NDRSC-Sahana is a customized version of Sahana for Relief Distribution and Disaster Management, deployed at the National Disaster Relief Services Center (NDRSC) under the Disaster Management Ministry of the Govt. of Sri Lanka. By assessing capacity and monitoring disasters, incidents and situational analysis, the system allows ministry officials to efficiently undertake the distribution and management of relief in terms of goods, services and funding in the aftermath of disasters. Initiated by the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka in collaboration with Respere and hSenid, this participatory system, used by around 350 government agencies in Sri Lanka, ensure that relief and aid reaches nation-wide beneficiaries in a timely, effective and efficient manner.

Along-side the deployment of this nation-wide system, the project also included the hands on training and certification of around 1100 government officials from across the country who currently use the system in 3 languages. The deployment of the system has also made the collection and dissemination of information at various government agencies at national, divisional and district level much more efficient and accurate, thus increasing the efficiency of disaster relief in the country.

In November 2011, the NDRSC was the recipient of the eSwabhimani Award for the e-Government e-content category for NDRSC-Sahana. In the words of the awarding jury, “Given the increase in natural disasters and with several districts being singled out as disaster prone, increasing the efficiency of NDRSC processes is very important. The Jury appreciated that the system has enabled improved collaboration efficiencies of NDRSC with its network of responders at district and divisional secretariats, while it has also improved data management and analysis which are essential for decision making and forecasting”.