The year 2022 tested Sri Lanka and its people like never before, with an unparalleled economic and political crisis. But despite these challenges, UNFPA Sri Lanka stood strong, with an unwavering
dedication to serve those most impacted by the crisis: women, young people and marginalized groups left behind.

As a key partner to the Government of Sri Lanka, we focused on effecting policy change, system strengthening and community mobilization while strengthening service delivery and data generation in crucial areas such as family planning, maternal health, and gender-based violence response across the humanitarian, peace and development nexus. We launched a humanitarian appeal and mobilized over US$10 million to provide emergency medicines, commodities, and obstetric care to pregnant women, as well as protection and response services to women and girls at risk of violence.

But UNFPA Sri Lanka’s efforts didn’t stop there. To accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with the three transformative goals, we also provided technical support for the drafting of the policy and bill on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment and the draft Bill on the National Commission on Women.

In addition, we empowered youth as change agents, worked to integrate sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services, and provided comprehensive sexuality education to improve access to accurate information among adolescents. And as the lead data agency, UNICEF Sri Lanka enabled dissemination of high-quality data on population and socioeconomic indicators and published the National Transfer Account Analysis Report, highlighting the invaluable contributions of women in the economy.

As the crisis continued to evolve, UNFPA Sri Lanka recognized the need for innovation and agility. We worked tirelessly to reengineer our approach, paving the way for a new five-year Country Programme (2023 to 2027) that integrates the effects of megatrends like aging and climate change. With a focus on evidence generation, innovation, digitalization, and partnerships as accelerators for impact, UNFPA Sri Lanka is committed to achieving the three transformative results: zero unmet need for family planning, zero gender-based violence and zero preventable maternal deaths.

In the face of unprecedented challenges, UNFPA Sri Lanka’s results in 2022 and undaunted resilience stand testament to the power of commitment and collaboration in driving future progress.

Kunle Adeniyi
UNFPA Representative, Sri Lanka

In 2022, UNFPA Sri Lanka doubled down on its commitment to strengthen health systems, particularily to ensure that women and young people have access to a diverse array of sexual and reproductive health services. With a particular focus on voluntary family planning, maternal health care, well woman services and youth-friendly health services, UNFPA was determined to support and empower vulnerable Sri Lankans though the transformative power of health. 

At the heart of gender equality and women's empowerment lies family planning – an indispensable tool in combating poverty and uplifting communities. Through targeted programmes that honed the skills of health workers in low-performing districts, UNFPA Sri Lanka sought to eradicate the unmet need for family planning, bringing the country one step closer to achieving its Family Planning 2030 commitments. By initiating policy dialogues and engaging in constructive conversations, UNFPA also helped to elevate the status of family planning, paving the way for a brighter, healthier future.

Recognizing the importance of improving access to reproductive health services for all, UNFPA worked to make comprehensive sexuality education more accessible, especially to marginalized young people.  By addressing the unmet need for family planning, reducing teenage pregnancies and empowering adolescent girls and boys with knowledge and skills through comprehensive sexuality education, UNFPA made an invaluable contribution to the lives of young Sri Lankans.

In six districts, UNFPA trained more than 500 teachers to relay reliable comprehensive sexuality education and life skills to adolescents in schools. Teacher training and teacher educator training modules were developed with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and the National Institute of Education.   

Harmful social norms and the lack of accurate information often stand in the way of women and girls accessing vital services. That’s why in 2022 UNFPA focused on raising awareness and educating people about family planning, healthy spacing, sub-fertility, and teenage pregnancy through campaigns that shone a light on these critical issues. 

Finally, UNFPA supported 34 centres to provide adolescent- and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, built the capacities of service providers, and addressed issues with law enforcement officials to create an enabling an environment for young people to access services without stigma and discrimination.

Maternal health services are not just vital, but truly life-saving. In 2022, UNFPA continued to bolster the health system to deliver quality maternal and child health services, ensuring no woman or adolescent girl dies from preventable pregnancy or childbirth-related causes. By empowering women and girls to make informed choices about family planning, UNFPA is able to safeguard healthy pregnancies and protect the rights of all females in Sri Lanka. For this, UNFPA established mobile and outreach clinics that cater to the specific health needs of women and girls in hard-to-reach areas, especially in the plantation sector and among factory workers. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, UNFPA provided personal protective equipment to health workers to ensure uninterrupted services in maternal and child health, family planning, sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence response.

With UNFPA’s support, Sri Lanka achieved full implementation of its commitment to the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. At the centre of UNFPA’s mission to end preventable maternal deaths lies the goal of improving both the quality and accessibility of maternal health services. To achieve this, UNFPA worked with health workers involved in maternal and child health, family planning, cancer prevention, and HIV and youth programmes, providing training on improving service quality and promoting better accountability, especially through feedback mechanisms. 

UNFPA also worked closely with the justice and legal system to protect and uphold the rights of survivors and young people, especially transgender sex workers, people living with HIV or those in prison. This helped to address the stigma and discrimination key populations face while trying to access health care, education, employment, and legal services. UNFPA also built knowledge and skills on condom micro skills among key populations and peer educators, safeguarding them from sexually transmitted illnesses.

Gender-based violence is a pervasive human rights violation and a pressing public health concern. 

In 2022, UNFPA continued to work with social, justice and health systems to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. These efforts culminated in landmark achievements, including the development of the first-ever National Policy on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, the draft Bill on the National Commission on Women, and bills on gender equality. 

UNFPA went further, initiating a gender-based violence information management system to strengthen evidence-based services for victims across 10 districts. Police officers in the health, social, legal and justice sectors were trained on multi-sectoral coordination for prevention and response to gender-based violence.

