The role of aid on peace consolidation in postwar Sri Lanka

The three-decade war in Sri Lanka left parts of the northern and eastern regions severely destroyed. Those regions are populated by minority and marginalized ethnic groups. The expectation is that aid flows to those regions to rebuild after the war as they need the aid more than other places. Nonetheless, the regions are underdeveloped, and the underlying issues which caused the war are yet to be addressed. Hence, this paper aims to answer the research question, 'Are conflict-affected districts a priority in aid allocation in postwar Sri Lanka?' This paper is primarily concerned about the aid allocation post-conflict. However, since the tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, we use the aid allocation from the post-disaster environment to reveal aid patterns and potential biases. The paper uses GIS geocoding, mapping, spatial analysis, and econometric analysis to understand whether: (i) tsunami-affected districts received more aid than others, (ii) war-affected districts received more aid than others, (iii) economically developed districts receive less aid than others. The paper uses AidData on World Bank, Chinese, and the author's collected data on Asian Development Bank aid projects, 2002-2015. The study finds that donors do not respond to the needs of the recipient country. The maps and the analysis show that aid projects are predominantly in southern regions of the country and not in the war-affected districts.