{"id":248141,"date":"2026-07-21T13:25:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=248141"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:54:49","slug":"the-sri-lankan-ngo-sector-at-a-crossroads-resource-scarcity-political-drift-the-price-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-sri-lankan-ngo-sector-at-a-crossroads-resource-scarcity-political-drift-the-price-of-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sri Lankan NGO Sector At A Crossroads: Resource Scarcity, Political Drift & The Price Of Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nimalka Fernando<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Dr. Nimalka Fernando<\/p><\/div>\n

The NPP government has released the draft Bill related to the registration and supervision of the Non-Governmental Organisations. The Non-Governmental Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act of 2026 (draft Act or Act), would repeal and replace the Voluntary Social Service Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act No. 31 of 1980, the law currently governing a form of voluntary not-for-profit organization in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The scope of the Bill is also exceptionally broad. It extends beyond traditional NGOs to encompass voluntary social service organizations, trusts, societies, associations, microfinance institutions, and even non-profit entities already incorporated under the Companies Act or other legislation that receive foreign funding. Consequently, many organizations that are already legally established under existing regulatory frameworks would be compelled to undergo an additional registration process before continuing their work. Rather than simplifying oversight, this layered regulatory approach creates unnecessary administrative burdens and may significantly constrain the independence and effectiveness of Sri Lanka’s civil society sector.<\/p>\n

According to the proposed Bill registration is mandatory for all non-governmental organizations to operate legally. The GOSL or whoever drafted this piece of legislation has totally ignored the fundamental human rights of Sri Lankan citizens. He or she has scant regard for the freedom of association as guaranteed under Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Sri Lanka is a State Party. I will not write in details of the legal implications of the draft Bill in this article.<\/p>\n

For more than four decades, Sri Lanka’s civil society organisations have occupied a complex and often contested space. They have documented human rights violations, responded to humanitarian crises, supported communities excluded from development, advocated for democratic reforms, and created spaces where the voices of women, minorities, workers, and marginalised communities could be heard. Yet today, the sector itself appears to be facing one of its deepest crises\u2014not merely a financial crisis, but a crisis of political purpose.<\/p>\n

The immediate explanation is easy to identify. International development assistance has declined dramatically. Global priorities have shifted toward Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, climate emergencies, and strategic geopolitical concerns. Traditional bilateral donors have reduced aid budgets, while philanthropic foundations increasingly favour short-term innovation projects over long-term institution building. The result has been a severe resource crunch. Organisations have downsized, experienced staff have left the sector, and many long-standing institutions struggle simply to survive.<\/p>\n

However, the financial crisis masks a deeper intellectual and political problem.<\/p>\n

For many years, Sri Lankan NGOs gradually became increasingly dependent on donor priorities to define their agendas. Funding frameworks began determining organisational strategies more than political realities on the ground. New concepts emerged every funding cycle\u2014good governance, resilience, social cohesion, localisation, innovation, digital transformation, climate adaptation, artificial intelligence\u2014each important in itself, but often adopted because they reflected donor interests rather than locally developed political analysis.<\/p>\n

This dependence has slowly weakened the sector’s ability to formulate an independent understanding of Sri Lanka’s changing political economy. Organisations became increasingly skilled at writing proposals and producing measurable outputs but less capable of analysing power, ideology, state transformation, or the structural causes of inequality. Civil society became technically proficient while politically cautious.<\/p>\n

The consequences are visible today.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has undergone profound political changes over the last decade. Economic collapse, mass public protests, constitutional instability, increasing centralisation of state power, rising nationalism, shrinking civic space, and growing public distrust of institutions require careful political analysis. Yet much of the NGO sector has struggled to provide coherent frameworks for understanding these developments. Technical programming has frequently replaced political engagement.<\/p>\n

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the debate surrounding the proposed NGO legislation.<\/p>\n

Regulation of civil society is neither unusual nor inherently problematic. Every democratic society requires transparent legal frameworks governing non-profit organisations. The concern arises when regulation becomes an instrument for expanding executive control over independent civic action or creates administrative mechanisms capable of restricting freedom of association.<\/p>\n

What has been striking is not simply the content of the proposed legislation but the relative weakness of collective resistance from within the NGO sector itself. Many organisations have confined themselves to technical comments, private consultations, or quiet negotiations rather than building a broad public conversation about civic freedoms and constitutional rights. Whether this reflects strategic calculation, institutional fatigue, dependence on government approval, or concern about jeopardising funding relationships remains open to debate. Yet the result is unmistakable: civil society has appeared more defensive than confident.<\/p>\n

The danger is not only external regulation but internal self-censorship.<\/p>\n

The broader political context also deserves attention. Successive governments have sought greater oversight of civil society. The current administration has continued this trajectory while presenting regulation as part of strengthening accountability and national governance. Regardless of which political party is in office, democratic societies require an independent civic sphere capable of engaging governments critically while remaining accountable to the public. The question is therefore larger than any individual administration or political movement; it concerns the future relationship between the state and organised civil society in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The NGO sector must also confront uncomfortable questions about itself.<\/p>\n

Has it become overly professionalised while distancing itself from grassroots constituencies?<\/p>\n

Has project management displaced movement building?<\/p>\n

Have logframes replaced political imagination?<\/p>\n

Has upward accountability to donors become stronger than downward accountability to communities?<\/p>\n

These are not accusations but necessary questions for institutional renewal. The above questions become more relevant with the<\/p>\n

The future of Sri Lankan civil society cannot depend solely on the return of international funding. A sustainable civic sector requires diversified domestic support, stronger public legitimacy, investment in research and political analysis, collaboration across ideological differences, and renewed engagement with social movements, trade unions, women’s organisations, youth networks, and community-based groups.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, civil society must recover its intellectual independence. Donors should support locally generated priorities rather than define them. Organisations should develop political analysis before writing project proposals\u2014not the other way around.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka continues to face profound challenges: democratic backsliding, economic inequality, climate vulnerability, ethnic divisions, gender injustice, and weakening public institutions. Addressing these challenges demands a civil society that is financially sustainable, politically independent, intellectually rigorous, and publicly trusted.<\/p>\n

The current crisis may therefore present an opportunity. The decline of donor funding, while painful, could force the sector to rediscover its original purpose\u2014not as an industry delivering projects, but as a democratic force capable of analysing power, mobilising citizens, and defending civic freedoms regardless of which government holds office.<\/p>\n

Whether Sri Lanka’s NGO sector chooses renewal or gradual irrelevance will shape not only its own future but the future of democracy itself.<\/p>\n

I will not dwell on the assurances the National People’s Power (NPP) once gave to civil society and the NGO sector, heralding what was claimed to be the dawn of a more democratic and participatory era. Those promises now stand in stark contrast to a Bill that seeks to tighten state control over civic space. There is little more to say except this: those who chose to believe that such promises alone would safeguard democratic freedoms are now reaping what they sowed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

*Nimalka Fernando- <\/strong>(Attorney-at-Law, former Commissioner of the Office on Missing Persons and Presidential Commission on Election Law Reforms, Convenor of Platform for Freedom(2009 -2017) and a member of the Advisory Group of the NGO Secretariat during the Yahapalanaya Government)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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