The Cost of Political Exclusion: Building Climate Resilience Through Inclusive Governance in Sri Lanka
Authors: Lasanthi Daskon, Strategic Advisor, Partnerships for Integrity and Manjula Gajanayake, Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies
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Executive Summary
Climate change in Sri Lanka is unfolding along deeply unequal lines, reinforcing existing social, economic, and political exclusions. Recent climate shocks, including Cyclone Ditwah, have exposed how women, minority communities, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups bear the heaviest burdens of disaster while remaining largely excluded from decision-making spaces that shape preparedness, response, and recovery. Despite women comprising the majority of the population and the backbone of key economic sectors, gender-responsive and inclusive approaches to disaster management remain weak. Failures in language accessibility, disability inclusion, and transparent, multi-stakeholder coordination during recent crises highlight how exclusionary governance undermines effective climate response, leads to misallocation of resources, and deepens pre-existing inequalities, particularly in a context already strained by economic fragility and declining public trust.
This paper argues that political inclusion, especially women’s leadership at national and local levels, is not a peripheral concern but a central pillar of climate resilience. While Sri Lanka has made gains in numerical representation through quotas and reforms, these have not translated into meaningful participation, authority, or protection from gendered and structural barriers. The absence of inclusive governance weakens crisis response, social cohesion, and long-term recovery. Strengthening women’s leadership in local authorities, building the capacity of women, minority representatives, and persons with disabilities, and redesigning disaster preparedness systems to be inclusive by default are essential steps toward resilient recovery. Without a decisive shift toward substantive inclusion in political life and climate governance, Sri Lanka risks repeating a cycle in which each new disaster amplifies inequality and exposes the enduring cost of political exclusion.
The recommendations from this paper call for a decisive shift from reactive and exclusionary disaster response toward inclusive, long-term climate resilience in Sri Lanka. They emphasize the need for meaningful political representation of women, minority communities, and persons with disabilities across all levels of governance, particularly within disaster-management and climate-response mechanisms. Central to this is advancing women’s leadership, investing in systematic capacity-building, and strengthening local authorities as well-resourced frontline institutions with women in decision-making roles. Redesigning disaster preparedness systems to be inclusive by default, through accessible communication, disaggregated data, and equitable planning, and transforming political culture to recognise marginalized groups as leaders rather than beneficiaries are essential to reducing future risks and preventing the deepening of existing inequalities.
Introduction
Climate change is neither gender-neutral nor socially neutral. The impacts of climate change reflect and reinforce existing inequalities. Communities that are excluded from political and public life are consistently the most exposed to climate risks and the least equipped to recover from climate-induced shocks. Structural and societal inequalities shape who lives in flood-prone areas, who relies on climate-sensitive livelihoods, who bears the burden of unpaid care work during crises, and whose needs are prioritized in emergency response and recovery planning. When decision-making spaces are dominated by a narrow segment of society, climate responses tend to overlook lived realities on the ground, resulting in poorly targeted relief, inefficient use of resources, and recovery efforts that entrench pre-existing disparities rather than reduce them.
In Sri Lanka, climate shocks intersect with economic fragility, social divisions, and political exclusion. This means that the cost of inequality during times of crisis is especially high. Understanding the link between political inclusion, women’s leadership, and climate resilience is essential to assessing both the failures of current responses and the pathways toward more effective and just recovery.
Women represent 51.7 percent of the population in Sri Lanka, and the economy is overwhelmingly dependent on women; from apparel workers and plantation workers to overseas migrant workers. Women also carry a heavy burden of unpaid care work. Yet, there has been little or no focus on the particular impact of the crisis on women and the engagement of women in post-disaster initiatives and relief efforts.
Context and the Cost of Exclusion
Sri Lanka is experiencing the aftermath of yet another devastating natural disaster, two decades since the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. The Tsunami cost 35,000 lives and over 1 billion US dollars in asset losses and reduced potential output by an estimated 330 million US dollars. A recovery mission in 2024 conducted in the Eastern province has revealed that despite substantial reconstruction, the long-term resilience remains uneven. Cyclone Ditwah ripped through the island between November 27-28 wreaking havoc and destruction. An estimated 639 people have died with another 203 reported missing. UNDP reports that at least 2.3 million people have been affected by the floods with more than half of those affected being women.
