News

Record inflation and skyrocketing prices leave over 6 million Sri Lankans food insecure: WFP

Published

4 years ago

2022/07/8

As prices keep healthy meals out of reach, some 61 per cent of households are regularly using coping strategies to cut down on costs, such as reducing the amount they eat and consuming increasingly less nutritious meals.

And with opportunities to make enough income in the medium to long-term decreasing for an estimated 200,000 families, the UN food relief agency anticipates that even more people will turn to these coping strategies as the crisis deepens.

“These days, we don’t have a proper meal but eat only rice and gravy,” one woman told WFP.

WFP is warning that a lack of nutrition has grave consequences for pregnant women, putting both their own and their children’s health at risk.

“Pregnant mothers need to eat nutritious meals every day, but the poorest find it harder and harder to afford the basics,” WFP Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Anthea Webb said last month.

She told a local television station that by skipping meals, pregnant women were putting themselves and their children’s health at risk in a way that “carries throughout your life”.

To combat the food crisis and its effect on malnutrition, WFP has been distributing monthly food vouchers to pregnant women, valued at $40, in some of the poorest neighbourhoods, alongside antenatal care provided by the local government.

Debilitating inflation

Amidst a staggering 57.4 per cent inflation rate, steeply increasing food prices have crippled the population’s ability to put sufficient and nutritious meals on the table, rendering two in five households without adequate diets.

The food security situation is worst among people working in the farming estates sector – such as large tea plantations – where more than half of households are food insecure, according to WFP.

In all measures of food insecurity and coping strategies, these households have consistently poorer outcomes than urban and rural populations.

While urban households are depleting savings to cope for now, families on rural estates are already turning to credit, in order to buy food and other necessities.

“Poor families in cities and those who work on estates have seen their incomes plummet while market prices have soared,” the WFP official said.

A gloomy picture

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress and severely undermining the country’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said WFP.

A current oil supply shortage has forced schools and government offices to close until further notice.

Reduced domestic agricultural production, a lack of foreign exchange reserves, and local currency depreciation, have fuelled the shortages.

The economic crisis will push families into hunger and poverty – some for the first time – adding to the half a million people who the World Bank estimates have fallen below the poverty line because of the pandemic.

WFP steps up

To address the downward spiralling situation, last month WFP launched a $60 million emergency appeal for food and nutrition to assist three million of the most at-risk Sri Lankans.

“We must act now before this becomes a humanitarian catastrophe,” warned WFP chief David Beasley in a tweet.

To date, the agency has delivered 88 per cent of the first batch of 2,375 vouchers it has available, and targeted three million people to receive emergency food, nutrition, and school meals, until December.

As prices keep healthy meals out of reach, some 61 per cent of households are regularly using food-based coping strategies, such as reducing the amount they eat and consuming increasingly less nutritious food.

And with the medium- to long-term income-generating capacities at severe risk for an estimated 200,000 families, the UN food relief agency anticipates that even more people will turn to these coping strategies as the crisis deepens.

“These days, we don’t have a proper meal but eat only rice and gravy,” one woman told WFP.

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Establishment of National Trade Negotiation Committee (NTFC) and Trade Policy Consultation Committee.

Published

1 hour ago

2026/09/9

Priyan

Approval has been granted at the cabinet meeting held on 24-08-2026 to implement the recommendations submitted by the committee appointed to review Sri Lanka’s current Free Trade Agreements and future course of Free Trade Agreements in Sri Lanka.

Taking into account these recommendations, it has been
recognized the necessity of establishing a National Trade Negotiation Committee and Trade Policy Consultation Committee enabling Sri Lanka to follow a more targeted, sequential, and evidence-based approach in conducting negotiations for Sri Lanka’s future Free Trade Agreements and to ensure a sustainable and meaningful stakeholder consultation process.

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Trade, Commercial, Food Security, and Cooperative Development to act as follows.

