We successfully conducted an advocacy programme at the Sabaragamuwa Province (Ratnapura District) on the #NextGenSL post-war Youth attitudes and aspirations national baseline study which we concluded recently. Religious leaders, civil society leaders, government officials from respective Government institutions, youth clubs as well as members from Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena took part in the sessions.

We strongly believe that research should help us better our policies and societal well-being and the advocacy phase is designed in such away to share the findings of the report with the very communities we gathered the data from in order to give back, to inspire discussions and to facilitate process based thinking . Participants had the opportunity to be critical and even challenge the findings if they find them to be at odds.

Confidence building in youth plays a critical role while we hear and provide them with a platform to react to the information. Participants worked in groups under guided facilitation, to think about the findings in groups. This helps them to come up with solutions that would make sense to their ground level realities.

Part of this exercise is to facilitate dialogue between policy making bodies, civic leaders and youth, linking relevant provincial level issues to the findings of the report and also navigating through solutions that would bring sustained action.

A special thanks to Mr Samantha, District Coordinator of Sarvodaya Ratnapura and his dedicated team for coordinating the efforts.

You can access the full report via https://sihl.edu.lk/research/