Different telecentre models in ICT for development and their impact on organizational sustainability

Within seven years, e-Sri Lanka programme funded by the World Bank as a South Asian first has established a network of 765 Nenasala telecentres as grass-root non-profit or for-profit enterprises. As e-Sri Lanka’s main interface, Nenasalas aim to deliver Information Communication Technology (ICT) services to the community through ICT for Development (ICT4D) endeavours. However, these diverse telecentre models point to dissimilar sustainability records. Yet, no external/academic evaluation has been undertaken to examine the impact on Nenasala sustainability stemming from variations in models. The authors conducted a comprehensive analysis of archival material of Sri Lankan Nenasala telecentre initiative and uncovered number of telecentre models that accentuate profitable knowledge work through home-grown Social Responsibility (SR) collaborations to develop underprivileged communities.