‘In Advocata, everyone’s ideas matter’

Getting to know the dynamic youth-led team behind one of the country’s premier think tanks

By Paramie Jayakody

The sounds of chatter and laughter echo down as we climb up a nondescript staircase in a nondescript house nestled in a quaint lane in the middle of Colombo. By all appearances, there’s nothing to immediately distinguish this house from the rest, yet this is where I found myself one fine Friday morning; at the Advocata HQ. 

Chief Operating Officer Dhananath Fernando

As Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, more and more difficulties and hardships are surfacing every day. Various groups – volunteers, researchers, economists, and more – have stepped up to help in whatever ways they can to keep the country and its people afloat. 

Even the youth are not spared of this situation, and are, in fact, key drivers behind many of the changes as they unlearn and relearn in an effort to stop history from repeating itself. It is in that context that we had the pleasure of meeting the team behind one of Sri Lanka’s premier think tanks, which also happens to consist mainly of youth. 

“It is quite a new experience handling a young team,” Advocata’s Chief Operating Officer Dhananath Fernando shared with us. “You have to keep up, and you have to be sharp. It’s very unique, and I’ve had an enjoyable six years of work. Perhaps that’s why I don’t get many grey hairs,” he joked.  

Even with today’s trend of changing jobs, Advocata has a core team that has been built up and stood strong for several years, a strength Dhananath notices and acknowledges. 

Communications: Getting the work out there

Communications Manager Yasodhara Kariyawasam.

“The team is always diverse and always evolving,” Communications Manager Yasodhara Kariyawasam told us as she sat behind her massive desk, laptop on one side and a stack of newspapers on the other. “There are a few of us who are permanent staff, but the rest are interns. We keep it that way to provide room for new talent within the team.”

This used to be a challenge for the communications (comms) team, she added, considering that interns needed a training period before jumping into work. However, since they started the one-year-plus internship programme, it has been less of a problem. “Earlier we used to do six-month internships, but it’s difficult when you train one person, and then they leave, and you have to train another one!” Yasodhara said, laughing. 

Despite the unique challenges of such a team dynamic, Yasodhara wouldn’t have it any other way. “We’re a small team and we don’t want to have a corporate environment with a massive team of 100. Advocata has always been a small but highly talented team; it even started small.” 

The comms team is the talent behind the infographics, charts, videos, photos, visual data and all the other content shared across the Advocata social media platforms. They definitely have their work cut out for them bringing the research team’s hard work to life and taking it to the masses. Everything from video productions and designing posts and layouts, to marketing and event management is done in-house, with a team of only seven people behind the process. 

However, even such a team cannot cover everything, particularly in the present situation. It’s a game of priorities choosing what to cover, Yasodhara told us. “We focus on what we can, not everything. But if it’s something current that we can get an opinion on, we shoot a video, get it to the editor, and get it done within one to two days.”

“How, I can’t tell you! I also don’t know! We just get it done,” she exclaimed. 

Speaking of their journey in establishing Advocata as an expert body, Yasodhara was optimistic. “We know our capacity right now and we see our potential. We have come a long way since the inception. Now Advocata is trilingual on social media; in addition to Advocata English content, we have Advocata Plus which is mainly operated in Sinhala, and we have started working on our Tamil sub brand which will be launched in the near future. Whenever we meet our goals we set bigger goals. I think that’s why we have come so far within a very short period of time.”

How are you guys staying sane right now, I asked, and the entire room burst into laughter. “Staying sane,” Yasodhara mused, while the team shared glances over their laptops, “Well, we always take breaks in between at work. And overworking is not encouraged in the team. After work we have little gatherings from time to time with the team and the directors. But we also encourage time off from work whenever anyone needs it.”

The casual environment is also a contributing factor, she added, noting that the constant conversations, great friends, and laughter made Advocata a great place to work at. 

The communications team Left to right Sneha Wickramasinghe – Communications Executive, Yasodhara Kariyawasam – Communications Manager, Subashini Kaneshwaren – Senior Communications Executive

Research: Diving into the facts of things

Research Analyst Sathya Karunaratne

Most of the talking and laughter came from the next room, where the research team did their work. With the entire team of 10+ researchers seated around another massive table, the researchers room looked like a permanent boardroom meeting. The far side was dominated by a whiteboard with many project timelines scribbled across it; far too many to count.

“Being a youth-led team, there’s a lot of interest,” Research Analyst Sathya Karunaratne told us as we got through the introductions. “While we acknowledge that this is a job role, it’s also a good learning process, every single week.” 

Sathya explained that the research team gives priority to what comes under the organization’s scope as an economic policy think tank. “What you see across our social media is us trying to convert the very complicated research results to get it across to the masses.”

Advocata project areas

• State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Sri Lanka’s expenditure towards them
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
• Gender discriminatory labour laws 
• Gender discriminatory aspects of the fiscal policy (taxing menstrual products, etc)
• Land reforms
• Trade and inflation (Advocata bath curry indicator)
• The ease of doing business in Sri Lanka
• Taxes and expenditure

Among many of the research team’s areas and projects, the bath curry indicator stood out. This was, as one of the analysts explained to us, a tracker for inflation in a simple and rather fun way that anyone would understand at first glance. The idea was to take rice and a few common curries and track their prices through time. “The important thing is that Advocata was speaking on these topics before they became hot,” Sathya pointed out. 

Elaborating on the current situation, she shared that Advocata had come up with a seven-step reform plan for the current crisis; a document freely available to everyone. “We cannot ignore the reforms any more,” she emphasised. 

Going forward, this year they aim to take their research to the policymaker level as well as to the masses, and serve to act as a bridge for the gap that exists between the two. 

In that respect, the Advocata and Advocata Plus social media platforms have already become successful while Advocata Tamil platform is a recent addition led by Communications Executive Subashini Kaneshwaran and Research Associate Shyranthi Durairaja.

“I think that’s the edge we have over other think tanks and organisations,” Sathya noted. “We value the young team we have.” A sentiment evident in the team’s expressions as well, as most of them were clearly passionate about their work and enjoyed being part of the team. Most cited the ease of working from home and the flexibility as the biggest plus points of working in Advocata. 

The research team Back (Left to right) Avishka Jayaweera – Research Intern, Naqiya Shiraz – Research Analyst, Udahiruni Attapattu – Research Analyst, Sathya Karunarathne – Research Analyst, Thathsarani Siriwardena – Research Intern, Migara Rodrigo – Research Intern Front (Left to right) Anuka Ratnayake – Research Intern, Kavishka Indraratna – Research Analyst, Ashanthi Abeysekara – Research Analyst, Sumhiya Sallay – Programs Executive, Shyranthi Durairaja – Research Associate, Dhananath Fernando – Chief Operating Officer.

Come for the job, stay for the people

“In this age, we must afford that flexibility,” Dhananath shared with us. “When you trust the team, they also take responsibility and make sure the work is done on time.”

In a testament to how much people bond with Advocata, Dhananath told us that they “have a culture that when people leave, they never truly leave.” 

“I think there has to be something for them to come back,” he said. “And for them to bond that well with us.”

Sumhiya Sallay, Programs Executive and the go-to HR person in Advocata, had similar ideas to share. “I’ve been at Advocata for three years now and there’s always new ideas coming in. Whenever someone new comes in they bring fresh ideas to the table. The team is so dynamic and everyone who has worked with Advocata keeps bringing in new ideas all the time, and that’s something really amazing.” 

“I think that’s the beauty of Advocata,” Yasodhara mused. “Everyone is a team. Everyone’s ideas matter.”

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