Sri Lanka’s social protection system consists of a plethora of policies and programmes aimed at various segments of the population, including children, the elderly, disabled people, and workers in both the formal and informal sectors. Despite the multitude of social protection programmes/policies in place, and the substantial annual expenditure on social protection, the existing system is highly fragmented with several programmes implemented by a multitude of agencies with little or no coordination amongst them. Such a fragmented system has led to inefficiencies such as high administration costs and beneficiary duplication and overlap. Moreover, most social protection programmes rely on manual processes with minimal technological interventions. This emphasises the importance of an integrated digitalised social protection system to help improve overall efficiency. Improved policies, innovation and adoption of digital technologies result in enhanced effectiveness, targeting and delivery of social protection and safety-net mechanisms.
In this context, this project aims to support a new action plan on social protection by the European Union (EU) as part of its Multi-annual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2021-2027 under the priority area “an inclusive and peaceful society”.
