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| PROFILE The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) was formed in the firm belief that there is an urgent need to strengthen institution- and capacity-building for good governance and conflict transformation in Sri Lanka and that non-partisan civil society groups have an important and constructive contribution to make to this process. The primary role envisaged for the
Centre in the field of public policy is a pro-active and interventionary
one, aimed at the dissemination and advocacy of policy alternatives
for non-violent conflict resolution and democratic governance. Accordingly,
the work of the Centre involves a major research component through
which the policy alternatives advocated are identified and developed.
The objectives of the Centre are:
In the pursuit of the above objectives, CPA carries out the following activities:
The founding Board of Directors of CPA was:
Following the death of Mr Abeysekere in April 1998, three new members joined the Board. They are:
In January 2002, on his appointment as the Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Bradman Weerakoon resigned from the Board. As of 1st November 2002, two new members joined the Board. They are:
On
his appointment in February 2003 as Peace and Development Advisor
to the UNDP, Nepal, Dr. Arjuna Parakrama resigned from the Board. A new member, Ms. Anushya Coomaraswamy, joined the Board of Directors in January 2005. Mr. Javid Yusuf resigned from the Board of Directors in June 2006. Mr. Kethesh Loganathan resigned from the Board of Directors and as Head of the Peace and Conflict Analysis Unit as of 1st April 2006. Mr. Mangala Moonesinghe was appointed and Mr. Bradmon Weerakoon re-joined the Board with effect from 10th March 2006. The Executive Director of CPA since its inception has been Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. CPA effectively commenced its programme of work in January 1997 with funds from the Asia Foundation under the USAID Citizen Participation (CIPART) Programme and from the Hewlett Packard Foundation, SIDA, NORAD, the Westminister Foundation and Alliance Lanka. In addition to the Executive Director and the Administrative Assistant there are 15 researchers employed on projects in the areas of law and constitutional reform, the media, political and social surveys.
Research Fellow, International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Has worked mainly in the areas of Social Policy and Capitalism, Development Policy and Ethnicity. His recent publications are "Development and Devolution in Sri Lanka" and "Assessing Participation - A Debate from South Asia. He has worked as consultant to a number of donors on the social impact of development projects and has been active in the non-governmental sector for the past 20 years. He is a member of the Board of the Social Scientists Association and INFORM.
Anushya Coomaraswamy Anushya Coomaraswamy is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of the UK and the Society of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka. She has the advantage of having worked for both the public and private sectors of the Country. Miss Coomaraswamy worked for more than 20 years in the Private Sector, in industry, commerce and services, in senior management positions. From 1994 till 2002, she was the Group Finance Director of John Keells Holdings Limited, one of the leading conglomerates in the Country and one of the largest capitalised companies on the Colombo Stock Market. Miss Coomaraswamy was one of a three-member representation from John Keells Holdings, on an international consortium that negotiated a US$240 million project for the development of one quay of the Colombo Port, with the Government of Sri Lanka and Multilateral and Bilateral Lending Institutions, with specific responsibility for the Project's Financial Model. Having left John Keells Holdings in 2002, Miss Coomaraswamy joined the Ministry of Finance in January 2003 as an Advisor working directly with the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, with particular involvement in Fiscal Policy and Public Debt and as Alternate to the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury on the Board of Directors of the Bank of Ceylon. She was also the first Chairperson of the Public Utilities Commission for Sri Lanka and a member of the Public Enterprise Reform Commission. Miss
Coomaraswamy is a member of the Taxation and Auditing Standards
Sub Committees of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce; and of the Urgent
Issues Task Force and the Continuing Professional Education Committee
of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.
Mr. Sunanda Deshapriya was a founder member of the Movement for Interracial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) in 1979 and the Movement for the Defence of Democratic Rights (MDDR) in 1981. However, his life as a social activist started when at a much earlier stage, and he was involved the youth insurrection of 1971 in Sri Lanka. This was also the time he first developed an interest in human rights activism and journalism. This interest continues till date, and Mr. Deshapriya is not only a founder member of the Free Media Movement (FMM) in 1991, but has functioned as the convenor since 2000. He is also a member of the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka. Earlier, he worked with a number of peace activist journals in the 1980s, and worked as co-ordinator Devasarana Development Centre (DDC), a community development organisation, for a short time in 1982. He both launched and functioned as the Editor of the weekly newspaper Yukthiya until its closure in 2000. Mr. Deshapriya was also the General Secretary of MIRJE from 1997-2000. In 1997, he initiated and co-ordinated the Network of Border Villages for Right to Life and Peace. He also initiated and co-chaired the Peoples Peace Front (PPF) from 1998-2000, and is the co-convenor of the Citizens for Peace movement from 2001. Mr. Deshapriya is the Editor of the monthly magazine Balaya, a magazine on socio-political and economic issues. He is a regular columnist for a leading mainstream Sinhala weekly newspaper, the Lankadeepa, and the weekly alternative newspaper, Ravaya. Mr.
