Advocata Institute is launching a policy action group, “Women’s Policy Action Network” (WPAN) supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, advocating for policy reforms enabling women’s economic empowerment. The event will be hosted under the theme of “reforms to empower women during an economic crisis,” envisioning a revamping of a much needed policy reform through advocacy, and will be held on the 30th of March, 2023 at 6.30 PM at the Lavender Hall BMICH.

The event will involve representatives from civil society organisations, policy makers, and women leaders who will generate strong advocacy conversations on behalf of women.

The event will be graced with a few remarks by the Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The keynote speech will be delivered by Shiromal Cooray (Chairman and Managing Director, Jetwing Travels) and the panel will consist of Sampath Thrimawithana (Director, Virtusa), Shan Yahampath (Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment), Anarkali Moonesinghe (Former CEO, CIMB Investment Bank Sri Lanka), Sumini Siyambalapitiya (Senior Research Analyst, Verite Research) and the session be will be moderated by Dr. Roshan Perera (Senior Research Fellow, Advocata Institute).

We believe that women have been disproportionately affected, in light of the economic crisis and the pandemic.The primary goal of the event will be the establishment of the policy action group aimed at promoting women's economic empowerment. The areas of emphasis will be:

• Care work, or unpaid labour, limiting female labour force participation
• Restrictions on night-time work which limit opportunities of employment and inhibit women’s choice of their preferred work time, while also limiting their earning capacity.
• Required changes to part-time work statutory regimes that currently fail to recognize part time-work.

A paradigm shift is needed to harness the potential of promoting policy changes that enable women’s economic empowerment in order to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Women have been the backbone of Sri Lanka's economy through their contribution to key sectors such as tea, garments, and foreign remittances. It is critical to evaluate women’s participation in the workforce, with regards to the lack of legal safeguards and adequate social infrastructure pushing women to migrate to ‘greener pastures’.

Despite the vast body of research in these areas, there has been little or no change to the conditions women face in the workplace. WPAN focuses on uplifting a network run by individuals who are committed to women's empowerment. Harnessing voices for change, collating research, and identifying key problem areas that will impact the lives of women are a few targets to be achieved by the network in order to empower women through economic freedom.