Sri Lanka 

Introduction

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, a unitary state, is situated in the Indian Ocean close to the south-eastern tip of the Indian sub-continent. It has a land area of 65,610 sq km2 and an estimated population of 20,926,315.

The official languages are Sinhala and Tamil. 

There are three types of local authority. These include 42 urban councils and 18 municipal councils in the urban areas, and 270 pradeshiya sabhas in the rural areas. The capital, Colombo, has its own municipal council. The contribution of local government to GDP was 0.2 per cent in 2005. 

Summary

Sri Lanka has adopted decentralisation policies which have resulted in formal devolution of powers to provincial councils and from these councils to divisional secretariats. Local authorities operate across the country in both urban and rural areas. Their powers and responsibilities, primarily in the areas of public and environmental health, have remained unchanged since constitutional recognition was given to local government in 1987. As most local authorities lack a strong revenue resource base there is a dependency on central government transfers through the provincial councils, which have responsibility under the constitution for their supervision. 

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