About

The Global Forum on Democracy and Development (GFDD) is a project facilitated by the Democracy Institute of the Central European University. The three year project aims to move away from outdated views of democracy developed in and for a Euro-American context and create a cross-regional dialogue on democracy in its political, social, and economic dimensions. Through its regional hubs, the Forum has established a platform for critical collaboration between scholars from the Global South and North in order to confront a series of conceptual and policy-relevant challenges that are associated with reviving and reclaiming democracy and understanding the synergies between democracy and development.

As one of the regional institutional partners of the Forum, SSA is hosting two senior Fellows and six Post-doctoral Fellows in Colombo for a period of 08 months (October 2024-May 2025). Under the guidance of an Academic Convenor, the Fellows will engage in individual research projects related to the broad theme of democracy and development. They will also engage with academics from universities and research institutes in Sri Lanka during their residency to collaborate on various research endeavours. This knowledge exchange is expected to benefit local academics as well as the Fellows in developing their research, innovative teaching methods, and creating sustainable academic collaborations.

On 03rd of October 2024, a formal inauguration was organized at the SSA’s project office in Rosmead place to welcome the fellows of the Global Forum for Democracy and Development (GFDD) Project. Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, Prof. Neloufer de Mel, and Dr. Pradeep Peiris commenced the meeting by giving a brief description of the state and trends of democracy in Sri Lanka and highlighting the manner in which this project could contribute to Sri Lanka’s evolving democratic landscape. Further, they also expressed their expectation of facilitating a knowledge exchange between the local academics and the Fellows through this project. This was followed by a series of introductions between the fellows and the staff at SSA. The fellows also conducted their inaugural meeting where they discussed their research interests and the work they hope to do throughout the fellowship programme.