DevelopMetrics

FCDO / Sri Lanka

Trilingual AI for Economic Policymaking

A trilingual evidence platform helping officials bring source-linked research into real policy work.

Project overview

What this project was built to help with

With Sri Lanka's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Digital Economy, this project brings source-linked research into the documents where policy work actually happens: budget notes, cabinet memoranda, regulatory drafts, and strategy chapters. The platform is built for Sinhala, Tamil, and English workflows, with a randomized evaluation planned to test whether it improves the quality, timeliness, and diversity of evidence used in real decisions.

Project story

From policy evidence to usable government drafting

Sri Lanka's policy teams were not just looking for a chatbot. The project is about bringing evidence into the specific writing and review moments where officials prepare budget notes, cabinet memoranda, regulatory drafts, and strategy chapters. The platform has to work across Sinhala, Tamil, and English while keeping source material visible enough for officials to check what is being used.

The work combines evidence cartography, trilingual retrieval, policy-document workflows, and human review. Instead of treating AI output as a final answer, the system is designed to support officials as they search, compare, draft, and revise. A randomized evaluation is part of the work so the team can test whether the platform improves the quality, timeliness, and diversity of evidence used in real policy decisions.

Example deliverables

Concrete outputs or working assets the project produced or supported.

Deliverable 01Trilingual evidence platform for Sinhala, Tamil, and English workflows
Deliverable 02Source-linked drafting support for budget, cabinet, regulatory, and strategy documents
Deliverable 03Evidence cartography and structured policy source library
Deliverable 04Randomized evaluation design focused on evidence quality, timeliness, and diversity
Policy officials gathered in a Sri Lankan government meeting room

Decision problem

Sri Lankan policy teams need to move from research and institutional knowledge into usable policy language quickly, while preserving source traceability across Sinhala, Tamil, and English. The work has to support real government drafting contexts, including budget notes, cabinet memoranda, regulatory materials, and strategy chapters.

What the work involved

1

Built the platform around the documents officials already need to produce, so evidence can be reused directly in budget, planning, cabinet, regulatory, and strategy workflows.

2

Designed trilingual retrieval and synthesis across Sinhala, Tamil, and English so evidence can move across language contexts without losing the source trail or meaning.

3

Included source-linked outputs and review logic, with a randomized evaluation planned to test whether the platform improves evidence quality, timeliness, and diversity in real policy decisions.

Outcome

Stronger, faster, and more traceable use of evidence in real policy decisions.

Evidence inputs

What the workflow brings together

Policy researchGovernment planning documentsBudget and strategy materialsMultilingual evidence sources

Review focus

What stays visible for human review

Source traceability
Language quality
Human approval before policy use

Related work

Talk with us about a similar workflow.

Bring one decision, report, review process, or evidence problem. We will help identify the smallest useful place to begin.

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