In Sri Lanka we now make policy in the Supreme Court. This is not optimal, but it’s the way it is. Therefore, I was pleased to see that Justice Tilakawardene had used one of the analogies I had pushed hard in relation to the recent punitive measures taken against mobile phones. Today’s Lankadeepa, reporting a decision on the Defense Ministry’s effort to cancel the mobile phone service (SIMs and value) dealership of an associate of a politician who crossed over from the government, quotes the Justice as saying that just because a crime is committed using a Honda motor cycle, we do not take action against the company selling Honda motor cycles and that in the same way, we should not be punishing phone companies and their dealers just because a SIM is used illegally. She had also mentioned the problem of unregistered SIMs and said that the solution was making sure all SIMs were registered, not other sweeping punitive measures.

Samarajiva made two presentations. The first presentation [download PDF] was made on the thinking behind the TRE methodology, the lessons learned from the pilot conducted in Sri Lanka in 2004 and the plans for implementation in Asia in 2006. The presentation was made to members of the RIA! team plus the regional UNDP ICT specialist, Pierre Dandjinou. The key lesson of the valuable discussion was the need to balance the interests in collecting as much information as possible from the stakeholders with that in keeping the interaction short and straightforward. Samarajiva favoured the latter, because a procedure that is simple to understand (for the respondents) and implement (for the researchers) is one that can be done annually.  More complex forms are unlikely to be done on a continuing basis.

Two days were spent on a training the network members in outcome mapping.  In light of LIRNEasia’s interest in developing an alternative model of influencing the policy process through research, this session was educative.  Clearly, IDRC is interested in influencing the policy process. However, according to Samarajiva, “I do not think the presentations gave adequate weight to the enlightenment function of research (Carol Weiss) and to what I call the opportunistic or demand-driven model of policy intervention, but it clearly got everyone focused on the need to engage with policy makers and regulators.”  In his view, the presentations did not shed too much light on outcome mapping as an evaluation tool. In the discussion that followed, Samarajiva emphasized the role that can be played by the media.

The second presentation made on the final day of the workshop by Samarajiva, entitled Challenges of Wireless [download PDF], revolved around what regulators should be thinking about in terms of making better use of spectrum, drawing from LIRNEasia’s research from 2005. The presentation had an audience that included representatives of the regional regulatory organizations.

About 25 researchers and regulators from different countries in Africa participated at RIA!’s annual meeting.