History
Although the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) has a history of nearly five decades since its establishment in 1974, the history of its Vision, Mission and core activities can be traced back to the year 1925, when the Friedrich Ebert Foundation was established in memory of the great statesman of the 20 th century and the first democratically elected president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Friedrich Ebert. Late president Ranasinghe Premadasa took the initiative to establish SLF. He requested the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Bonn that a similar foundation be established in Sri Lanka, to instill knowledge on democratic way of living, when he visited the Federal Republic of Germany in 1965 for a training programme representing the then government. Consequently on the 11 th of April in the year 1967 ‘Lanka Foundation’ was created and in July 1968 the ‘Lanka Foundation’ was incorporated under the Companies Ordinance. On the 6 th of February in 1969 late president J R Jayewardene the then state minister and president of the ‘Lanka Foundation’, laid the foundation stone for a building on the invitation of late president Ranasinghe Premadasa the then minister of Local Government and the secretary of the ‘Lanka Foundation’.
Sri Lanka Foundation Institute currently functions under the purview of the Ministry of Mass Media as the national hub for Education, Training & Awareness services on disciplines related to Sustainable Development, Social Integration, Socio-Economic Development, Governance, Entrepreneurship and Democracy.
In the year 1973 the ‘Lanka Foundation’ was raised in status to a statutory body by enactment of the Sri Lanka Foundation law no 31 of 1973 and bringing it under the purview of the Prime Minister’s office, and with the sponsorship of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation giving priority to promote democratic way of living and human rights through knowledge sharing and education to bring about social development among the masses of the country.
A few projects were also established by the SLF to achieve its vast educational goals. The Sri Lanka Foundation Institute became the main project of the SLF, whilst the Human Rights Commission and the Sri Lanka Television Training Institute (SLTTI) were the other affiliated projects. In 1978, the SLF was brought under the purview of the president.
Since then SLF has been managed by 17 chairmen who have been able to successfully forged the advantages of the global and national challenges to contribute to the achievement of social, political and economic goals of the country.