Policy development for crisis management in the context of Sri Lanka

The paper aims to explore the key policy devising measures under crisis management in dealing with the covid-19 pandemic. A key argument in the study is that building policy for crisis requires the understanding of both governance capacity as well as legitimacy. Through the theoreti- cal lens of crisis management and resilience building, the study explores the key literature on the topic to arrive at a conceptual framework which is further explored through mixed-method research. The study explores the phenomenon in the context of Sri Lanka and its mechanism to deal with the pandemic. Fifteen interviews were conducted, followed by a sur- vey covering key sectors of tourism, information technology and educa- tion to understand the extent to which crisis management strategies were achieved in the policy procedures. The article identifies some key themes:
political capacity, stakeholder involvement, input capacity and throughput capacity in the overall governance system that requires further improve-
ments, including the gender differences in accepting the policy decisions, which can be explored in future work for greater insight.