Abstract

The Sri Lanka government which assumed office in 1977 embarked on economic liberalization reforms. The main thrust of the liberalized economic reforms has been to standardize private sector investment by providing infrastructure facilities through public investment with the aim of achieving high economic growth and employment levels. All these efforts were not as successful as the expected level since some policies were implemented without appropriate prior examinations. With the objective to fulfill the targets of sustainable development in a county, there should be equal distribution of the benefit of the development among the people. Thus, decentralization could be identified as the path to enhancing sustainable development. On this basis, the study makes an effort to offer government officials and decision-makers insights to better comprehend and raise the caliber of sustainable development in the area, as well as to bridge the knowledge gap. The suggested model is experimentally evaluated using data analysis from 1000 survey units representing all divisional secretariats' divisions in Sri Lanka's Southern region using a two-stage systematic sampling technique and the structural equation modeling method using the R tool. The findings demonstrate a strong and positive relationship between the constructions of the scales of economic, social, human, and environmental development and the quality of sustainable development. The findings of this study provide government officials and decision-makers in Sri Lanka, in particular, with valuable recommendations for understanding how various elements impact the execution of the quality of sustainable development.

Keywords: Sri Lanka, Structural Equation Modelling, Sustainable Development