In perspective…

The IMF and World Bank met for its spring meeting this April, and Anushka Wijesinghe and Fadhil Bakeer Markar were part of a very important delegation that took part in this event. The South Asian division of the World Bank, having got on the universal bandwagon of youth empowerment, took the initiative with the first-ever youth delegation to the meeting. And so a handful of representatives from the South Asian region were chosen to represent the youth of the world-later it turned out that they were the only youth delegation for the entire conference!

While only one youth representative was chosen from the other countries, Sri Lanka struck gold and ended up with two opportunities. The young delegates were chosen through a Facebook announcement on the World Bank Sri Lanka page-what could be more fitting when it came to this generation? Hopefuls were asked to apply to be part of this delegation and were subsequently screened by the World Bank’s senior management team. Anushka, with his involvement in Sri Lanka Unites and his Economics background, and Fadhil with his development background in the UN and extensive volunteer management skills, were chosen as the Sri Lankan representatives.

The IMF and World Bank meet twice a year one with the spring meeting and the other is the annual meeting which is held towards the latter part of the year. The spring meeting can bring rise to issues that are later discussed again at the annual meeting, says Anushka. ‘Things change so dynamically these days, so stances which were taken on matters earlier can often change.’

Anushka and Fadhil tag teamed for a joint presentation, which they took with them to the meeting. “The other representatives had done presentations about their personal projects, but Fadhil and I thought why not promote Sri Lanka, and made the presentation all about youth development and the economic situation in Sri Lanka. We also worked in the volunteer aspect that’s currently seeing a huge emergence in the island.”

As someone who’s been working with Sri Lanka Unites since its inception, Anushka felt the weight of his responsibility in being a youth representative of Sri Lanka. ‘I’ve met so many young people through Sri Lanka Unites, and I went into this knowing that there were at least a hundred other young people who could’ve represented the country as well as I could. Both Fadhil and I spoke not just for ourselves, but for the country’s youth.”

They were in Washington D.C. (where the spring meetings were held) last month. For Anushka, who admits to being ‘bit of a geek’, it was the professional equivalent to being at the Oscars. ‘I met so many of people that I look upto! Christine Lagarde, Kaushik Basu, and the outgoing president of the World Bank…it was amazing.”

He even got to sit in at a panel discussion thanks to his economical background. “There was this discussion on youth unemployment, and I said that in Sri Lanka we had a very low percentage of overall unemployment but that youth unemployment was about three times that. And this guy from Greece just laughed and said what are you saying man, in Greece its 50%!’ Anushka grins. “That certainly put things in perspective.”

Meeting other young people from South Asia was another experience that opened his eyes to new viewpoints, he says. For example, “Bhutan’s youth rep was a farmer, and he spoke extensively about Gross National Happiness. When you hear things like that, you have to wonder if you’ve been measuring economic development the right way. It makes you question the validity of applying the same principle to measure economic development in all countries.”

He adds that the World Bank and the IMF took great initiatives when it came to choosing a youth delegation to participate in the spring meetings. “We were treated with a lot of respect,” he says. “There were times when people would’ve felt like the youth delegation were there just to create that illusion of inclusion, but I feel they had their hearts in the right place when it came to asking us to be a part of this. We have to remember that the IMF is this massive organization, and they’ve been functioning in a certain way for years. To make changes in their structures takes a lot of effort, and while implementation might not have been the smoothest, I think we’re off to a good start.”