On 29 May 2025, the National Planning Department (NPD) hosted the Sri Lanka Policy Dialogue on Social Protection, supported by the United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and LIRNEasia. The dialogue aimed to discuss and deliberate on topics relevant to the National Social Protection Strategy currently under development by the NPD, focusing primarily on international good practices and their relevance or suitability for Sri Lanka.

The event brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives from government, academia, civil society, think tanks, and development partners, to reflect on how Sri Lanka can strengthen its social protection landscape.

Session on digital transformation

LIRNEasia co-convened one of the six parallel sessions, “Digital Transformation for Social Protection,” along with the World Bank. This session focused on how to improve the Integrated Welfare Management System (IWMS), Sri Lanka’s key platform for managing social assistance delivery.

Dr. Sirma Demir-Şeker, Senior Economist at the World Bank, shared insights on Turkiye’s Integrated Social Assistance System (ISAS), which is often considered a benchmark or aspirational programme for many countries. This was followed by reflections and inputs from Prabhath Ariyaratne (IT Specialist – Welfare Benefits Board/Ministry of Finance), and Dasun Hegoda (Technical Advisor – Presidential Secretariat), moderated by Gayani Hurulle (Senior Research Manager, LIRNEasia).


Key takeaways/recommendations

Some key submitted to the National Planning Department, following the discussion and reflecting on international experiences of countries such as Turkiye, Chile, Pakistan, and Brazil, are as follows. 

IWMS 

• Expand the IWMS to cover all major social assistance programmes using a modular approach: centralised, regularly updated data collection (single source of truth) with flexibility for agencies/programmes to apply their own eligibility rules and filters. 

• Decouple the IWMS operations from Aswesuma cycles; allow continuous applications and set regular, predetermined IWMS data collection intervals (e.g., annually or biennially) that can serve multiple programmes and reduce duplication. 

• Facilitate intra-government data sharing through formal agreements, API connections, and secure data-sharing protocols, in line with an interoperability framework; plan for integration with Sri Lanka’s National Data Exchange (NDX) once operational, to streamline cross-agency access. 

• Obtain standardized, formal consent for data sharing from those registered in IWMS with non-social assistance agencies and broader government databases, aligning with future government-wide data-sharing policies and protocols. 

• Maintain continuous and strong communication with social protection agencies to highlight the value of using IWMS and engage non–social protection agencies on the benefits of data sharing; bring new agencies into the system incrementally and using an agile approach. 
    

General  

• Ensure incremental digitalization of all databases relevant to social protection (including those relevant to social care, social insurance, and labour market and productive inclusion) to allow for integration with IWMS, and efficiency in service provision. Digitalization should be undertaken in a coherent manner, adhering to common standards (standard setting led by MoDE) that allows interoperability. Use of open-source software could prevent vendor lock in where suitable.  

• Strengthen government capacity by recruiting and retaining specialised technical staff, investing in continuous training, setting up cross-agency technical support, and collaborating with existing training providers to upskill both technical and frontline staff on IWMS use. 

• Improve digital literacy and access among beneficiaries, especially vulnerable groups (e.g., elderly, persons with disabilities), through targeted support, potentially through partnerships with NGOs with relevant expertise.