10 March 2026, Colombo, Sri Lanka. UN-Habitat Sri Lanka held its second capacity building workshop for key stakeholders of the Resilient Settlements for the Urban Poor flagship programme (also known as RISE-UP) at the United Nations Compound in Colombo. This full day interactive workshop focused on two key aspects: Gender Equality, Disability & Social Inclusion in Urban Climate Resilience Projects and GIS Analysis for Multilayered Vulnerability Assessments (MVAs).

The sessions were designed specifically to enhance the technical capacities of government, local government and civil society partners in preparing climate action plans and MVAs. Sixteen participants representing the Colombo Municipal Council, Wattala-Mabole Urban Council, Divisional Secretariat of Colombo, Divisional Secretariat of Wattala, Sri Lanka Red Cross Society and Global Youth Biodiversity Network participated in the training programme.

In her opening remarks, Aziza Usoof, Deputy Country Programme Manager, UN-Habitat Sri Lanka, highlighted the importance of strengthening local institutional capacity to address emerging urban climate challenges and emphasized the need for continued learning and collaboration to develop evidence-based climate action plans for cities.

The technical sessions were facilitated by Tameez Bohoran, Isuru Prabha and Charmalee Jayasinghe from UN-Habitat. Presentations were followed by interactive group work, including a role-play exercise on gender equality and social inclusion, as well as a hands-on activity to better understand how spatial data can be organized and used to identify risks within urban settlements.

This workshop is the second in a series of capacity-building sessions leading towards supporting the Colombo Municipal Council and Wattala-Mabole Urban Council to develop bankable climate action proposals, thereby enabling the two cities to tackle vulnerabilities related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and unplanned urbanization. The RISE-UP Project is funded by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund under the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund (UNPDF) and is implemented by UN-Habitat from 2024-2027.