• Establishment of a National Trade Negotiation Committee to guide trade discussions conducted with potential bilateral or regional trade partners
• Appointment of the Secretary to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security, and Cooperative Development as the Chairman of the National Trade Negotiation Committee and
the Chief National Trade Negotiator.
• Establishment of 12 subject specific sub- committees with the required technical working groups under the National Trade Negotiation Committee
• Appointment of Trade Policy Consultative Committee comprising of trade experts, researchers engaged in research relevant to trade field, business community, unions, civil societies and relevant public officers to instruct the National Trade Negotiation Committee on active and technical sectors, to submit the policy recommendations to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the matters relevant to the trade agreements, to inquire sustainable ideas regarding the Free Trade Agreements, and to ensure the communication mechanism.
• The Minister in charge of the Subject international trade and the Minister in charge of the subject of Industry to serve as Co-Chairpersons of the Trade Policy Advisory Committee.

News

Justice Minister hits back at CLA

Published

11 hours ago

2026/09/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

Harshana Nanayakkara

By Saman Indrajith

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara yesterday told Parliament that the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association (CLA) was not an organisation officially recognised or registered under the Commonwealth Secretariat, but a fee-levying private association.

Responding to a question by Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa on why he had failed to meet CLA representatives, who recently visited Sri Lanka, Nanayakkara said he had offered them a date and time for a meeting, but they had been unable to attend.

The Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) has questioned procedural fairness and other matters of concern in a report that deals with the Supreme Court hearing petitions against the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. Among the issues raised by CLA President Steven Thiru, is the composition of the five-member bench.

The Minister said the CLA representatives subsequently requested another date, but he had already scheduled official engagements for the proposed day.

Nanayakkara said it was, therefore, incorrect to claim that he had refused to meet the CLA delegation.

“The CLA is not an official body accepted or admitted into the Commonwealth of countries. It is a private club whose members pay fees for membership,” he said.

However, the Minister said he was not suggesting that the organisation was “a bad organisation”, adding that the accuracy of several statements made by CLA members during their visit to Sri Lanka had yet to be established.

Nanayakkara identified lawyer Upul Jayasuriya as the CLA’s local representative and said Jayasuriya had sought a meeting with him.

“I gave him the opportunity, but he came up with the excuse that he could not make it as he was not in Colombo. Therefore, it is wrong to state that I did not give them time,” the Minister said.

News

First visit by an Indian Defence Minister since IPKF deployment

Published

11 hours ago

2026/09/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

Deputy Minister Maj. Gen. Aruna Jayasekera receiving Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on his arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) yesterday.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is in Colombo on a three-day official visit, the first by an Indian Defence Minister since the 1988 visit by K.C. Pant, during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as the Prime Minister.

The Indian Defence Ministry declared that the visit would further strengthen the traditionally strong and friendly bilateral relations in mutually beneficial areas, including a strong maritime and defence partnership.

The visit takes place in the wake of Sri Lanka and India signing seven MoUs, including one on defence, in April 2025. Communist Party General Secretary Dr. G. Weerasinghe told The Island that the government should set the record straight regarding the rapidly developing military relations with the US and India. The acquisition of Colombo Dockyard Ltd., by Indian Defence Ministry-run Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, soon after the finalisation of MoUs, underscored New Delhi’s strategy, Dr. Weerasinghe said. Responding to another query, Dr. Weerasinghe said that the government should take this opportunity to discuss the Tamil Nadu fishing fleet poaching on Sri Lankan waters.

Pant visited during the Indian Army operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Northern and Eastern Provinces here, while Pranab Mukherjee visited Colombo, in August 2005, to pay last respects to assassinated Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

Indian and Sri Lanka governments said that the visit was meant to strengthen cooperation between the two neighbouring countries in the fields of defence, economic engagement, maritime affairs and regional security.

An Indian warship arrived at the Colombo harbour ahead of the Defence Minister’s visit, reminiscent of old gunboat diplomacy. INS Udayagiri’s visit coincided with the Defence Minister’s visit. The Defence Minister’s delegation included senior officials from Ministry of External Affairs.

During the visit, the Indian Defence Minister is scheduled to hold high-level discussions with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake who also holds the Defence portfolio, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and Defence Secretary Sampath Thuyacontha. He is also expected to meet members of the Indian community, residing in Colombo.

Dr. Weerasinghe said that the NPP government conveniently extended the moratorium on foreign research vessels imposed during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure in 2024. The CP official said that the media alleged that that decision was taken at the behest of the US and India but nearly two years after the last presidential election the ban remains.