Foreign assistance and global trust: Rebuilding Sri Lanka with resilience and credibility

Foreign assistance does not replace reform-but credible leadership allows it to accelerate recovery, restore confidence, and build lasting resilience

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SRI Lanka's rebuilding effort following the recent disaster comes at a critical moment in its economic recovery. With limited fiscal space and fragile growth momentum, foreign assistance plays a pivotal role in enabling reconstruction without destabilising public finances. Beyond emergency relief, well-structured external supportthrough grants, concessional financing, technical expertise, and institutional strengthening-can accelerate infrastructure rebuilding, revive MSMEs and livelihoods, and embed"Build Back Better" principles that reduce future disaster risks.

Equally important is leadership credibility. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's growing international standing as a reformoriented and transparent leader strengthens donor confidence, improves financing terms, accelerates disbursements, and helps crowd in private investment and diaspora engagement. When aligned with strong governance, transparency, and domestic reform, foreign assistance becomes leverage rather than dependency.

The central challenge for Sri Lanka is not access to goodwill, but the effective conversion of global trust into resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth-transforming recovery from a short-term response into a long-term national reset.

Natural disasters expose more than physical vulnerabilities; they reveal the strength of institutions, leadership, and international relationships. For Sri Lanka, the recent disaster has arrived at a delicate moment-just as the economy was gradually stabilising after years of macroeconomic stress. The challenge today is not merely to repair damage, but to rebuild in a way that restores confidence, protects growth, and reduces future vulnerability.

In this context, foreign assistance is not simply humanitarian relief. When structured strategically and aligned with national priorities, it becomes a powerful instrument for economic stabilisation, institutional strengthening, and long-term resilience.