Youth Employment: Key to future development in post-conflict Sri Lanka

Jaffna District, Sri Lanka, has recently emerged from three decades of violence and isolation, leading to a diverse array of political, social and economic issues. This research project critically analyses the link between youth employment and the economic and political sustainability of this post-conflict region of Sri Lanka. Discontent and disillusionment among youth is regarded as a potential threat to the stability of the country during the post-conflict period, and only through active employment and engagement of Sri Lankäs youth population can the threat of a resurgence in violence be fully eliminated. The goal of this research is to discover to what extent the phenomenon of youth unemployment has become an issue within post-conflict Jaffna District, and how the governmental, non-government, and community actors, are working together to solve this problem. Jaffna District was selected as the research location due to the region¿s prominence in the Sri Lankan civil war as a stronghold of the separatist LTTE forces, and due to the large influx of refugees and internally displaced peoples (IDPs) following the war¿s conclusion.