සමෘද්ධි දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා විසින් 2022 අගෝස්තු 29 වැනි දින නිකුත් කරන ලද චක්රලේඛය අනුව, ජ්යෙෂ්ඨ පුරවැසියන්, ආබාධිත පුද්ගලයන් (PWDs) සහ වකුගඩු රෝගීන් සඳහා මාසික මුදල් ආධාර ලබාදීම් 2022 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ සිට සමෘද්ධි බැංකු හරහා කළ යුතුය. ප්රායෝගිකව මෙම පරිපාලනය ආරම්භ වීමට නියමිත වන්නේ ඔක්තෝබර් මාසයේ සිටයි.
This report is to evaluate the impact of interventions (written comments on the draft bill during the stakeholder consultation) by LIRNEasia on the Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022, which was passed by the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 9th of March 2022. The report also provides details of media coverage of LIRNEasia interventions on the Act.
(Note: This was originally published in the Daily FT) The Director General of the Department of Samurdhi released a circular on 29 August stating that monthly cash transfers to senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and kidney patients must be administered through Samurdhi banks from September 2022. In practice, this will occur from October. This disbursement mechanism deviates significantly from that used earlier, where each of these schemes had different collection points. Samurdhi banks were used exclusively as distribution points for the Samurdhi monthly cash transfers. Senior citizens’ allowances, PWD benefits and kidney patients’ allowances were disbursed via post offices, State banks and divisional secretariats, respectively (Table 1). 
Helani Galpaya is part of global set of experts who were asked to sit on the Expert Group for the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67).
South Asia has some of the lowest female labor force participation (LFP) rates in the world, second only to the Middle East. Employment flexibility, also known as workplace flexibility, flexi-work, among other terms, has long been argued as an enabler of women’s increased and sustained participation in the labor market.
Can nation states, especially those in the Global South effectively regulate Global Tech Companies? Should they try? Why is it important to separate the data localization issue from data protection? GDPR is not fully enforceable even in Europe; should it be the model for countries in the Global South?
Digital Futures Lab, in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, recently published an edited volume on the ethics and governance of AI in Asia.
Gayani Hurulle participates in panel on Connecting the Unconnected at APrIGF 2022 in Singapore
LIRNEasia’s Chair Professor Rohan Samarajiva participated as one of the speakers for the session on ‘role of bureaucracy for a better Sri Lanka’ during the 35th Annual Conference of the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka (OPA), held on the 17th of August at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, Colombo. He addressed the question of whether digitization can make Sri Lanka’s bureaucracy more effective.
Sri Lanka Social Safety Net - Qualitative Study
The fragmented social protection system in Sri Lanka has been in need of reform for many years. There is a need to reform many areas, including targeting and the delivery of benefits — areas we have, and continue to, stress the importance of. The specific reforms that we prioritise may differ in the short and long term. The current economic crisis (which has thrown millions into poverty) has highlighted the gaps in the system. In this light, ensuring that the cash transfers are adequate to meet the needs of individuals and all those who need assistance are covered by the programme are key. 
I was invited to speak on Social Safety Nets in Sri Lanka on ‘The People’s Platform’ a 45 minute live TV programme on NewsFirst. I drew on LIRNEasia’s research on the area to highlight problems in targeting the poor and the possibility of using bank accounts and mobile technology to deliver benefits to the poor.
Slides presented at the Advocata Institute’s #ReformNow conference on 5 August 2022
This paper provides a description of a TPRC influenced conference and training program intended to develop policy intellectuals for the ICT space in Africa and the Asia Pacific that was active from 2006 to 2018.
We are inviting Proposals from potential Bidders to conduct a nationally representative study – Sri Lanka social safety net survey. The full RFP can be downloaded here. Please also see our Technical Proposal Template, Financial Proposal Template, Contract Template and Sample Locations before submitting the proposals. Deadline for submissions is 01 August 2022.
An Expert Round Table discussion on "Tackling online misinformation while protecting freedom of expression" held on the 11th of October 2021, as the second of a series of discussions under the theme of “Frontiers of Digital Economy”