Human Rights Watch has highlighted the exacerbation of existing discrimination against groups already living in vulnerable conditions such as minority communities, women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Meanwhile, almost half of the population is reported to lack disaster preparedness. The estimated economic cost of the current disaster is expected to reach 6-7 billion dollars with infrastructure rebuilding and reconstruction expected to take months. This places additional pressure to the already overburdened economy, which was just only beginning to recover from the economic crisis of 2022.
The response to Cyclone Ditwah has revealed deep cracks in the government’s preparedness for natural disasters of this magnitude. According to the 2024 global risk information index, 87% of Sri Lanka's population is considered to be at medium or high risk from climate change, which is exacerbated with increasing instances of cyclones over the last few decades. The Government’s crisis response has received mixed reviews, with questions raised about the efficiency of emergency response mechanisms.
Women’s rights and civil society groups have actively criticized the lack of gender inclusion in the post-disaster management mechanisms. Three critical failures stand out:
- Language accessibility: Failure to communicate cyclone related information, warnings, and guidelines in Tamil language, despite the considerable number of Tamil-speaking people within the affected district (and in violation of the official language policy) came under heavy criticism by social media activists and political leaders. There are a large number of vulnerable Tamil speaking populations in the Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts, and majority Tamil population in Mullaitivu, Batticaloa, and Kilinochchi districts - all within the affected regions.
- Disability and accessibility: No specific information is available on the impact of the crisis on persons with disabilities, yet the disproportionate impact of climate crisis on persons with disabilities is widely acknowledged. Government information dissemination still lacks specific references to disability, nor is information available in sign language or other accessible formats of communication.
- Structural exclusion: In response to criticism of the earlier “Rebuilding Sri Lanka” arrangements, the government has now issued an Extraordinary Gazette establishing a 25-member Presidential Task Force for Rebuilding Sri Lanka to coordinate post‑disaster rehabilitation, recovery, and reconstruction. While this signals a shift from ad‑hoc response to a more centralised recovery mechanism, questions remain about how far the new Task Force meaningfully includes women, minority communities, and persons with disabilities, and how it will engage local authorities who are closest to affected communities.
Evidence from Sri Lanka and Pakistan shows that when disaster governance does not intentionally integrate the perspectives of those whose livelihoods are most exposed, recovery efforts can deepen existing inequalities and leave the most vulnerable households less resilient to future shocks. Neglecting the unique and complex issues encountered by diverse communities during crisis can lead to intensified harm, widen existing divisions in society, create unequitable distribution of relief and resources, and impose additional burdens on public funding.
Political inclusion and political life: current reality
There is a direct link between the inclusiveness and effectiveness of the response to this climate crisis and the inclusiveness and effectiveness of political life in Sri Lanka. Political inclusiveness in Sri Lanka remains limited and uneven. While formal mechanisms exist to increase political equality, such as a quota system, decision-making power continues to be concentrated among political elites, with women, minority communities, and persons with disabilities largely excluded from leadership and influence, particularly during moments of national crisis.
Electoral reforms and quota systems have improved numerical representation in some spaces, yet these gains have not always translated into substantive participation, access to resources, or authority over policy outcomes. As a result, governance processes often fail to reflect the lived realities of diverse communities, weakening public trust and reducing the state’s capacity to respond effectively to complex challenges such as climate-related disasters. In this context, political exclusion is not merely a democratic deficit; it is a critical vulnerability that undermines crisis response, social cohesion, and long-term resilience in Sri Lanka.
By a number of standards, Sri Lanka has made considerable progress in terms of women’s political representation over the past decade. The current Parliament has 22 women representatives, historically the highest number of women in parliament. However, these women represent only two political parties out of the eleven political parties and one independent group. Twenty of the women parliamentarians represent the ruling National People’s Power, with only three women in positions out of 21 ministers and 32 deputy ministers. These three positions are: the Prime Minister, the Minister of Women and Child Affairs, and the Deputy Minister of Mass Media. In addition, the Deputy Chairperson of Parliamentary Committees is a woman.
The Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Act No. 16 of 2017 established a mandatory women’s quota of 25 percent. However, reports indicate non-compliance in some of the recently elected local councils. A large majority of members of parliament as well as the local council members are new to the political arena, having had no prior political leadership experience. On the whole, they have had very limited opportunities for capacity building and skills-based trainings, and with even fewer opportunities for women party members. Anecdotal evidence suggest that the ruling party is reluctant to provide the benefit of post-election capacity building programmes to their women council members. This could be due to the regimented nature of the party structure, and the patriarchal approach of the majority male party leadership. Additionally, there is evidence available to suggest that women members of local authorities are encountering gendered discrimination and abuse, including verbal abuse, harassment and online harassment and abuse. There is even evidence of a member of a local authority stepping down due to alleged harassment.
