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WG 9.4: Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries
13th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries
Track 13: ICT4D in Sri Lanka - Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions
Chairs: Chamli Pushpakumara (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka)
Chitrangani Mubarak (Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Sri Lanka)
Shriyananda Rathnayake (Information and Communication Technology Agency, Sri Lanka)
Roshan Hewapathirana (University of Oslo)
The Government of Sri Lanka first recognized the need for the development of ICT through the National Computer Policy (COMPOL)
of 1983 and in 2003 launched the “e-Sri Lanka” project with the aim of developing an ICT roadmap for Sri Lanka. With the leadership
of the HE the president, ICT Agency and the government of Sri Lanka launched several ICT initiatives for re-engineering government,
building the national information infrastructure, developing ICT Human Resources and preparing economy, civil society and private
sector for ICT penetration. ICT for Development (ICT4D) was a major concern in this regard and consisted of adopting the emerging ICT
infrastructure to make available a range of information sources and services to diverse community groups throughout Sri Lanka.
Empowering rural sector was a priority to improve ICT knowledge, skills and capabilities increasing employment potentials, especially
among females and youth. As a result of expanding ICT knowledge hub, Sri Lanka is now stepping in to ICT outsourcing spotlight, being
recognized as a top offshore outsourcing destination.
ICT has now being well recognized as having the potential to empower countries of the Global South in national development. Best
practices and regional challenges are valuable contributions to be shared across developing country contexts in promoting ICT4D. This
track seeks to explore how ICT have been and can be applied to the unique development challenges faced by Sri Lanka, which has now
entered a rapid development phase in all sectors concerned. In doing so, we hope to highlight from a variety of perspectives, how
problems related to multicultural and multilingual society, limited infrastructure and the geo-political location among many other aspects,
would interact with ICT aimed at scaffolding the development. This track is also open to the discourse on national socio-environmental
vulnerabilities that can be addressed in part by ICT4D solutions.
Within a Sri Lankan context, we view ICT4D in broad interdisciplinary terms and encourage submissions from a wide range of related
fields. This can include for example, technical issues related to access and open source adoption and tools, political questions such as
governance, social impact in terms of culture, gender, education and access, and economic solutions including supporting small scale
industries, tourism and IT outsourcing.
We welcome contributions sharing views and experience on, but not limited to, human resource development in ICT, developing local
languages, e-legal environment, ICT Infrastructure, interoperability framework for e-government, e-health and e-business information,
e-government strategies and ICT policy formulation initiatives in Sri Lanka. The language for the session will be English and all
submissions should be in English.
For more information, please contact chamli[at]kln.ac.lk.
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Track 13: ICT4D in Sri Lanka - Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions
