Driving effective change is no small task, especially when it comes to issues where gender bias plays a part. As such, it is very heartening when young thought leaders are given support to be able to make a difference.
Over the weekend, Colombo-based independent policy think tank Advocata Institute announced that Advocata Institute Research Analyst Sathya Karunarathne had won the Asia Think Tank Shark Tank competition, securing a $ 10,000 grant to further her team’s work on improving women’s property rights and economic freedom in Sri Lanka.
This marks the second time Advocata Institute has won the Asia Think Tank Shark Tank competition, with Advocata Institute Operating Officer Dhananath Fernando winning the competition in 2018 for a research study titled “Cost of Construction and Protectionism”. His study dealt with the high cost of construction in Sri Lanka and the potential benefits of border taxes on construction materials being reduced.
The Asia Think Tank Shark Tank is a championship for Asians to pitch their ideas on creating an impact in public policy to help economic prosperity in Asia. The competition is a rigorous project pitch with a panel listening to and identifying the best policy-focused research project out of think tanks in the region. The winning think tank is awarded a grant to implement the proposed research project.
Following her win at this year’s Asia Think Tank Shark Tank competition, Brunch caught up with Sathya to learn more about her winning proposal and the impact it can have on women’s economic freedom going forward. “It’s great to be given financial aid to be able to work on rewarding cases such as this. It’s a responsibility that we at Advocata Institute take very seriously,” she shared.
Sathya shared that the Asia Think Tank Shark Tank competition (which is held as part of the Asia Liberty Forum and took part virtually) saw her and two other think tanks, the Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) and Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs Malaysia (IDEAS). The CIPS project pitch dealt with the role the private sector can play in Indonesia’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout while IDEAS pitched a project that looked to hold state-owned enterprises accountable in Malaysia.
Sahtya’s winning proposal dealt with female empowerment through property law, something that is part of Advocata Institute’s larger female empowerment plan “Freedom for Her”, which looks at empowering women economically through changing gender-discriminatory inheritance laws, gender-discriminatory labour laws, and gender-discriminatory fiscal policies.
Expanding on gender-discriminatory inheritance and property laws, Sathya shared that the topic of women owning land is an important issue insight needs to be brought into, noting that even we do have (limited) female representation in Parliament, it is still very rare to see female-centric issues brought up in Parliament and policy circles.
The last national study done on the land-ownership that provided gendered data was conducted in 2002 and found that only 16% of privately owned land in Sri Lanka was owned by women. While a similar study has been conducted at one point by Asia Development Bank for their own purpose, there has been nothing close to a national study since 2002, and this lack of data is a key factor that Sathya will be addressing in her research, she said, adding that with this new data combined with policy changes will ensure property rights that are more inclusive to women and open more doors to economic empowerment for women, especially when it comes approaching formal institutions for funding.
Sathya explained that existing property laws like the Land Ownership Ordinance have little description and are gender-discriminatory, heavily prioritising male inheritance over female inheritance. There are also customary laws in place that govern inheritance in specific communities like Muslim law, Kandyan law, and Thesavalamai law. Sathya’s research team will look into these four broader laws (the Land Ownership Ordinance and the customary laws) and formulate a policy brief analysing the gender discriminatory aspects of these laws and recommend reforms to make these laws more inclusive for female inheritance.
The research team will also engage with policymakers and implementers both through closed-door discussions as well as through large-scale events and awareness campaigns that highlight the issue and show the real impact it has on women across Sri Lanka, especially in rural settings. “This will be a communications effort to the people to show that that is a problem that has a real impact, why it’s important to reform these laws, and what rights these laws will secure.”
Sathya also shared that it is her hope and expectation that female parliamentarians will also take up these issues on the national stage. “Our long-term goal is to get these gender-discriminatory laws revised and make them more inclusive. That’s what we’re looking forward to achieving.”
Speaking on how other think tanks can get their proposals heard, Sathya urged young thought leaders to identify causes they are passionate about and to go out there and see how they can go about changing the status quo, saying: “Do the homework and the background work, and truly be a champion for the causes which you believe in and you will have a great output.”