Launch of e-Society Development Initiative today

The e-Society Development Initiative by the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka under the patronage of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse commences today. It will enable all sections of the society to reap the benefits of ICT.

The overall goal of the e-Society Development Initiative, e-SDI, is to facilitate access to ICT amongst the most vulnerable groups in Sri Lanka, and ensure that the benefits of ICT development flow to these groups.

By facilitating a more balanced access to information within Sri Lankan society it is envisioned the e-SDI will assist in closing the development divide between urban and rural areas, help to integrate post conflict regions and thereby contribute to the broader national objectives of development, growth and peace.

The key feature of the e-SDI will be the e-Society Fund through which two types of grant mechanisms will be operated over the next four years. The e-SDI Community Assistance program is characterised by a "bottom up" approach where vulnerable groups will first be made aware of ICT and the range of benefits which it may bring to their lives and then provided technical assistance to identify their own priorities for development which are amenable to an ICT solution.

Technical assistance will be provided to assist in preparing a proposal for an e-SDI Community Assistance. Approximately 140 e-SDI Community Assistance Grants are expected to be awarded over the life time of the project. Individual assistance would amount to an average of USD 5,000 with recipient communities contributing 5% in cash and LKR 20% in kind, (such as labour or materials).

Given the challenges of raising awareness about ICT and then building capacity to implement projects at a community level e-SDI Community Assistance program will in the first year of operation, be linked to the Information Infrastructure Development Program of the ICTA which is being realised through network of delivery centres, (Nenesala). e-SDI Community Assistance will seek to focus on the utilisation of the Nensals to create local content, establish a network of communities and build partnerships by promoting access to information.

The program will identify sustainable social or business models that can be scaled up and applied in other locations to further expand the benefits of ICT development. In the later three years of the project e-SDI Community Assistance will be offered nationally.

Even with wide publicity and technical assistance to strengthen capacity in the target groups some communities will not wish to undertake direct responsibility for the implementation of an e-SDI Community Assistance, or will not have the implementation capacity.

Additionally there are ICT applications which may benefit a wider audience than a single community or which may not be location specific, for example development of Sinhalese or Tamil websites or local language content applications.