The Chief Executive Officer of the SLPI, Mr. Kumar Lopez (second from left) and Mr. Lahiru Halkewela, COO of Enfection (second from right) receiving the Merit award from Technology Minister, Kanaka Herath, M.P, (3rd from right) for the Government and Citizen Engagement category of the Eswabhimani awards 2021 held on March 7. Also in the picture are Professor Malik Ranasignhe, Chairman ICTA (3rd from Left), Mr. Mahesh Perera, Chief Executive Officer (extreme right) and Mr. Indika De Zoysa, Moderator and Juror (extreme Left).

The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) received the Merit Award for the ChangeMaker digital tool developed by the Enfection Pvt LTD in the category of “Government and Citizen Engagement” at the e-Swabhimani, Digital Social Impact Awards 2021, SLPI announced in a news release.

The Chief Executive Officer of the SLPI, Mr. Kumar Lopez and Mr. Lahiru Halkewela, COO of Enfection received the award from Technology Minister Kanaka Herath, M.P, on March 7. at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

In advocating Good Governance and Freedom of Expression, SLPI acts as an active agent that promotes one of the most vital legislations for Sri Lanka, “The Right to Information Act” (RTI). ChangeMaker is developed as an interactive platform to promote RTI for the greater good of the general public and it compiles success stories and experiences of RTI users such as journalists and citizens. It also assists journalists and citizens to electronically create RTI requests, appeals and keep track of them in order to follow the process, the release said.

It added that SLPI which was a pioneer in introducing RTI in Sri Lanka, expects that by introducing these types of tools and interventions more citizens can become a “Change Agent” in their humble contribution to achieve good governance in Sri Lanka. For more details log into www.changemaker.lk

E-Swabhimani is a National endeavor aimed at recognizing excellence in digital application creation and it is an initiative pioneered by the Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). This initiative is strongly committed to promote innovative and creative ICT based products and services of the local developers through e-Swabhimani programme by creating an enabling environment to showcase their digital applications at local market while promoting them in international platforms.