A shred of positivity to lift the hopes of Sri Lankans in unprecedented times

From left: Chandita Samaranayake, Dr. Purvi Mehta, Hari Menon, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Dr. Chris Elias and Jayantha De Silva 

From left: Chandita Samaranayake, Dr. Chris Elias, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Hari Menon, Dr. Purvi Mehta, Youth and Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa and Jayantha De Silva

 Dr. Chris Elias and the team meeting several key industry leaders from the public and private sector 

• Globally-renowned Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation extends support for Sri Lanka to develop health, agriculture and financial inclusion

By Hiyal Biyagamage

Key representatives of the globally-renowned philanthropy organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), including Foundation Global Development Division President Dr. Chris Elias, was in Sri Lanka last week, committing its support towards bringing hope and positivity for Sri Lankan citizens in these challenging times. 

Dr. Chris Elias, accompanied by Gates Foundation Country Director – India and Lead for South and South-East Asia Hari Menon, and Asia Lead for Agriculture Development Dr. Purvi Mehta, met with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, key Government officials and several prominent industry leaders of the private sector. 

 Ongoing discussions to enable the digital Sri Lanka vision

The Gates Foundation and Sri Lanka Government have been in discussions since June 2021 to explore collaboration opportunities in areas of mutual interest. These conversations followed the letter sent in April 2021 to Bill Gates by Secretary to the Ministry of Technology Jayantha De Silva, Bill Gates, which shared Sri Lanka’s digital transformation vision. 

By that time, the Ministry had already formed a committee to bring down global tech CSR initiatives to the country, with a vision to enhance further and accelerate the digital Sri Lanka initiative. 

Based on multiple conversations led by Jayantha De Silva, Consultant to the Ministry of Technology Chandita Samaranayake, ICTA Chairman Oshada Senanayake and Board of Investment former Chairman Sanjaya Mohottala, with other senior industry stakeholders, the Government and BMGF teams identified three concrete areas for digitisation: health, financial inclusion, and agriculture.

Digital health – A high-level plan to provide technical support to craft a national digital health blueprint for the country. Furthermore, discussions have also focused on rolling out a Digital Infrastructure for Vaccination Open Credentialing (DIVOC) platform for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Digital financial inclusion for the underprivileged – BMGF plans to offer technical support for the rollout of the Digital ID using the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP). Additionally, both teams have discussed strengthening capacity for cybersecurity risk assessments and digitising the Samurdhi G2P cash transfer program for citizens at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. 

Digital agriculture – The Foundation has offered to assist Sri Lanka in developing Farmer Data Management Systems and Digital Agriculture Strategy. Further, the organisation plans to support digital approaches to strengthen agriculture extension and soil mapping and diagnostics.

In addition to the above core focused areas, the Government is seeking help from BMGF on large-scale food fortifications, where discussions around an assessment of domestically-developed rice fortification technology are still underway.

Dr. Elias oversees all the country delivery work at the Gates Foundation, including the country programs in Asia and Africa. As Gates Foundation has not been involved in any structured partnerships in Sri Lanka, the visit was proposed to enable Dr. Elias, who is a member of the Gates Foundation’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT), to meet with the public and private sector leaders to help shape the direction of the proposed partnership between the Government and the Gates Foundation.

Understanding Government’s vision for digital transformation

During his meeting with the President, the Prime Minister and other key ministers, Dr. Elias had the chance to learn about the Government’s vision and goals for digital transformation and understand the Government’s high-level priorities for digital health, financial inclusion, digital agriculture, and large-scale food fortification. This was to ensure that the partnership is aligned with the Government priorities and Gates Foundation capabilities. 

During these meetings, Dr. Elias shared background on the Gates Foundation’s approach to country engagement and its global strategic priorities in health and development to inform the Government of Sri Lanka on their functional approach for country partnerships. He also discussed the feedback from the Government on the nature of the engagements with the Gates Foundation team during the June-Dec 2021 period and how partnership discussions can be moved forward in 2022 to enable meaningful work. 

The role of BMGF 

The private sector is developing some of the most promising and innovative solutions to today’s global problems. Unfortunately, markets don’t always work well for the poor, as companies have little incentive to develop products for people who can’t afford them. 

Therefore, the Gates Foundation partners with entrepreneurs, companies, and other organisations to create incentives that harness the power of private enterprise to create change for those who need it most. In connection with its investments, companies agree to use the investment proceeds to support specific foundation programmatic strategies.

The Bills & Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on issues that are the biggest barriers that prevent people from making the most of their lives. The Foundation understands that every investment is unique, and the BMGF team approaches each opportunity with the right tools to achieve long-term, measurable success. 

They leverage a suite of tools, including direct equity investments, fund investments, loans, credit enhancements, and volume guarantees. For each issue they work on, the organisation funds innovative ideas that could help remove barriers. The key program strategies of the Foundation includes gender equality, global development, global growth and opportunity, global health and global policy and advocacy.