Transforming Institutions

"We have worked with the Citra team to prototype the SDG Tracker. Being the UN agency responsible for health, we worked with them on Goal 3 on health. The expertise at Citra was used to develop the tracker and once it has been developed, it will be made available to the public to do their own analysis on the health sector at a national and sub-national level. After discussions with the Ministry of Health, we worked with Citra, who coordinated the project well and showed high technical acumen. Citra worked with UN agencies and government bodies effectively to complete this task. It was a very rich experience for everyone who was involved, and it positively impacted all parties concerned. All the hard work culminated at an event held to mark World Health Day 2018, where the world celebrations were held in Sri Lanka for the very first time. The prototype of the tracker was launched on this date, which was a great achievement for the nation and UN agencies in Sri Lanka. We continue to work with Citra to streamline the tracker and incorporate data from a sub-national level. Citra added a lot of value through this project to the entire UN fraternity, and we look forward to continued engagement."

“I was extremely happy to be involved with the Citra Innovation Lab in both 2016 and 2017, beginning with the Foresight and Innovation Summit, and then subsequently in launching the formal Social Innovation Lab. What really excited us to work with Citra was aligning ourselves with Goal 17, which relates to partnerships and involves working together with the larger community on sustainability initiatives. I would like to thank the team who brought together many other players and created a very good sustainability strategy for the country. The very foundation of Citra was innovation and foresight. Very often, larger companies have breakthrough innovations, which, because of patents and copyrights etc., do not reach the wider community. Since all the stakeholders were brought together in this instance, we saw a lot of benefits and learnt the importance of connecting with smaller supply chains and greater society at large. We not only shared our experiences, but also learnt from them. Kudos to the team for not only starting this initiative, but also sustaining it and bringing about real change.”

“As the former Secretary of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research, I had the pleasure of working with this young team at Citra last year. Even though our engagement was during a short time period, I can truly say that they were one of the most hard working and persistent teams I have ever worked with. They were always trying to find new issues, work in novel ways and find solutions to societal challenges which will create a lasting impact for everyone in the country. At times, I found myself pleasantly surprised by their innovative thought processes! I truly believe that Citra is a team which has the potential of bringing immense value to the work of the Government by working to create solutions while keeping the citizens at heart. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to facilitate their work during my time at the Ministry.”

“Citra Innovation Lab uses new tools to prototype and test development solutions before they are implemented. Citra has done some very good projects in Sri Lanka, of which I feel the SDG Tracker is a very important one. This tracker enables policy-makers to look at data very easily and make targeted interventions. This is a great initiative that will help all stakeholders involved and we commend Citra for their role in developing it.”

“It has been a humbling and inspiring experience to be invited to work alongside Citra Innovation Lab. We have admired how strategic they have been in shaping the Lab and how intentionally diverse they have made their offers and practice. We were particularly impressed with their approach to building and nurturing public, civic and private sector partnerships in Sri Lanka and overseas. We look forward to following Citra’s progress and supporting them in their trailblazing journey towards influencing positive outcomes.”

“In my opinion, the most important aspect of the Citra Social Innovation Lab is that it provides a platform to the younger generation of Sri Lanka who are interested in contributing to the development of the country. We have many developmental challenges in achieving the SDGs and this Lab really gives an opportunity for people to come up with ideas, use technology and form solutions both individually and as a group to find the most feasible ones. These solutions are then offered to the people and policy-makers for further action.”

“Working with Citra Innovation Lab has been a very positive experience. We worked closely with the Citra team and organized the Foresight and Innovation for Public Sector Excellence programme for 30+ selected officers of the public administration services. These officers enhanced their experience through innovation, enhanced their efficiency, and increased their working capacity. We greatly appreciate Citra’s commitment and look forward to expanding our partnership with them.”

“What Citra has achieved during their first year is extremely impressive. Specifically, because they have been working below the radar shaping a powerful network of actors that are now working towards transforming the Sri Lankan public sector into a more citizen-centred one. I had the opportunity to engage in one of their week-long workshops and I could see a unique feature: a very traditional civil service, based on values like discipline and rigorousness in combination with design oriented methods. Those elements will rapidly make the Sri Lankan government a global referent.”

