Abstract:
Natural disasters have a disproportionate influence on the lives of those impacted, with
the most marginalised often bearing the brunt of the repercussions. As a result,
marginalised communities should be expressly considered in post-disaster policy
development. While the international community has adopted the concepts of resilience
and inclusion, marginalised communities are frequently disregarded in post-disaster
management. There is a dearth of literature on the engagement of marginalised
communities in Sri Lanka's post-disaster context. Moreover, the policies to support the
marginalised communities need to be reviewed to explore the extent to which such
policies are implemented to benefit the disadvantaged groups in a disaster situation.
Therefore, this paper aims to review the existing policies to improve the engagement of
marginalised communities during the post-disaster context in Sri Lanka. To achieve the
aim, a comprehensive desk study on significant global and national policies was carried
out. Through the desk study, the policies and frameworks related to disaster management
were explored in order to identify the inclusion of marginalised communities in the postdisaster
context. The policies related to marginalised communities were further explored
in order to identify the inclusion of them in post-disaster situations. Finally, the study
confirmed that a refinement of the policies in the Sri Lankan context is crucial.
Furthermore, as a way forward, the study suggested assessing the current level of
implementation of existing policies as well as barriers to implementation in order to
increase the inclusion of marginalised communities in Sri Lanka's post-disaster context.