Hence, it is questionable if the increase in numbers have translated into meaningful participation of women in leadership positions. The opportunities for leadership by women representing minority communities, including plantation communities and women with disabilities, is far less hopeful within this context. Women leaders in Sri Lanka are still lacking visibility and recognition while the potential for women’s leadership maybe regressing due to systemic barriers that include the structure of the electoral system as well as broader social dynamics. Aspirant women leaders face barriers that include funding challenges, online as well as offline violence against women, and stereotyping. The counter arguments and vitriol that was posted on social media justifying the all-male ‘Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund’ governing committee provide a glimpse into the deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes and the lack of understanding on the relevance and importance of women’s representation.
Compounding this issue, there is evidence of a decline in minority political representation in Sri Lanka due to structural majoritarian-nationalism and cracks within the minority political party leadership. Minority women representation is even lower, with only two women parliamentarians representing the Tamil community, and one woman representing the upcountry Malayaga Tamil community out of a total of fifty members representing mostly the Tamil and Muslim communities.
The repetitive failure of governments to hold the provincial council elections, originally established to devolve power to the regions, is a serious democratic deficit that particularly undermines minority political representation. There is no currently available data on the exact percentages of minority ethnic representation in the local authorities in Sri Lanka. However, it can be reasonably assumed that the local authorities within Northern and Eastern provinces would have majority Tamil and Muslim representation while some up-country local authorities could also have majority Tamil representation.
Disability representation in politics has been a long-drawn issue in Sri Lanka, with no legislative guarantees available. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was ratified by the government in 2016, yet successive governments have failed to enact enabling legislation. The current parliament has one member with disability who is also leading the Parliamentary Caucus on Disability. The Caucus is expected to lead inclusive reforms enabling persons with disabilities to be integrated into mainstream pubic and political life. There is no data available on disability representation at local authorities, nor has there been any proactive inclusion of disability in political party representation.
Disaggregated data on the impact of the cyclone on minorities, including persons with disabilities remains unavailable, yet observers have noted that the haphazard nature of post-disaster response mechanism likely impacts vulnerable groups more severely.
What Next
The imperative for inclusive governance
Inclusive and equitable governance is increasingly recognized as a core pillar of effective climate resilience. Evidence across contexts show that when women and marginalized groups are meaningfully involved in climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and recovery processes, responses are more responsive, transparent, and sustainable. Equality is therefore not a secondary concern or a social add-on to climate action; it is central to how societies anticipate risk, manage crises, and rebuild in ways that are fairer and more resilient.
The urgent role of local governance
The ongoing post-cyclone crisis in Sri Lanka continues to rapidly evolve creating geographic as well as socio-economic volatility. Cyclone-affected areas continue to remain vulnerable, and access to resources remain limited despite massive national, international and volunteer efforts. Communities across the island are exposed to secondary risks due to unstable terrain, disrupted livelihoods, dismantled infrastructure, and increasingly limited access to essential services and supplies.
In this context, diverse communities and women’s voices need to be heard and integrated into the mainstream response efforts. However, there is an evident gap in including women in disaster response structures, fund-management processes, and rebuilding plans. Additionally, women are excluded from planning and oversight making recovery efforts at risk of replicating pre-existing inequalities, overlooking gender specific needs, and missing opportunities for more resilient community-based solutions.
The role of women in local governance was proven to be even more crucial during the current crisis where one-fifth of the country has been affected. Local government bodies - consisting of municipal councils, urban councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas - are the closest governance entities to the people and serve as the primary layer of administration. They have mandates for crucial public services including roads, water and sanitation, waste collection, community infrastructure, public spaces, basic housing, and emergency response. Within this context, the importance of strong women’s leadership in local governance cannot be overstated. Yet, the active engagement of local government women leadership in the post-cyclonic response efforts is rarely visible. This likely means that the specific needs of women affected by the disaster are not being effectively addressed, nor will fund and resource allocation have a gendered focus. There is likely even less focus on women with disabilities, women representing minority ethnic groups, and women living with other intersectional identities.
