Today, LIRNEasia hosted a workshop to launch digital tools created by Watchdog Sri Lanka, funded by GIZ’s Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme. Researchers, practitioners, activists and journalists attended to learn about these tools, and how they can potentially help them in their own lines of work.
The tools are aimed at ultimately improving the information ecosystem in Sri Lanka, for actors to engage in fact and evidence-based inquiry and discourse.
The tools include:
- Colombo’s virtual twin: A 3D simulation model of Colombo, to help planners and practitioners visualise how policies and solutions might play out in a simulated environment.
- High-resolution land cover maps for Sri Lanka over several years, compiled using satellite imagery, for understanding environmental changes and urban growth.
- Lanka Wiki: A database of 70+ growable crops in Sri Lanka, providing a localised and user-friendly guide to growing 70 crops (including local varieties) in Sri Lanka, to contribute toward food resiliency at a micro-level.
- Apocalypse Sensor Kit: A low-cost, DIY suite of hardware and software to to assist farmers in monitoring soil conditions
- Watchdog 101: Factchecking in Sri Lanka: A free and online Udemy course on factchecking in Sri Lanka
Participants explored potential uses for the tools in their work, such as modeling flash floods, assessing the impact of moving low-income residents into high-rises, and analyzing the effectiveness of land use policies over time.
For more details, see the workshop agenda and project links provided above; presentation are available here:
- Introductory presentation (Ayesha Zainudeen, LIRNEasia)
- Digital Tools for Strengthening Public Discourse (Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Watchdog Sri Lanka)
Scroll down for photos from the event.
This work was created by Watchdog Sri Lanka (Appendix) as a part of the project Building Tools to Strengthen Pluralist, Inclusive and Fact-based Public Discourse, conducted by LIRNEasia. The project is conducted in partnership with the Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme, co-funded by the European Union and German Federal Foreign Office.SCOPE is implemented by GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms.
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