Disaster Management System Support for Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government's Information and Communication Technology Agency has issued a request for Expressions of Interest for "Deployment of the Sahana Disaster Management System for the National Disaster Relief Services Centre" (due August 10, 2009). Sahana is an open source application developed in response to the December 2004 Tsunami. Provided are a one page Request for Expressions of Interest and a 14 page Scope of Services document. The scope of services document provides an excellent overview of issues with open soruce software for disaster management.

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) is the implementing Agency for the e-Sri Lanka initiative. The Re-engineering Government is one of the main programme areas of ICTA, which aims to improve the efficiency of delivery and access mechanisms of the government. The objectives of the Re-engineering Government Programme are mainly to be achieved by re-engineering the government business processes and enabling those processes with Information and Communication Technologies.

The National Disaster Relief Services Centre (NDRSC) which functions under the purview of the Ministry of Resettlement & Disaster Relief Services is responsible for post disaster management and relief in Sri Lanka. The main functions of the NDRSC are Search and Rescue, Disaster Relief and Resettlement & Rehabilitation. The NDRSC functions through the responsible government operatives in district and divisional secretariat levels. It has been identified that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be further deployed to improve the efficiency of NDRSC significantly.

„Sahana‟ is an internationally award winning web based disaster management system which has been successfully deployed to manage various recent large scale disasters by the Government of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines, Peru, Bangladesh and China. Sahana is a free and open disaster management system and, it has been envisioned that the Sahana would be the perfect solution which could be easily customized and enhanced to cater the requirements of NDRSC.

ICTA now invites Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from eligible Software Service Providers (Firms) to take up this project. Interested consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (core business and years in business, qualifications in the field of the assignment, technical and managerial organization of the firm, general qualifications and number of key staff, experience in similar conditions etc). The “Scope of Services” and “EOI Information Form” documents are now available at ICTA for further information. Interested parties may download above documents from the website www.icta.lk.

Interested eligible parties may obtain further information from Mr. Christy Perera - Procurement Advisor, ICTA by contacting via Phone: +94 11 2369099, Fax: +94 11 2369091) and E-mail: procurement@icta.lk; christy@icta.lk. Expressions of Interest including all requested information must be delivered no later than 1500 hrs on 10th August 2009 either: (i) electronically to; procurement@icta.lk or (ii) hand delivered or (iii) by post to the address; Procurement Division, ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, 2nd Floor, 160/24, Kirimandala Mawatha, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka.

Please mark clearly on the envelope and subject field of e-mail “Expressions of Interest - Deployment of the Sahana Disaster Management System for the National Disaster Relief Services Centre - ICTA/CON/GOSL/QCBS/38”. ...

From: Request for Expressions of Interest (EOI), Presidential Secretariat, e-SRI LANKA DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, Deployment of the Sahana Disaster Management System for the National Disaster Relief Services Centre - ICTA/CON, GOSL/QCBS/38, 17 July 2009