Foresight and innovation lessons for SL’s public sector
Citra, Sri Lanka’s first Social Innovation Lab, recognising the vital role of a strong public sector in the achievement of Sri Lanka’s ambitious development goals, through a partnership with the Ministry of Public Administration and Law and Order co- developed and conducted a five day ‘ Foresight and Innovation for Public Service Excellence’ training in early October.
This programme was done in collaboration with the Presidential Secretariat and the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration, with technical expertise from Nesta, a UK based innovation facility.
Citra, a joint initiative between the Ministry of Science, Technology, Research, Skills Development, Vocational Training and Kandyan Heritage, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka, uses foresight and innovation tools to prototype and test development solutions to ensure they are agile and holistic. Its work is aligned to the national development priorities of the country and works towards bringing in greater citizen engagement to the formulation of development solutions, the agency said in a media release.
This training programme for Sri Lankan public officials has been designed to be conducted in three phases. The first phase consisted of the 5- day residential training programme. The programme equipped the officials with skills and tools pertaining to problem solving methodologies, innovation in development, integrated solutions, understanding user journey, and design- thinking strategies to name a few.
The comprehensive residential programme was tailor-made to suit the requirements of the public sector to strengthen and transform them to become innovation champions. The participants represented national, provincial and district level administrations across the country.
Udaya Seneviratne, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, speaking on the initiative, stated: “Learning experiences and programmes such as this will greatly benefit our public sector officials. We are pleased to be working with Citra, and the other partners involved in this programme on this initiative. We very much look forward to building on this initial programme and carrying out many more interventions with Citra to further build the capacity of the public sector”.
Also speaking on the importance of such collaborative initiatives, Jorn Sorensen, Country Director of UNDP Sri Lanka, said UNDP was delighted to work with the Ministry of Public Administration and the Presidential Secretariat to co- develop and conduct this com- prehensive programme for public sector officials in the country. “We see this only as a beginning of our collaborative work with the Ministry and as such, look forward to working with their guidance on introducing other interventions aimed at equipping these officials with the skills and tools necessary to achieve the country’s development goals,” he added.
Throughout the week, the participants chosen following a rigorous selection process also had the opportunity to engage with reputed high- level officials dignitaries including Ministers - Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Sagala Rathnayake, Nalin Bandara, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Chairman of Information and Communication Technology Agency ( ICTA) of Sri Lanka; Mahinda Deshapriya, Chairman of the Elections Commission, and many other senior government officials and secretaries to ministries.
The second phase will begin after this programme, where the officials will design and implement a small- scale project within the coming months using the skills and tools gained through the training. At the end, and as the third phase, these officials will reconvene for a two day recap session to share their experiences and feedback. Following this pilot, Citra is expected to continue this programme in close coordination with Sri Lanka Institute of Directors.