“When we were revamping our CSR strategy, we wanted to find ways to make it fun and exciting while also empowering our employees. We wanted to give our staff a platform to voice their ideas and passions as well. Our main goal was to hear what they had to say in terms of making the company and the country at large a better place. Together with Citra, we used the Hackadev model that they had already incorporated and moved it to a corporate setting, thereby creating ‘Hackadev Corporate’. It’s been a really great experience working with the Citra team and we look forward to more collaborations in the future.”

“Sri Lankan public sector is lagging behind not because the government lacks intellectual and capable public officers, but because of not having the necessary positive mindset and opportunities to try out innovative problem solving approaches. Citra is doing exactly this by trying to fill this vacuum and building a platform for such officers to develop a positive frame of mind and use the best tools available for attacking the challenges faced by the public sector for greater efficiency. I am pleased that the positive results of this initiative has already started to come to fruition.”

“The volatile and unpredictable world we live in demands unconventional and novel solutions to social, economic and environmental issues. Having access to an innovation lab of the calibre of Citra gives Sri Lanka an opportunity to rapidly and effectively react to the challenges of the 21st Century. I congratulate the team at Citra for their achievements in the first year. Their ability to analyze and address complex issues by reinventing policy design and service delivery deserves greater recognition and integration into decision making in the state and private sectors equally. With sincere appreciation and best wishes.”

“For me the most impressive aspect of the Citra Innovation Lab is that it has the opportunity to bring imagination to life through its use of innovation tools and expertise. It is a great platform to use evidence, facilitate the involvement of diverse experts in one subject area, and has the ability to incorporate the ground realities of a given situation in real time through its expansive network and engagement. Citra brings youth leadership to where it really matters… finding solutions that are needed for the future.”

“Biodiversity Sri Lanka takes the lead in the private sector and initiates work on biodiversity and conservation issues. It’s a unique outfit that contributes towards the National Policy on Biodiversity. In this field, we find a great need for more than conventional ways of dealing with conservation issues. There’s a lot of innovation and networking that is required to make things work. During the last few years, we have seen that communication has been vital in spreading the conservation message. Working with Citra, therefore, has been a great experience because of their youthful perspectives and fresh ideas when it comes to working on various development challenges. We have identified biodiversity as a critical issue and together with Citra, we have done work on climate issues with a group of young people. Similarly, we hope to network with Citra on issues such as pollution, waste management and other societal challenges arising in the country.”

“A lab like Citra is particularly difficult to sustain because, on one hand, you have to scan the horizon for issues, then try and mainstream these issues, also evangelize new approaches from an innovation perspective among the public sector and catalyze the broader system. Doing all of this simultaneously is not an easy task. As being a member of the Advisory Board, I am quite happy that in Citra’s first year they’ve been firing on all fronts, and look forward to working with them in the future.”

“As our very first lab of this kind, it is with real interest that I have watched the progress of Citra over its first year. What I see is the immense potential of this type of enterprise which creates different mindsets and has the ability to influence paradigm shifts as well. I really hope that the first group of public sector professionals, who are now Citra alumni of sorts, will seed the changes much needed in our public sector in making it much more entrepreneurial and nationally relevant with the spark of service excellence in mind. You do not need big numbers to change a situation but need the committed drive of a few. Citra may your growth be exponential in impact in the coming months and years!”

“I have been working with the team at Citra Lab since early 2018 on the National Youth Social Innovation Challenge to engage and empower young people around the country to bring out innovative and impactful solutions to the country’s challenges. Through this project, we were able to work with a diverse community which we have never worked with before and that enabled us to think differently too. I should also add that working with the dynamic, passionate and young team at Citra Lab was like working together with friends on a passion project. We share common goals such as wanting to empower young people, give them the opportunities that they may never have, provide a platform for innovative ideas to be showcased, incubated and launched. Above all of this are the SDGs that we want to achieve in order to make this world a better place. This brings us together all the time to work closely and make an impact.”