Improving protection services for survivors of gender-based violence has been a key feature of UNFPA’s work in Sri Lanka. Informed by the evidence from the National Shelter Assessment conducted in 2021, standard operating procedures were developed for UNFPA-supported shelters. 

Additionally, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, UNFPA began developing the next iteration of the National Action Plan on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. This initiative included consultations with stakeholders in eight provinces and active civil society engagement. Furthermore, a UNFPA-supported national media campaign, which raised awareness of available helplines and strove to improve help-seeking behaviour, reached over 12 million people and saw a doubling of calls for help. 

Collaborating with Colombo Fashion Week and designer Amilani Perera, UNFPA focused on addressing gender-based violence in a sector where human rights violations often go unseen, unaddressed, and unchecked. Through the initiative, the designer worked with UNFPA to empower survivors through craft skills training and marketability coaching, as well training on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse for those within the industry.

UNFPA partnered with the Disaster Management Centre to develop a powerful tool — a handbook on sexual and gender-based violence in disasters. This handbook serves as a guiding light, illuminating a comprehensive approach and providing practical guidelines that cover a broad spectrum of possible responses in any disaster scenario. Policymakers, first responders and community groups can now confidently plan, coordinate and implement key actions for a gender-equitable disaster response.

The handbook will contribute to the implementation of the Policy Framework and National Plan of Action to address sexual and gender-based violence. To ensure that the knowledge is widespread, 620 senior officials, members of the tri-forces, and first responders were trained on the handbook.

The cohort included Disaster Management Centre officers, women development officers, counseling officers, midwives, as well as public health inspectors in the Kalutara, Ratnapura, Galle, Badulla, Kandy and Kegalle districts.

During the training sessions, participants focused on integrating action plans for the prevention of violence and sexual exploitation and abuse during disaster situations. The training covered risk mitigation and minimizing vulnerabilities among communities affected by disasters. Thanks to this collaboration, the future response to disaster situations in these areas will be safer, more effective, and equitable for all.

UNFPA supports generation and dissemination of reliable data and new methodologies to inform policies and programmes on population. In partnership with the Department of National Planning, UNFPA has championed the use of the national time transfer account (NTTA) methodology as a means of showcasing women's comprehensive contributions to the economy. This methodology accounts for their value-added domestic and care work.

Furthermore, in a bid to enhance data dissemination, UNFPA worked hand-in-hand with the Department of Census and Statistics to create stimulating data visualizations, updated collateral, and easily operable dashboards.

Fostering a culture of producing and using reliable data is central to UNFPA’s mandate. UNFPA supported the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) to develop a new visual direction and effective communication with policymakers, academia, and the general public. 

DCS's new visual direction, updated collateral, and plug-and-play dashboards were created for easy identification, codification, fast and simple application, and communicational impact. All were underscored by environmental and stakeholder analyses coupled with leadership and capacity development within DCS to maintain and progress this co-created endeavor. 

A key feature of this collaboration is the disability-inclusive material, including first-ever braille and large-print publications, to enable data literacy among the visually disabled community, making DCS the first government department in the country to speak to the visually impaired. A brand guide, publishing style guides, and social media guidelines were developed, and staff was trained on the rollout of the new brand identity. 

An online data visualization repository was developed making it easy for staff to access these resources to create reports, data sheets, and other outreach materials necessary for the dissemination of DCS data. These standard tools and templates save time and create efficiencies, as well as brand cohesion. The multiple dashboards provide users with easy access to historical and current statistics in user-friendly and engaging formats.

The project drives innovation via design thinking in modern times – it helps public organizations see themselves through their constituents, creating better internal processes that result in public system changes around information gathering, analysis, dissemination, accountability, and transparency.

Throughout 2022, UNFPA Sri Lanka continued to expand and fortify its partnerships with diverse stakeholders, ranging from national and local government to civil society, academia, and corporate companies. Recognizing the immense value in engaging multi-sectoral and multi-level partners, UNFPA Sri Lanka employed a proactive and strategic approach to fostering these relationships, ultimately creating synergies and presenting shared opportunities for enhanced impact and support in pursuit of the organization's mission.

In addition to these partnerships, UNFPA Sri Lanka joined forces with sister United Nations agencies across the humanitarian-development and peace network, including UN Women, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNDP, International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, FAO, WFP, and the International Organization for Migration. Together, they collaborated on vital initiatives aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence, strengthening disaster risk reduction, and designing and implementing joint humanitarian programming for maximum efficacy.

UNFPA Sri Lanka also built on strong pre-existing partnerships with Save the Children, Family Planning Association, World Vision, Sarvodaya and Help Age, all in the name of ensuring that life-saving assistance and crucial services reach those who need them most. Additionally, UNFPA Sri Lanka engaged with esteemed professional bodies, including the Sri Lanka Medical Association and the Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, paving the way for impactful collaborations in the years to come.

In 2022, UNFPA worked to spread awareness about sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence through two powerful campaigns. With the aim of dispelling misconceptions and myths surrounding sexual health, the campaigns were designed to educate the general public, especially women and young people, about the available services for survivors of violence. The campaigns also encouraged family planning and creating healthy spacing between children.

In collaboration with the Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that helped to design the key messages, the first campaign under the PROMISES project received support from the Government of Japan and was broadcasted on five leading television and radio channels.

The broadcast featured 10 public service announcements and commercials in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, focusing on topics such as the importance of consent, healthy relationships, contraception, and the dangers of teenage pregnancy.

The second campaign was launched during the 16 Days of Activism and   the Mithuru Piyasa hotline for women and girls, especially those who are survivors of violence. Produced in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, the content was broadcasted on radio and television, almost doubling the calls at the helpline. 

The campaigns were a huge success, reaching approximately 12 million people, with an estimated 2 million unique viewers per campaign. .