The winners' experiences have little impact on other regions and the 'winner takes all' approach tends to limit exposure of admirable runners up. Above all, they reward past action but not new ideas and proposals which the new award encourages. He said that the military is targeted by the new award for its knowledge in peacekeeping, peacebuilding, protecting the environment, preventing and tackling the results of natural disasters and bringing aid to desperate people. The association focuses on the prevention of armed conflict and the enhancement of stability and security not only through military means. It acts in situations where peace and security are threatened.
Members can agree on an opinion and make proposals which can be communicated to heads of state.
Trade unions and environmental, religious, women's, peasant's and non-governmental organisations will demonstrate their collective opposition to the proposed Eppawela phosphate project and will express their solidarity with the Eppawela people's struggle to safeguard the country's resources, an organiser of the demonstration said. Despite the expressed opposition, the Government is going ahead with its agreement with a consortium of companies headed by IMC Agrico, a merger between IMC Global Inc. and Freefort McMoran Resource Partners, of USA and Tomen Corporation of Japan for manufacture of phosphate fertiliser for export by exploiting the Eppawela deposit, said Mahamankadawala Piyarathana Thero, the President of the Committee for the Preservation of the Eppawela Phosphate Deposit. He said that if IMC Agrico and its partners have their way, the entire phosphate deposit at Eppawela would be excavated, exploited, and exhausted within a short period of thirty years. It would also cause the destruction of lands that those people and their ancestors had cultivated for centuries. Twenty three small tanks will be destroyed if this project is implemented, he said.