UNICEF Sri Lanka Representative Emma Brigham says the country is at a promising moment for advancing child rights, but warns that significant challenges, from rising child poverty and persistent malnutrition to learning gaps and violence, continue to demand urgent and coordinated attention.
Brigham, who returned to Colombo in August after serving as UNICEF’s Deputy Representative in Bangladesh, previously worked in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marking just over 100 days in her new role, she told journalists that returning to the island after leaving at a time of profound crisis had been “heartwarming.”
“When I left, Sri Lanka was facing many challenges. Now, children are back in school, tourists are returning, and the streets feel alive again,” she reflected, noting that the renewed sense of stability is matched by “A child rights agenda at the core of Government priorities.”
Her remarks came during the week of World Children’s Day — a significant moment for UNICEF as it marks 36 years since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted, 35 years since Sri Lanka became a signatory, and 34 years since its ratification.
Brigham acknowledged that Sri Lanka has celebrated many milestones over the decades, including near-universal immunisation, almost universal primary education, and strong community-level health services. Yet she cautioned that these achievements are increasingly overshadowed by widening gaps in the information needed to understand children’s realities.
“We are working with data that is often outdated, incomplete or inconsistent. Without strong national and sector-wide data systems, it is extremely difficult to identify needs, monitor progress or intervene early,” she said.
UNICEF’s recent multidimensional poverty analysis, carried out with the Department of Census and Statistics, revealed that four out of ten Sri Lankan children are deprived in at least two fundamental dimensions of rights including access to health, education, nutrition, sanitation and protection. These deprivations are especially pronounced in the estate sector and in several areas of the North and East, where some children face four or five overlapping disadvantages.
“The economic crisis doubled poverty rates. Recovering from that takes time,” Brigham explained. Multidimensional poverty, she noted, is “not about money in your pocket alone, but your ability to access the services a child needs to grow to their full potential.”
Yet even this analysis, she stressed, is hindered by a broader problem: The absence of up-to-date, routine statistics across key social sectors.
Violence against children remains pervasive, but the full extent is difficult to assess because national data has not been updated in recent years and reporting systems remain fragmented. While violence spiked during the pandemic, there is no evidence of any sustained reduction since.
Malnutrition displays similar patterns. Despite the strong reach of Sri Lanka’s health system, stunting, wasting and low birth weight rates have remained stubbornly unchanged, with the lack of high-quality routine nutrition data making it harder to pinpoint underlying causes. Learning, too, requires renewed focus. Brigham noted that many children struggle with basic literacy and numeracy, yet sector-wide data on foundational learning remains thin.
Sri Lanka allocates around 5 per cent of its GDP to health, education and social protection combined. UNICEF hopes to see greater prioritisation for these areas but welcomes the Government’s renewed emphasis on improving efficiency and ensuring that allocated funds are fully utilised — a crucial step as under spending has repeatedly hindered progress.
Brigham expressed particular concern about foundational literacy and numeracy trends. Too many children, she said, lack basic competencies that shape the rest of their education journey. She voiced optimism that ongoing curriculum reforms– including the introduction of 21st century skills and expanded early childhood development components — could help reverse these trends, although such reforms “Take significant time to translate into impact”.
Digital initiatives in schools, she observed after a visit to Trincomalee, are generating excitement among students, even as teachers navigate anxieties about new technologies. Ensuring equity in digital access remains a priority.
Sri Lanka’s lingering reliance on institutional care also drew attention. An estimated 8,000 children continue to live in institutions despite most having at least one parent alive and living nearby. “Children thrive in families, not institutions,” Brigham said, urging the full operationalisation of the country’s comprehensive 2019 alternative care policy, which prioritises family-based care.
The Government’s commitments made in Bogotá last year to end violence in all settings, including schools, were described as “Critical and welcome,” though Brigham emphasised that consistent follow-through is essential. On nutrition, she said the stagnation in wasting, stunting and low birth weight rates, worsened during the economic crisis, underscores the need for strengthened collaboration across ministries and UN partners such as WFP. Because nutrition is multisectoral, “No single ministry can tackle it alone.”
