Colombo, Sri Lanka:  Participatory Urban Governance

Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, is the largest city of the country, with 800,000 persons and an additional 400,000 floating population. Colombo is among the few capital cities in the South Asian region not growing at a rapid pace, but despite this the present civic infrastructure is unable to service the needs of the residents and faces problems of infrastructure deficiency, traffic congestion and slums. A change in leadership in 1997 provided an opportunity for the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to implement innovative approaches of good governance. 

A series of stakeholder consultations organized by Sevanatha, the local partner institute, highlighted an urgent need for revival and strengthening of participatory forms of local governance such as Community Development Councils and other community-based organisations, which were established in the 1980s. A UMP City Consultation initiated in 1998 focused on building the capacity of the CMC in revenue mobilisation, financial management, increased citizen participation and responsive urban governance. It used a broad-based consultative process to engage a wide cross-section of stakeholders in a “dialogue for development”.

Results
• Widespread consensus on the need for civic engagement in basic services delivery and other development programmes
• Establishment of District Community Management Forums in two districts
• Engagement of Community Development Councils in rate collection and community contracting for delivery of basic services has been initiated on a pilot basis
• Increased involvement of elected councilors in development programmes
• Steps initiated for strengthening of district offices of CMC 
• Donor consensus and increased coordination, especially for poverty-related interventions in Colombo
• The success of the city consultation process in Colombo also led to its selection as one of the three pioneering cities for developing a “City Development Strategy” under the UNCHS-World Bank Cities Alliance initiative in 1999.

Follow up
As a follow-up to UMP city consultations, the British Department for International Development (DFID) has offered to support development of a comprehensive poverty reduction programme, centred around community empowerment, over the next three years. DFID funding will be used to establish and strengthen District Community Management Forums in all districts of the city, intensify institutional development activities of CMC (especially its district offices for decentralised and responsive service delivery) and build capacity of CDCs.

 

Regional Offices & Activities