Centre for Poverty Analysis

Climate change doesn't just cause sudden disasters, it quietly reshapes who can stay, who has to leave, and who gets left behind.

In our latest blog, Dr. Mohamed Munas, Senior Researcher and Team Leader for Social Cohesion and Reconciliation at CEPA, unpacks Sri Lanka's climate-human mobility blind spot: the slow, gendered, often invisible movement of people that disaster data simply doesn't capture.

🔗Read the full blog on our website: https://cepa.lk/blog/sri-lankas-climate-human-mobility-blind-spot/

When Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka in late November 2025, over 600 lives were lost and 2.3 million people were affected. But behind the headlines sits a quieter story, one we have not yet learned to tell.

In this week's Below the Line column in the Sunday Observer, Dr. Mohamed Munas, Senior Researcher and Team Leader for Social Cohesion and Reconciliation at CEPA, examines Sri Lanka's climate-human mobility blind spot and why the people least visible in the data are the ones most at risk.

🔗Read the full article: https://www.sundayobserver.lk/2026/06/07/business/78697/sri-lankas-climate-human-mobility-blind-spot/

Sri Lanka’s climate-human mobility blind spot - Sunday Observer When Cyclone Ditwah tore across Sri Lanka in late November last year, the headlines were uncompromising: Over 600 dead, over 200,000 people pushed into temporary shelters, and roughly 2.3 million…

World Oceans Day is a reminder that protecting our oceans is as much about people as it is about ecosystems.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are not only about protecting ecosystems. They are also about how different groups share, access, and govern the same coastal space.

In Kalpitiya, fishing livelihoods, conservation priorities, and tourism interests intersect, raising questions of power, participation, and justice.

Swipe through to see what our fieldwork found.

"Among the most important economic indicators that tells us about the economic recovery from the 2022 crisis, I would rank the stock of foreign reserves as number one."

In this week's Sunday Times column, CEPA Executive Director Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne asks how Sri Lanka's IMF recovery programme is really performing and whether stability is as secure as it appears.

🔗 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/260607/business-times/stabilising-stability-times-running-out-644420.html

Stabilising stability: Time’s running out The IMF in its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement with Sri Lanka entered in March 2023 expected that our foreign reserves to rise to US$8.5 billion by the end of 2025. But the actual performance shows that it has increased to $6.8 billion only. During the first four months of 2026, there has b...

Growing old in Sri Lanka's hill communities is shaped by more than age.

Across our fieldwork in Kandy, we found that geography, poverty, and limited care access create a cycle that compounds with every passing year.

Sri Lanka's 60+ population is projected to reach 1 in 4 by 2042, but care systems are not keeping pace.

Services remain urban-centred. Families carry most care responsibilities. Social protection remains limited.

This is not just about ageing. It is about care poverty.

🔗 Read the full piece by CEPA Senior Research Professional Nilupulee Rathnayake, published on Development Asia:

https://development.asia/insight/when-geography-shapes-aging-care-poverty-sri-lankas-hill-communities

Research supported by LIRNEasia

Across the two CEPA studies on period poverty in Colombo and Nuwara Eliya, girls and women shared the food restrictions they face during menstruation, restrictions passed down through families, rooted in myths about smell, staining, and blood flow.

Here’s what they told us.

These narratives show how menstruation is shaped not only by access to products, but also by beliefs, stigma, and everyday practices around food and nutrition.

Watch our next post where we break the myths and look at what you should actually be eating during your period.

Read our full findings:

🔗 Colombo study: https://cepa.lk/publications/period-poverty-research-findings-colombo-district/

🔗 Nuwara Eliya estate sector study: https://cepa.lk/publications/period-poverty-research-findings-nuwara-eliya-district/

"Sri Lanka needs more than short-term capital flows, tourism earnings, and worker remittances."

In this week's Sunday Times column, CEPA Executive Director Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne explains what drove the rupee's sharp fall and sudden rebound last week and why addressing deeper structural weaknesses is key to breaking the cycle of recurring foreign exchange crises.

🔗 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/260531/business-times/the-best-the-worst-and-the-missing-643837.html

The best, the worst and the missing A friend of mine had returned from Canada, where he lives. He reached out to me from Kandy, where he owns a property, and said he would like to meet. We arranged to have lunch together at the Dutch Burgher Union Cafe, near the University of Colombo. During our long conversation, one of the topics [....

She didn't know what was happening to her body.

For two-thirds of menstruators in urban-poor settlements in Colombo, their first period arrived without warning. No conversation, no preparation, no one to tell them it was normal.

In the Nuwara Eliya estate sector, young girls spent an average of 34 days in isolation after their first period. Not hours. Not a weekend. 34 days.

Many go on to manage severe pain alone, too afraid and too ashamed to ask for help.

This is period poverty. Not just the absence of pads or tampons, but the absence of knowledge, dignity, and care.

Today, on International Menstrual Hygiene Day, we are sharing findings from two of our studies conducted in Colombo and Nuwara Eliya, that put faces and numbers to a reality that rarely makes it into public conversation.

Because the first step to change is knowing what we are up against.

Read our full findings:

🔗Colombo study: https://cepa.lk/publications/period-poverty-research-findings-colombo-district/

🔗Nuwara Eliya estate sector study: https://cepa.lk/publications/period-poverty-research-findings-nuwara-eliya-district/