SEVANATHA’s engagement in urban poor communities in Colombo and other cities in Sri Lanka has resulted in bringing out a numerous novel ideas and practices. SEVANATHA’s ground level experiences which accumulated since its inception enabled to produce fruitful documents for the interested parties.
Preparation a profile of underserved settlements (USSs) for city of Colombo is one of the major outputs of a Four (04) year project titled ‘Building the skills and Capacity of Colombo’s urban poor to lobby and work with government to improve their living conditions’, supported by the UK Government, and Executed by Homeless International (HI) currently known as Reall, a UK based Non Government Organization (NGO). SEVANATHA URC being the Local Partner organization in this project has implemented the collaboration with Colombo Municipal Council and Sri Lanka Women’s Service Development Cooperative Society (Women’s Coop).
The profile of Under Served Settlements-2012 published, presents the data and information of the all USSs located within the administrative area of Colombo Municipal Council based on a City Wide Survey carried out jointly by SEVANATHA, Colombo Municipal Council and Women’s Coop in 2011/2012. The USSs survey was conducted by using 20 parameters related to physical, economical, social and institutional aspects of USSs and related them according to the level of overall improvement achieved.
Accordingly 04 categories of USSs were identified i.e. fully upgraded, upgraded, underserved and extremely poor. Distribution of these USS within the city based on Municipal wards and districts are presented. So that a reader can get a better idea of their condition/status and distribution according the wards. It is a useful document which can be used for developing strategies and actions for any interventions for the benefits of the USSs communities in Colombo. For further information please contact Ms.Priyanka, Acting Project Manager, SEVANATHA via +94112 879710 or +94112884070.