Labour Minister and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando says the opportunity has now arisen to implement the social protection proposals set out in the government’s policy statement.
The cooperation of all stakeholders will be essential if those proposals are to be carried through, the minister said, according to Ada Derana.
He was speaking at the technical presentation of the National Action Plan on Social Care, a programme covering the next 10 years.
What the plan covers
The queue item that brought this story to LankaNewz described the plan as supervised by the International Labour Organization and involving several ministries, including labour, women’s affairs and children’s affairs. Ada Derana’s published report does not carry those details, and LankaNewz has not been able to confirm them from a verified source. They are noted here as unconfirmed rather than reported as fact.
Ada Derana’s account is brief. It does not give the plan’s cost, its funding source, the ministries involved, what services it would create or expand, or which groups it is intended to serve. It does not say when the plan goes to cabinet, whether it has been approved, or what the technical presentation was for.
Sri Lanka’s social care agenda has been under development for some time, with work on a national care system covering older people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. A separate ILO programme on social protection in South Asia, funded by Japan, has a Sri Lanka component. Whether Monday’s action plan forms part of that work is not established by the reporting.
Single-source
No other verified newsroom carried the minister’s remarks on Monday, and this report rests on Ada Derana alone. Fuller detail on the plan’s scope and funding would be needed before its significance can be assessed.
