The Sri Lankan National Steering Committee (NSC) of CANSA unanimously appointed Navam Niles of SLYCAN and Sarath Ekanayake of CABRE as the new Co-Chairs of the NSC at its third meeting for the year at the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), on July 01, 2014. The participants included members of the NSC: Bandula Chandrasena (Energy Forum), Gothami Chandrarathne (SLRC), Sarath Ekanayake (CABRE), Ranga Pallawala and Bhathiya Kekulananda (Janathakshan), Karin Fernando (CEPA), Navam Niles (SLYCAN), Vositha Wijenayake and Senashia Ekanayake (CANSA).

Sarath Ekanayake is from the Centre for Applied Biodiversity Research and Education or CABRE and focuses on specifically on climate change and biodiversity.  Navam Niles works as a Research Associate at SLYCAN, focusing on energy security and the politics concerning global environmental problems.

The meeting also updated CANSA SL partners on the status of their national strategy objectives, evaluate CANSA Secretariat’s current updates for potential avenues of co-operation, and review collaborative initiatives between CANSA and CANSA SL.

Update on the National Strategy

With regard to the Membership, the NSC noted that the committee needed to take active steps to increase the number of members in Sri Lanka and to plan activities that will focus on achieving this objective. Further, it was agreed upon that the Committee reaches out new member organisations that initially expressed interest to join but not responded since.

The NSC also explored the idea of inviting non-member organisations to capacity-building initiatives and decided to initiate a knowledge-sharing event organised and for all members of CANSA SL to make each organisation aware of the various fields of expertise.

Updates from CANSA SL

Since the last NSC meeting, a “Negotiator Training” for the Ministry of Environment and 21 other affiliated ministries was conducted. The two-day workshop included local experts and resource persons from South Asia, including CAN International Policy Co-ordinator Siddharth Pathak. The workshop was an important step in establishing relations with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy.

A Journalism training workshop on the UN REDD+ programme and biodiversity conservation in April 2014 and private sector partnerships in climate finance, communicating climate change and updates from the UNFCCC secretariat in June 2014 were held as part of the partnership with the Sri Lanka Press Institute.

Events in the Months Ahead

The NSC discussed other thematic possibilities for the monthly workshop on climate change communication.

A workshop on National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to be planned for August through members of CANSA SL, Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy and UNFCCC. This will be held on the August 19, 2014, with UNFCCC NAPs Division Manager Paul Desanker, as a resource person. The workshop aims at contributing to the National Adaptation Plan, which is being drafted for Sri Lanka, and to gain a better understanding of the guidelines of developing a NAP according to the UNFCCC guidelines.