More opportunities for citizens to engage the Government
More opportunities are required for citizens to participate in government activities at the grassroots level, said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the launch of ‘Citra’- The Social Innovation Lab co-developed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research and the United Nations Development Programme and held at Galle Face Hotel on Wednesday,
The name ‘Citra’ bears the Sanskrit meaning of something ‘strange, wonderful and curious’ which reflects the nature of work that the Social Innovation Lab does.
The PM said that he first took part in the first deliberations of the Lab a year ago and has now come to find the results. “Within a year you have started off well,” he said adding that the Lab is partnering with many ministries, including the Youth Ministry and the Public Management Ministry to find common grounds for social innovation.
He said that more than anything what matters is the people involved in social innovation, the young people who are involved who want to change the society and to find out what they are doing now and at the ‘end of the day’ listen to their views.
The government is to set up a structure to create such an atmosphere, to restore and re-establish the frame work and government infrastructure of the country which is needed to build the capacity to repay debt.
For the development work of the country, he said that there should be at least 300,000 basic computer staff if the country is going ahead and for that they needed a few more billions of dollars.
He said that in the early 80s there was so much work brought into the divisions of the country and the Biyagama Divisional Secretariat which was one of the backward electorates in the Gampaha district has now become one of the most industrialised areas.
More and more work were coming into the divisional secretariats now, the Prime Minister pointed out and said that there is a need to find out whether these models are overloaded and outdated and thus to find out how they could be digitalised and how the people in the villages should be consulted.
The Social Innovation Lab is now proving to be a success. As Sri Lanka moves forward in the fast changing world the complexity of the challenges is also growing and the successes and failures in addressing these challenges are not dependent on resources but on how good the strategies are to overcome them.
The Lab is a safe setting to allow people to find creative solutions to the development issues. It provides a conducive environment to look at problems from different perspectives taking varying approaches to overcome obstacles and forming sustainable solutions by engaging stakeholders.
Minister of Science, Technology and Research Sujeewa Serasinghe said the work carried out by the Lab is of definite value to the country and it would deliver effective solutions in fulfilling the needs of the country.
He said that this innovative facility works with the government in accelerating its work to achieve its goals of the 2030 agenda and this team has been working closely with various public sector institutions in formulating a work plan to assist and bring value addition to the work of the public sector.
He said that the Lab works to strengthen institutions to build the capacities of the public sector and re-engineer public service delivery with foresight and innovation tools, such as design thinking, user-journey mapping and human-centered design approaches.