Structural reforms, care insurance systems crucial to reverse Sri Lanka’s declining female labour force anomaly

In an article for Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror, journalist Nishel Fernando reports on highlights from Ito Peng’s keynote address to Asian Development Bank’s June 2026 Serendipity Knowledge Program. Dileni Gunewardena, Care Economies in Context Sri Lanka team lead, presented at the event as well.

Ito Peng is PI of the Care Economies in Context project and Director of Centre for Global Social Policy.

Dileni Gunewardena is leads the Care Economies in Context Sri Lanka team.

Citation

Fernando, N. (2026). Structural reforms, care insurance systems crucial to reverse Sri Lanka’s declining female labour force anomaly. Daily Mirror. https://www.dailymirror.lk/business-news/Structural-reforms-care-insurance-systems-crucial-to-reverse-Sri-Lankas-declining-female-labour-force-anomaly/273-341922

Excerpt

University of Toronto Professor of Sociology and Public Policy Ito Peng, delivering the keynote virtually at the ADB Serendipity Knowledge Programme held in Colombo yesterday, highlighted that the East Asian economic comparators successfully reversed similar contractions by implementing robust, state-backed care systems and stringent employment frameworks.

“I think there are a couple of important factors or reasons that made the increases in female labour force participation in Canada, Japan and South Korea possible,” Prof. Peng noted.

“The first is public and government recognition of care responsibilities and unpaid care work that’s been done by women in these countries and by recognising those, these countries’ governments have actively implemented active policies to reduce women’s unpaid care work.” Japan initiated structural work-family harmonisation policies in 1992, rolling out expanded parental leaves and heavily subsidised public childcare. To counter a rapidly aging population, Tokyo later established a universal long-term care insurance system in 2000, modelled after Germany’s pioneering 1995 framework.