Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- About the Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The State and NGOs: Issues and Analytical Framework
- 2 Bangladesh: A Large NGO Sector Supported by Foreign Donors
- 3 India – NGOs: Intermediary Agents or Institutional Reformers?
- 4 Sri Lanka: Community Consultants in an Underdeveloped Welfare State
- 5 Pakistan: Regulations and Potentiality in a Fragmented Society
- 6 The Philippines: From Agents to Political Actors
- 7 Thailand: A Crossing of Critical Parallel Relationships
- 8 Vietnam: Control of NGOs by NGOs
- 9 Indonesia: Flexible NGOs vs Inconsistent State Control
- 10 Malaysia: Dual Structure in the State–NGO Relationship
- 11 Singapore: Subtle NGO Control by a Developmentalist Welfare State
- 12 China: Social Restructuring and the Emergence of NGOs
- 13 Hong Kong: Uneasiness among Administrative Agents
- 14 Taiwan: From Subjects of Oppression to the Instruments of “Taiwanization”
- 15 South Korea: Advocacy for Democratization
- 16 Japan: From Activist Groups to Management Organizations
- Index
4 - Sri Lanka: Community Consultants in an Underdeveloped Welfare State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- About the Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The State and NGOs: Issues and Analytical Framework
- 2 Bangladesh: A Large NGO Sector Supported by Foreign Donors
- 3 India – NGOs: Intermediary Agents or Institutional Reformers?
- 4 Sri Lanka: Community Consultants in an Underdeveloped Welfare State
- 5 Pakistan: Regulations and Potentiality in a Fragmented Society
- 6 The Philippines: From Agents to Political Actors
- 7 Thailand: A Crossing of Critical Parallel Relationships
- 8 Vietnam: Control of NGOs by NGOs
- 9 Indonesia: Flexible NGOs vs Inconsistent State Control
- 10 Malaysia: Dual Structure in the State–NGO Relationship
- 11 Singapore: Subtle NGO Control by a Developmentalist Welfare State
- 12 China: Social Restructuring and the Emergence of NGOs
- 13 Hong Kong: Uneasiness among Administrative Agents
- 14 Taiwan: From Subjects of Oppression to the Instruments of “Taiwanization”
- 15 South Korea: Advocacy for Democratization
- 16 Japan: From Activist Groups to Management Organizations
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Of all the developing countries, Sri Lanka is often cited as a country exceedingly advanced in social development. Low-cost education, medical service, food aid to broad sections of the population, various public charges reduced to low levels, agricultural aid policy, and other measures continued until the start of economic liberalization in 1977. Because of this, the economic space for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the areas of medical service and education had been limited. However, social welfare budgets were substantially cut after 1977, while the government promoted the privatization of medical service and education. The deterioration in the political and economic environments due to the falls in prices of plantation crops, the activities of anti-government guerrillas, and other reasons, had begun early in the 1970s, and it may be said that the economic liberalization of 1977 provided momentum to the expansion of the scope of economic activities of the NGOs. According to a survey of the NGOs which had been established in the country by 1990 (IRED 1991), 60 per cent had been set up after 1978.
The purpose of this chapter is to describe how the NGOs acted and what role they played between the government and residents in Sri Lanka, where the government had a clear intention to provide services widely and at low prices. What was wanted of NGOs by the state, which was the main provider of resources, and the inhabitants, who were their recipients?
Even before 1977, the activities of NGOs were indispensable where government welfare policy was lacking, although the areas of their activities were circumscribed. In the following sections the writer will clarify the relations of NGOs with the government and the inhabitants by studying on a period-by-period basis the welfare policy of the government and the changes in its development policy, together with the development of NGO activities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The State and NGOsPerspective from Asia, pp. 72 - 93Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2002