Women's Policy Action Network: Closing the Divide on Women's Access through Women's Access to Finance

The Women’s Policy Action Network hosted a conference on the 20th of March 2024, at Courtyard by Marriott on the topic Closing the Divide on Women's Access through Women's Access to Finance. The conference featured a panel discussion on the above topic with panelists who are experts in the relative conversations. The panel discussion covered topics such as the regulation of the microfinance sector in Sri Lanka, and the importance of financial consumer protection.

This discussion was supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and facilitated by the Advocata Institute.

Video to the full discussion can be accessed here

The policy brief on Closing The Divide Through Women’s Access To Finance can be accessed here

The presentation can be accessed here

WPAN Policy Brief : Closing The Divide through Women's Access to Finance

Financial inclusion is the access individuals and businesses have to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs, such as for transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance. They also must be delivered in a responsible and sustainable way promoting engagement in the formal financial sector.  Access to affordable finance aims to enhance living standards, increase income, stimulate business investment, reduce unemployment, and foster economic growth by expanding financial networks and reducing barriers to entry. 

Here is the link to the WPAN Policy Brief on Closing the Divide through Women’s Access to Finance

Ep 3 | Moving The Needle On Gender Parity | WPAN | Nirmali Ameresekere | Dinali Peiris

Welcome back to another episode of the WPAN podcast discussion series!

The Women's Policy Action Network is hosting its latest podcast discussion series, facilitated by the Advocata Institute, supported by the Kingdom of Netherlands. This discussion series delve into crucial topics including empowering women in the labor force via policy adjustments and labor laws, enhancing digital infrastructure, and advocating for social reform in Sri Lanka.

This episode features Nirmali Ameresekere (Researcher, Advocata Institute) and Dinali Peiris (Director - Group Human Resources, MAS Holdings). They discussed about the Women Go Beyond program at MAS, and its significant contributions to empowering women locally and globally. The discussion addresses garment worker rights and the importance of parental leave which includes both parental and maternal leave, for working women.

Ep 2 | Empowering Women in E- Commerce| WPAN | Akhila Randeniya | Anishka De Zylva

Welcome back to another episode of the WPAN podcast discussion series!

The Women's Policy Action Network is hosting its latest podcast discussion series, facilitated by the Advocata Institute, supported by the Kingdom of Netherlands. This discussion series delve into crucial topics including empowering women in the labor force via policy adjustments and labor laws, enhancing digital infrastructure, and advocating for social reform in Sri Lanka.

In this episode Akhila Randeniya (Research Analyst, Advocata Institute) and Anishka De Zylva (Head of Corporate Affairs, Public Policy & ESG at Daraz). They discuss Sri Lanka's ecommerce growth hindered by slow adoption of digital payments and limited logistics connections. The discussion also addresses Sri Lanka's ecommerce growth hindered by slow adoption of digital payments and limited logistics connections.

Women's Policy Action Network Podcast Series

Welcome to the WPAN Podcast Series!

The Women's Policy Action Network is hosting its latest podcast discussion series, facilitated by the Advocata Institute, supported by the Kingdom of Netherlands. This discussion series delve into crucial topics including empowering women in the labor force via policy adjustments and labor laws, enhancing digital infrastructure, and advocating for social reform in Sri Lanka.

This is our introductory episode where Thathsarani Siriwardana and Akhila Randeniya introduce the series by discussing the events hosted by WPAN and also the launches of the policy brief. They also give insights to the discussions for future podcast episodes.

Check out our first episode where Thathsarani Siriwardana and Isuru Gunasekera give insights on parental leave policies in Sri Lanka. They also touch upon such topics that include implementing parental leave policy in a large organization and childcare outsourcing and maternity benefits in the private sector.

Women's Policy Action Network : Gender Discriminatory Land Inheritance Policy Brief

The Womens Policy Action Network launched their policy brief on 'Gender Discriminatory Land Inheritance' at a roundtable discussion. The discussions resulted in the identification of laws that are discriminatory directly and in its applications. Further laws that had the potential to be discriminatory were also identified.

You can access the policy brief on Gender Discriminatory Land Inheritance here

Women's Policy Action Network: Empowering Women :A Future-Ready Workforce

The Women's Policy Action Network hosted a conference on August 29th at the Lavender Hall, BMICH on the topic Empowering Women : A Future-Ready Workforce. The conference facilitated two separate discussion sessions on improving Social infrastructure and digital infrastructure, with panelists who are experts in the relative conversations. This discussion was supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and facilitated by the Advocata Institute.

You can access the presentation to the sessions on:

Social Infrastructure for Gender Equality & Empowerment

Unlocking women’s potential in the digital economy

The full video of the Women’s Policy Action Network conference can be found here.

The ‘Social Infrastrastructure for Gender Equality & Empowerment' policy brief can be accessed here

The ‘Unlocking Women’s potential in the Digital Economy’ policy brief can be accessed here

Launch of Women's Policy Action Network 'Reforms to Empower Women During an Economic Crisis'

The Advocata Institute launched the Women's Policy Action Network on Thursday, the 30th of March, 2023 at the Lavender Hall in BMICH at 6.30PM. The Women's Policy Action Network aims to bring about policy reform through advocacy for the economic empowerment of women. It will be a network run by individuals who are committed to women's empowerment. Harnessing advocacy, collating research, and identifying key problem areas that will impact the lives of women are a few of the targets to be achieved. The group will comprise representatives from Civil Society Organizations, policymakers, and women leaders to generate strong conversations advocating for women.

In light of the disproportionate impact of both the pandemic and the economic crisis on women , enhancing women’s participation in the workforce is even more critical. Therefore, the launch of WPAN was followed with a panel discussion on the thematic area of “Reforms to Empower Women During an Economic Crisis”. 

The keynote speaker was Ms.Shiromal Cooray, the Chairman and Managing Director of Jetwing Travels. Remarks were given by the Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Anouk Baron. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Roshan Perera, Senior Research Fellow, Advocata Institute.

The panel included, Shan Yahampath (Advisor to the Labour Ministry and the Foreign Employment), Sampath Thrimawithana (Director at Virtusa), Anarkali Moonesinghe (Former CEO, CIMB Investment Bank Sri Lanka) and Sumini Siyambalapitiya (Senior Research Analyst, Verite Research)

This WPAN launch was supported by the Kingdom of Netherlands and facilitated by the Advocata Institute

You can access the policy brief here

The full video of the launch of the Women’s Policy Action Network can be found here.