Sri Lanka is a country on the move, but remains scarred by the many consequences of the civil war that lasted until 2009. Despite a number of initiatives, conflict transformation and reconciliation efforts have garnered minimal interest. In the past, the focus was on ethnic disputes between Tamils and Sinhalese, but today religious conflicts play a greater role. This is also underpinned by unequal participation in development between urban and rural areas and between social classes. Helvetas promotes peaceful coexistence and tolerance, and special focus areas of our projects are youth and gender equality.