UN-Habitat supports Provincial Councils and Local Authorities during COVID-19

The State of Sri Lankan Cities (SoSLC) Project of UN-Habitat is supporting Provincial Councils with their efforts to ensure smooth provision of municipal services during COVID-19 pandemic related mobility and health restrictions. Currently, UN-Habitat is supporting the Western and Central Provincial Councils, and the support for Eastern Province is being developed.

The SoSLC ‘COVID-19 Response Database’ monitored service provision related to containing the spread of the pandemic, such as, waste management, disinfection of places at risk, relief distribution etc.

These additional databases enable the Provincial Councils to monitor data that is being entered by the Local Authorities within their purview and send reminders, in addition to generating weekly and monthly reports. Moreover, with the risk of the situation being compounded by dengue, the Provincial Councils have requested support to monitor data related to dengue, in order to evade the danger of it escalating to an epidemic during these challenging times. The SoSLC Project has been able to extend the database to incorporate these aspects and provide with extensive statistical and spatial analysis of the data.

UN-Habitat is also training and supporting the Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners of Local Government on conducting online meetings with Local Authorities and critical stakeholders.

With the country moving into the next phase in relation to the pandemic, the requests of the two Provincial Councils have assisted them in prioritising the responses and development interventions needed to minimise the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19.