Recommendations
The current disaster, with its massive impact across the island, will require years of rebuilding and reconstruction. If post-response mechanisms continue to ignore the recurrent and foreseeable risks of climate-induced crises, and fail to adopt inclusive risk-management approaches, Sri Lanka’s existing vulnerabilities and inequalities will exacerbate producing even more severe outcomes in future emergencies. Disaster response that is reactive, fragmented, and exclusionary has proven its fatality over the past two decades.
The tokenistic political representation of women and minority ethnic groups, alongside the continued neglect of persons with disabilities in governance structures, has evidently failed to create systems that are inclusive, responsive, or grounded in lived realities. A primary recommendation, therefore, is the pursuit of meaningful political representation at all levels of governance, including within disaster-management and climate-response mechanisms.
Advance meaningful women's leadership at all levels. Political parties must be sensitised to the importance of sharing decision-making power with women members and proactively expanding women’s participation within party structures, not merely for electoral compliance but for meaningful leadership. This shift must extend to disaster-management and climate-response mechanisms, where women's voices and expertise must be integrated from the outset.
Implement systematic capacity-building programmes. Systematic capacity-building programmes for women leaders, minority representatives, and persons with disabilities at national and local levels are crucial. Capacity-building initiatives should move beyond ad-hoc trainings and instead focus on developing concrete skills in climate governance, disaster-risk management, public finance, and crisis leadership. These opportunities must be accessible across party lines and intentionally designed to counter entrenched power imbalances within political institutions, which often marginalise women and minority voices even after election.
Strengthen women's leadership in local authorities as frontline institutions. Most critically, local authorities need to be formally recognised, resourced, and prepared as frontline institutions for climate resilience, with women leaders positioned as focal points for preparedness and response. While Sri Lanka’s local authority system clearly requires comprehensive reform, past amendments have focused disproportionately on electoral arrangements rather than on institutional capacity. Key areas, such as equipping local authorities to act as first responders during disasters, integrating disaster-risk management into their mandates, and allocating adequate budgetary resources, remain largely absent from policy discussions and annual council planning. Yet in practice, municipal councils, urban councils, and Pradeshiya Sabhas are often the first entities to manage damaged infrastructure, coordinate relief, and identify community-level vulnerabilities. Strengthening the leadership of women, minorities, and people with disabilities within these bodies is essential to addressing gendered impacts of crises and ensuring that the intersectional vulnerabilities of women with disabilities and women from minority communities are not overlooked.
Restore elected Provincial Councils as a prerequisite for inclusive governance. Progress toward meaningful women’s political participation, minority inclusion, and accountable disaster governance remains structurally constrained in the continued absence of elected Provincial Councils, with elections pending for over seven years. Under the 13th Amendment, Provincial Councils form the backbone of Sri Lanka’s devolved governance framework, within which the local government system operates. Without functioning Provincial Councils, efforts to strengthen women’s leadership, minority representation, and inclusive disaster-response mechanisms at sub-national levels lack both institutional authority and political legitimacy. The prolonged suspension of Provincial Council elections has also curtailed an important pathway for women to enter representative politics, limiting opportunities for political advancement beyond local authorities. Restoring elected Provincial Councils is therefore essential not only for democratic accountability, but also for enabling inclusive, gender-responsive, and locally grounded disaster-risk governance.
Redesign disaster preparedness systems to be inclusive by default. Sri Lanka’s disaster preparedness and response systems must be redesigned to be inclusive by default. Early warning information dissemination, evacuation protocols, relief distribution, and recovery planning must be accessible in all official languages and include disability-inclusive communication formats, such as sign language interpretation and accessible information channels. The continued absence of gender and disability disaggregated data significantly undermines evidence-based policymaking and equitable resource allocation; addressing this gap must be a priority to the country.
Shift political culture toward inclusive resilience. Finally, Sri Lanka needs to rethink its political culture and move beyond rhetorical commitments to change. The current government assumed office with a strong mandate to dismantle corrupt and inequitable systems, yet inclusive governance, especially in terms of women’s leadership, remains largely symbolic. Disaster risk resilience cannot be built on exclusionary foundations. It requires political will to recognise women and marginalized communities not as beneficiaries of relief, but as leaders, decision-makers, and agents of resilience. Without this shift, each successive climate crisis will continue to expose not only environmental vulnerability, but the high cost of political exclusion itself.
This article expands on a shorter version published in Ceylon Today.