Deshapriya also serves on the Board of Directors at INFORM.
Rohan
Edrisinha, LL.B.(Hons.) Colombo, LL.M (University of California,
Berkeley) Director,and Head, Legal Unit, Centre for Policy Alternatives
has taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo since
1986. His area of specialization is Constitutional Law. He taught
at the Faculty of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South
Africa in 1995 and was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the
Study of World Religions, Harvard University, 2004/5. He attended
the last 3 rounds of peace negotiations between the Government
of Sri Lanka and the LTTE as an advisor to the Forum of Federations
and the chief Government negotiator, the Minister of Constitutional
Affairs, Prof, G.L.Peiris. In recent years his research has focused
on federal options for bridging the gap between the negotiating
parties. His most recent paper, Multination Federalism and Minority
Rights in Sri Lanka is published in Multiculturalism in Asia
edited by Will Kymlica and Baogang He, published by OUP and released
in October 2005. Gowrie Ponniah B.A.Hons (Sussex);Dip. in Business Management (Adelaide);MA (Sussex) has worked for the International Labour Organization for 10 years, in a number of fields ranging from the promotion of women worker rights to the elimination of child labor. She has also worked for Worldview International Foundation (WIF), an INGO Headquartered in Sri Lanka, initially in the post of Director International Programs. At present she is the Assistant Secretary General - External Relations of Worldview International Foundation, in which she is responsible for donor relations, information and promotional activities.
Cyrene Siriwardhana graduated in law from Oxford University, and qualified as a barrister of the Inner Temple and thereafter as an Attorney-at-Law in Sri Lanka. She practised at the private bar in Sri Lanka since 1993, specialising in public law and human rights. She was then in the UK for a few years, where she was a Consultant to the Department for Constitutional Affairs (then Lord Chancellor's Department) authoring a report on the regulation of the legal profession. Thereafter she joined the Department for Constitutional Affairs, UK, as a legal adviser, working primarily in the field of human rights co-ordination. She
was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sarvodaya Legal Services
Movement, and a member of the Law Advisory Committee of the Ministry
of Women's Affairs. She also acted as a Consultant to the Regional
Project on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific at the
Centre for Policy Research and Analysis (CEPRA), Faculty of Law,
University of Colombo. She has published on topics in public law
including the Ombudsman, the requirements of a fair hearing, and
the right to equality.
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu received his Ph.D and first degree from the London School of Economics (LSE), University of London in 1986 and 1979 respectively. He is currently Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) an independent and non-partisan public policy institute focusing on issues of democratic governance and peace through programmes of research and advocacy. Dr Saravanamuttu is a co-convenor of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) and a member of the Board of the Sri Lanka Chapter of Transparency International. He has been on the Advisory Committee of the Free Media Movement and served as a member of Foreign Affairs Study group of the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka. He has been quoted widely in the domestic and international media on the political situation in Sri Lanka, has presented papers and been a frequent participant at a number of international conferences on governance and security issues, convened by organizations including the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) and the Harvard Centre for International Development. In 2002, Dr Saravanamuttu delivered the Gandhi Memorial Oration on the invitation of the India – Sri Lanka Society. Dr Saravanamuttu made the civil society presentation at the June 2003 Tokyo Donor Conference on Sri Lanka, at the invitation of the Government of Japan. He spent September – November 2004 in the US on an Eisenhower Fellowship. He
is currently a member of the Advisory Group to the UN Country
Team (UNCT) in the development of the UN Common Country Assessment
(CCA) and the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
Shelton Wanasinghe joined the Sri Lanka public service in 1946 and served for a period of 24 years. He was the founder and Director of the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration. He later served on the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) from May 1971 to June 1986. After retiring from the UN he was appointed as the Chairman of the Presidential Administrative Reforms Committee (1986-1987) and Chairman of the Salaries and Cadres Committee (1987-1989) amongsts others. At present, he holds several honorary positions in various institutions and he is also a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. His major areas of interest are reforms regarding Taxation, Rural Development, Education, Health and Human Resources Development. |
