From economist to tv host: Reaching out to new audiences

by Angela Pereira

Harsha de Silva (MA/PhD '93, Economics) is a leading economist from Sri Lanka who conducts cutting-edge research on how information and communication technologies (ICTs), agriculture, and economics intersect. He is also the host of a popular business and economics television show.

His interest in making these connections, either through research or the television screen, was piqued far from home — in the American Midwest. While working on his PhD in economics at the University of Missouri, de Silva spent time at friends' farms and was fascinated by the state's wide expanses of cropland and the hulking machinery used to plant and harvest.

"These guys would run their big farms with just a family and they were so productive," he says. "They could use technology we couldn't use [in Sri Lanka]. They had productivity we didn't have."

He became interested in examining what restricted this kind of growth and productivity in Sri Lanka to understand how the agricultural markets in developing countries could become more efficient.

Returning home

After his studies, de Silva returned to Sri Lanka to work as the chief economist and treasurer of the country's largest development bank, declining employment offers in North America.

"I belong in my country and that's how I see it," says de Silva. "Developing-country researchers have got to go get PhDs, be able to integrate with the system, understand it, and then come back and share that knowledge."

He left the bank after a few years to co-found a successful market research company that grew from three to 200 employees in just three years. The successful enterprise caught the attention of AC Nielsen, a large international market research company, and de Silva decided to sell the company he created. While it was a difficult decision, de Silva says he was relieved to be free from the administrative rigours of managing a large company in order to "get his hands dirty" in research again.

Putting the pieces together

He went on to work for the Sri Lankan government, designing a strategy to bring ICTs to rural areas of the country. During this time, he became intrigued by the potential of technologies such as mobile phones to improve the efficiency of agricultural markets and ultimately improve the lives of the poor.

"Telephones in the hands of farmers or tuk-tuk drivers — it wasn't expected, but it happened," says de Silva.

In 2004, the government decided the project wasn't a priority, but de Silva and colleague Rohan Samarajiva decided to continue their research and created LIRNEasia, a regional organization that conducts research to identify ways ICTS can be used to improve the lives of Asia's people. In addition to their work exploring technology and its application in improving people's livelihoods, LIRNEasia has also helped pilot an early disaster warning system to alert coastal villages to dangers coming from the sea, like the 2004 tsunami. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been a key supporter of LIRNEasia since its creation.

De Silva is now the organization's head economist. One of his key projects is a study of smallholder farmers at Sri Lanka's main agricultural market. He is exploring how much farmers spend on information at each stage of the production cycle to understand how ICTs like mobile phones can reduce farmers' costs and ultimately improve their livelihoods. Read more about the findings of this study.

While the benefits of ICTs have not been fully realized yet, their potential in the region is undeniable, says de Silva. A LIRNEasia study from two years ago found that more than 90% of people surveyed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand had used a phone in the preceding three months. Another study also found 50% of people in Sri Lanka own mobile phones.

"It excites people like myself who work on ICTs for development and are so passionate about what we do because we think [mobile phone ownership or access] provides an opportunity for people in our part of the world to leapfrog and catch up," says de Silva.

LIRNEasia is using its research findings to inform policymakers, the private sector, and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) about how they can ensure the poor have affordable and convenient access to ICTs.

Moving forward

While research and influencing policy is a direct goal of LIRNEasia, building the capacity of developing world researchers is another important by-product of its work, says de Silva. He says many researchers from developing countries stay and work in the developed world, but organizations such as LIRNEasia provide incentive and opportunity for researchers to return. LIRNEasia now conducts research in 11 countries, employs 10 distinguished researchers, and engages with numerous research networks and universities across South Asia.

"[Developing world researchers] know what we want to do... And we are equally as capable of doing things as anybody else in North America."

And while it is important for researchers to have the tools necessary to articulate their own version of development, it is equally important for developing-country citizens to have the information and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions, says de Silva.

He hosts his own popular weekly television show to explain economic and business issues to a wide audience.

De Silva says that although this venture takes up a lot of his time, he feels it is important because he wants people in his region to base important decisions — such as who to vote for — on evidence and understanding, not emotion.

But this doesn't always make him popular. De Silva says giving people digestible information about economics often frustrates the efforts of those who use economic complexities to mislead people for their own benefit.

"They say — 'you can't understand this because it is too complex, so leave it to us....' I say, let's unwrap this, it's not that complex and anyone can understand it."

Angela Pereira is a writer with IDRC's Communications Division. This article was originally published on the website of Canada's International Development Research Centre (www.idrc.ca).

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LIRNEasia