World Vision uses persuasion, dialogue and reason to advocate for changes that will positively impact people’s quality of life and address the root causes of poverty. Often these actions involve changing the hearts and minds of people from policy makers to members of the community.

The Sri Lankan context is particularly restrictive and complex in nature and needs to be addressed with great sensitivity. The context throws out fresh challenges on almost a daily basis in a dynamic and ever changing situation.

The challenges provide an opportunity for some strong advocacy interventions particularly at the policy level to ensure World Vision Lanka (WVL) staff have the humanitarian space to work in and a safe and secure environment.

WVL’s Advocacy interventions are usually through coalitions and networks within the humanitarian sector to lobby for a range of issues from negative media and humanitarian access, to child rights and child protection, IDPs and their rights and child soldiers.

WVL plays a key role in all of these interventions and has established itself as a leading and respected voice for advocacy within the country with wide credibility amongst other key stakeholders.

Issues linked with the social, economic and political contexts still hinder the development of the country. The root cause of most of the issues is poverty. WVL works with communities to empower them to lobby against injustice.