Sri Lanka launches pioneering citizen feedback platform ‘SL‑PULSE’
The Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has unveiled SL‑PULSE, the country’s first digital survey tool designed to systematically capture citizens’ experiences with public services.
Officially endorsed by the Cabinet, the initiative marks a major step in Sri Lanka’s public sector reform agenda, aiming to place citizens at the centre of governance by strengthening transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in service delivery.
SL-PULSE represents a significant milestone in Sri Lanka’s efforts to build a more citizen-focused, transparent, accountable and responsive public administration system. The initiative aligns with the Government’s ongoing public sector reform agenda and the vision of placing citizens at the centre of public service delivery.
As Sri Lanka’s first comprehensive citizen-centred governance measurement platform, SL-PULSE will gather citizen feedback on services delivered through District and Divisional Secretariat institutions across all 25 districts. Through a combination of open public participation, community-based field surveys and independent university-led household surveys, the initiative is expected to collect between 13,000 and 15,000 citizen responses nationwide.
Commenting on the initiative, Mr. S. Alokabandara , Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government stated, “SL-PULSE marks a turning point in how we understand and improve public service delivery in Sri Lanka. For the first time, citizens across all 25 districts will have a direct and systematic channel to share their experiences with the services they receive from the 341 Divisional Secretariats. This is not simply a survey- it is the foundation of a citizen-centred governance system, one that will help us identify administrative bottlenecks, strengthen transparency and accountability, and design reforms that are grounded in the real experiences of the people we serve.
I encourage every citizen to take part in this national exercise, as your voice will directly shape the future of public administration in this country.”
The initiative is expected to generate a national citizen feedback database, divisional-level governance insights, evidence on service quality and accessibility, and recommendations for improving public services. Over time, SL-PULSE aims to institutionalize citizen feedback within government decision-making processes and strengthen trust between citizens and the State.
Ms. Azusa Kubota, Resident Representative, UNDP in Sri Lanka highlighted, “Across the world, UNDP has supported governments to firmly place citizens’ voices at the heart of governance reforms. I would like to commend the decisive step taken by the Government in rolling out the country’s first such survey to directly receive the voices of the people in its effort to further improve public service delivery and overall SDG 16. Through our experiences in supporting many other similar surveys around the world, we have seen how citizen-generated evidence can help improve transparency, accountability and public services while further strengthening trust in institutions. SL-PULSE brings those global lessons to Sri Lanka through a locally owned and nationally led approach, providing decision-makers with timely insights from citizens while helping shape more responsive and effective public services.”
The digital survey tool measures citizen experiences across seven critical governance dimensions, including civic participation, accountability, transparency, corruption control, administrative procedures, service delivery, environmental governance and disaster resilience, and digital governance. The resulting data will generate evidence-based governance insights that can support policy reforms, institutional improvements and performance monitoring at both national and local levels.
By placing citizens’ experiences at the centre of assessing services delivered through Divisional Secretariats, SL-PULSE represents a significant step towards more responsive, accountable and evidence-driven public administration.
Through this digital survey tool, the Government of Sri Lanka will gain valuable insights into how frontline public services are experienced by people across the country, helping identify opportunities for continuous improvement and reform. As a nationally owned initiative, SL-PULSE lays the foundation for a sustainable citizen feedback system that can strengthen service delivery at the Divisional Secretariat level while providing a model that can be adapted and replicated across other ministries and public institutions in the years ahead. (Newswire)
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