Citizen engagement and advocacy for open contracting in public health procurement in Sri Lanka

About the project

A survey by project partners Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) in 2001 highlighted issues of transparency and accountability in public health procurement in Sri Lanka. These weaknesses were intensified as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this limited access to transparent information exaggerates the risk of mismanagement of funds.

Building on outcomes of recent initiatives, TISL seeks to improve public health procurement by empowering multi-sectoral actors to call for greater transparency and accountability, and by promoting principles and practices of ‘open contracting’ through a multi-faceted approach including data tracking and analysis, public outreach and citizen monitoring.

This will be achieved through:

• Expanding on existing research conducted by TISL on issues of transparency and accountability in public health procurement, including analysing the gendered impacts.
• Using these findings to inform evidence-based advocacy through awareness-raising, investigative reporting by TISL Journalism Fellows and roundtable discussions involving stakeholders such as government political and public service representatives, CSOs and PSAs.
• Facilitating public outreach through engagement of TISL’s Integrity Icons Sri Lanka 2021, RTI Hubs in 25 districts, and online monitoring platform.
• Engaging with youth groups using digital media campaigns.
• Developing web-based tools: (i) public health procurement monitoring dashboard for use by CSOs and PSAs, and (ii) improving the monitoring platform for focused reporting on public health procurement.
• Developing a model open-contracting platform for PH procurement and presenting to government as a best-practice for increased transparency and accountability, aligned with the existing government e-procurement platform.
• Organising grassroots awareness activities through TISL offices in the Matara and Colombo districts.
• Creating a video to highlight consequences of lack of transparency in public health procurement for dissemination through digital and social media platforms and as an awareness-raising tool at grassroots campaigning events, round table discussions, RTI hubs and other outlets.

As a result of this project, it is expected that Sri Lankans will benefit from improved public health services through an increase in public awareness on the importance of transparency and accountability in public health procurement, the development of tools for tracking and empowerment of citizens to report on instances where access to information has been limited.