Inclusive Employment Pathways: Mapping Barriers and Policy Reforms for Persons with Disabilities in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, persons with disabilities face systemic barriers to employment, including discrimination, inaccessible infrastructure, limited training opportunities, and weak policy implementation. Although the garment sector—employing over 350,000 workers and accounting for 44% of national exports—offers significant potential for inclusive growth, persons with disabilities remain largely excluded from its workforce. To address this gap, IFC-ILO Better Work Sri Lanka, supported by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, launched the Inclusive Threads initiative to promote disability-inclusive employment in the apparel industry through capacity building, policy reform, and vocational training.

This Capstone project will identify the key obstacles that prevent persons with disabilities from accessing and sustaining decent work, while outlining actionable policy and programmatic reforms. The SIPA team will adopt a holistic approach—analyzing barriers at individual, institutional, and structural levels—and assess the current policy landscape, including Sri Lanka’s compliance with ILO conventions and disability inclusion frameworks.

Through literature reviews, stakeholder interviews, and field research with government bodies, employers, unions, and organizations for persons with disabilities, the team will map gaps in education, training, and workplace accessibility. The analysis will inform practical recommendations to strengthen and scale Better Work Sri Lanka’s disability inclusion efforts, potentially expanding them beyond the apparel sector. The final deliverable will provide a data-driven framework to guide inclusive employment policy, institutional reform, and the next phase of the Inclusive Threads program.