http://www.payson.tulane.edu/si Colombo, SRI LANKA; Post-Conflict Challenges & Development July 14, 2014 to July 25, 2014 Instructor: Stanley Samarasinghe Post-conflict rehabilitation, reconstruction and reconciliation are major themes in contemporary international development. The main goal of the course is to give participants an in-depth understanding of how these issues are confronted and resolved in Sri Lanka (SL) that ended a thirty-year old civil war in May 2009. The war claimed over 100,000 lives and retarded the nation’s development. In the past six decades SL has been cited as an outstanding example of success in human development (health, education and social welfare) for a country with a modest per capita income. Even during three decades of war social welfare was sustained and the economy was liberalized to promote growth. The end of the war poses a new set of challenges. Political reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese (75% of the population) and minority Tamils (18%) is a priority. The war damaged north/east of the island needs reconstruction. The democratic political culture that was seriously impaired by the war needs restoration. China and India that have replaced the west as major donors for post-war reconstruction eye the island nation as one of strategic importance. One of the leading NGOs in Sri Lanka, Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA: www.econsortium.info/cha/index.htm) engaged in post-war rehabilitation and reconstruction will host the Tulane program. In week 1 at the CHA the participants will study post-war Sri Lanka in the context of the civil war that ended. You will have as speakers some of the best available. In week 2 the participants will go to the field to observe post-war rehabilitation and reconstruction. The last two days will be devoted to a wrap up session in Colombo to evaluate what you have learned, and discuss the theoretical and policy implications of our collective understanding of post-conflict development. - See more at: http://www.payson.tulane.edu/summerinst/post-conflict-challenges-development