Shaping a “ Dominant Mental Map” to the Sri Lankan Context by Using “No Poverty” (SDG 1) “Zero Hunger” (SDG 2) and “Quality Education” (SDG 4)

Abstract

Sustainable development goals established by United Nations offer an extensive framework to steer a country towards a thriving path socially, environmentally and economically. People tend to absorb information that is consistent with their beliefs. Therefore, public understanding plays a massive role in attaining SDGs in a particular country by triggering public engagement. This study aims to test the relevance of the “dominant mental map relating to sustainability elements” developed by Bain et al. in 2019 in the Sri Lankan context and to develop a new model that works for Sri Lanka to indulge the Sri Lankan culture. The sustainable development goals used in the study are No poverty, zero hunger and quality education (SDG1, 2, and 4, respectively). Research would be carried out in a mixed method. As a quantitative method, an online questionnaire on “understanding people’s worldviews” which combined with Short Schwartz Value Survey, will be disseminated among a sample of 500 Sri Lankans who self-selected to do the online survey. Interviews will be carried out among 20 participants ( Sri Lankans) from different income levels and education levels who will be selected using the snowball sampling technique. SPSS AMOS and interpretive phenomenological analysis will be used as data analysis methods. The analysis results will elicit the conformity of the dominant mental map proposed by Bain et al. (2019) regarding No poverty, zero hunger and quality education. Therefore, it can be used to promote SDGs in Sri Lanka by enhancing the level of understanding of the model's insights. Further, this research will develop a new domestic model that addresses Sri Lankan cultural dimensions. The dominant belief in each country decides the public communication of SDGs. The findings will highlight the opportunity to use the dominant mental model to engage with the Sri Lankan public to achieve 3 SDGs more effectively. The new model will explain a tailor-made way of public communication embedded with Sri Lankan cultural dimensions to address on a deeper level to the public on SDGs ( SDG 1, 2 and 4).