The Young Researchers Forum 2012 20th & 21st January, 2012 Western Province Aesthetic Resort, Colombo

Session: Development and Progress Date: 20th January, 2012 Time: 11.30am-12.30pm
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The Young Researchers Forum 2012 Importance of Public-Private-Non-Profit Partnership at Sub-National Level for PostWar Regional Development in Sri Lanka N. Sivakumar, H. U. S. Pradeep and S. Rasnayake sanjayapra@yahoo.com Date of research: August 2011 December 2011 Introduction The last three decades has been the bloodiest in Sri Lankan history. The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka turned into a full-fledged civil war in 1983 came to an end with the military defeated of the LTTE in May 2009. The war incurred the toil of the many thousands of deaths and immeasurable human suffering. Also it damaged and destroyed the infrastructure as well as other economic structure too. There are many development activities need to be done in war ravaged areas. For this purpose proper decentralization and adequate resources are pre-required at sub-national level. But, there are ongoing debate related with devolved power at sub-national level. Indeed many countries adopted public-private-non-profit partnership as an approach to achieve the regional development. Through this study researchers found that, the public-private-nonprofit partnership at sub-national level could be an alternative solution meant for post-war regional development in Sri Lanka. Statement of the Problem Aftermath of war many service are expected from North and Eastern Provincial Councils. Undeniably, among those expectations post-war regional development is the most important one aftermath of the war in ravaged area. Proper decentralization, political commitment as well will and sound provincial finances are essential components of post-war regional development. Then only provincial council can take necessary and effective actions to getting things done. Indeed, previous studies noted that, the effective, powerful and decentralized local government has not yet evolved in

The Young Researchers Forum 2012 Sri Lanka. For instance, very recent study on Twenty Two Years of Devolution (Amarasinghe, Bandara, Wickramaratne and Gunawardena, 2010) pointed out that, fiscal devolution was introduced and practiced within the framework of centralized planning and budgeting rules and procedures. It failed to establish an appropriated fiscal framework to support devolution...Provincial Councils are also handicapped in the use of powers legitimately assigned to them on account of not having a system of provincial administration which is totally under its control In this background, can North and Eastern Provincial Council successfully contribute for post-war regional development? Indeed, it is debatable. So there is a necessity to find an alternative approach to deal with post-war regional development. Can publicprivate-non-profit partnership be an alternative measure? Are there any credible evidences from other countries to support the approach? Taking these matters into consideration, this study tried to find the answers to research question of why publicprivate-non-profit partnership important at sub-national level of Sri Lanka meant for post-war regional development? Objectives

1. To explore the importance of public-private-non-profit partnerships in term of

post-war regional development in Sri Lanka.

2. To produce the credible evidence from globe in relation to importance of publicprivate-non-profit partnerships meant for regional development. Significance of the Study Without peace there cannot be sustainable development; meaning it is very difficult to establish enduring peace without proper reconstruction and development in war ravaged areas. Indeed, post-war regional development seems as governance as well political issues in Sri Lanka. Very limited studies done related with this issue. This

The Young Researchers Forum 2012 study aimed to file the gap also intended to propose alternative approach meant for post-war regional development in war ravaged provinces in Sri Lanka. Research Methodology The study used the qualitative method to analyze and interpret the data. The Nonprobability sampling (purposive sampling) has been used for primary data collection. The data gathered by using primary and secondary sources. Primary data collected from think-tank (Academician and Lawyers) using in-depth interview. Content analysis took place intended for secondary data collection. Accordingly data collected from the relevant existing literatures such as books, previous research works, seminar papers, reports, journal and relevant official website of provincial council, private and nonprofit sector. Findings and Core Argument in Brief The concept of decentralization is not new phenomena in Sri Lanka. Numerous attempts have been undertaken over the years. Though effective, powerful and decentralized local government has not yet evolved in Sri Lanka. Indeed, sub-national governments are expected to work on post-war regional development meant. Adequate resources, institutional capacity are pre-required for this agenda. North and Eastern Provincial Councils are unable to deal with the post-war regional development agenda without assistance from bottom-level as well top-level too. Many reasons are behind in this scenario. Among those reasons limited resources is key one. Therefore, the Provincial Council has to adopt an alternative approach to make arrangement to getting thing done towards post-war regional development. Accordingly specially designed projects with specific objectives are being implemented in the eastern province with the assistance under international economic cooperation in collaboration with relevant stakeholders at national and provincial levels to getting things done towards regional development.

The Young Researchers Forum 2012 Public-private-non-profit partnership implies a common understanding of shared goals, a willingness to repartition responsibilities for their achievement. Since the 1990s, there has been a rapid rise of public-private-non-profit partnerships across the world. Indeed many developing countries have initiated public-private-non-profit partnerships in various sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing and services. Public-privatenon-profit partnerships do not end with players only from the public sector or government agencies. Rather, management of public sector programs involves a wide range of players from both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Therefore, this partnership can be contributed for post-war regional development in war ravaged areas in Sri Lanka. Recommendation or Freshness of Idea 1. In reality, the model adopted in the devolution of power in Sri Lanka places the centre in a dominant position in the context of Centre Provinces relations. 2. The central government has to provide adequate institutional capacity to subnational government to deal with post-war regional development. 3. Public-private partnership as well as public-private-non-profit a partnership also has to promote at sub-national level meant for regional development. 4. Institutional capacity is pre-required to effectively deal with public-private-nonprofit partnership. Therefore, institutional capacity (fiscal, human, physical resources) has to provide to provincial council. Political commitment as well political will also needed.