Policy Recommendations

The last day of each conference will include an all-day roundtable discussion with activists and representatives of UN, international and national non-governmental organizations and government institutions located in that country so that researchers and other scholars can directly interact and discuss their research findings and scholarly perspectives with actors on the ground and receive an initial feedback from them.

Based on these interactions and initial feedback, ICES will prepare a series of policy briefs on selected aspects of the research findings. Each brief will also include suggestions and recommendations for INGOs intervening in existing political conflict zones affected by fresh natural disasters with high humanitarian costs. These briefs will be produced in consultation with Sunil Bastian, experienced Development Consultant and Senior Fellow, ICES. Mr Bastian, who already serves on some very important donor advisory boards will also help to disseminate these policy briefs via several informal workshops that will be conducted for donors and policy makers, both in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, as well as through the media and the internet.

ICES will also work in conjunction with several local NGOs such as the Legal Aid Commission and the Centre for Policy Alternatives which are seeking to monitor complaints about unfair disbursement of tsunami funds, at the grassroots level, and enable increased consultation of affected communities and involve their participation in rehabilitative and development processes, post tsunami. Similar work is already being conducted by Aceh Institute, in Indonesia.