18 March 2025, Colombo, Sri Lanka. UN-Habitat Sri Lanka held its first capacity building workshop for the Resilient Settlements for the Urban Poor flagship programme (also known as RISE-UP) at the United Nations Compound in Colombo today.

The half-day interactive workshop focused on climate risk and vulnerability assessments, urban diagnostics, data management and social inclusion to enhance the technical capacities of government, local government and civil society stakeholders in science-based decision making and planning. Over 20 participants representing key institutions including the Colombo Municipal Council, Wattala-Mabole Urban Council, Divisional Secretariat of Colombo, Divisional Secretariat of Wattala, National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) and Urban Development Authority (UDA) participated in the meeting.

In her opening remarks, Ms.Harshini Halangode, UN-Habitat Sri Lanka’s Country Programme Manager noted the important role played by cities in development. “Cities are also increasingly facing multifaced crises and are combatting adverse impacts of climate change globally”, she emphasized.

Ms. Tameez Bohoran and Ms. Isuru Prabha from UN-Habitat were the key resource persons for the training programme. Detailed presentations on assessing multi-layered urban and climate risks and vulnerabilities and data collection mechanisms were followed by interactive group work and presentations by the participants representing Colombo Municipal Council and Wattala- Mabole Urban Council.

This workshop is the first in a series of capacity-building sessions leading towards supporting the two local government institutions to develop bankable proposals, thereby improving how cities can be funded to be greener, safer, and more climate-friendly, tackling problems like climate change, nature loss, and unplanned city growth. The RISE-UP Project is funded by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund under the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund (UNPDF).