for past voting behaviour. Our data indicates internet polls may overestimate NPP/JVP support by about 10 percent, and for this kind of reason we have previously decided that the time is not right to do internet polling,” he said.

According to the IHP, its SLOTS MRP methodology first estimates the relationship between a wide variety of characteristics about respondents and their opinions – in this case, ‘If there was a Presidential Election today, who would you vote for?’– in a multilevel statistical model that also smooths month to month changes. It then uses a large data file that is calibrated to the national population to predict voting intent in each month since October 2021, according to what the multilevel model says about their probability of voting for various parties (‘post-stratification’) at each point in time. The multilevel model was estimated 100 times to reflect underlying uncertainties in the model and to obtain margins of error, the institute said. (Colombo/Jun03/2024)