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Impact of Sri Lanka’s Polycrisis on Colombo’s Working Class Urban Poor
Impact of Sri Lanka’s Polycrisis on Colombo’s Working Class Urban Poor
Impact of Sri Lanka’s Polycrisis on Colombo’s Working Class Urban Poor
Since 2022, Colombo Urban Lab has been documenting the realities of Colombo’s working-class urban poor amid Sri Lanka’s polycrisis. Through a series of policy briefs over the years, CUL’s work has highlighted how prolonged economic and social instability creates compounding vulnerabilities for Colombo’s working-class poor.
Nothing Left to Pawn: Impact of Polycrisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor
Nothing Left to Pawn: Impact of Polycrisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor
Nothing Left to Pawn: Impact of Polycrisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor
Colombo Urban Lab’s latest policy brief examines the protracted and often invisible impacts of Sri Lanka’s polycrisis on Colombo’s working class poor, focusing on how they have increased vulnerabilities to new shocks such as natural disasters and the global energy crisis. These findings are based on qualitative research with communities in Colombo, a household survey of 45 households conducted across four settlements in January 2026, and ongoing engagements with community leaders from across Colombo.
Domestic Workers as Care Infrastructure in Cities
Domestic Workers as Care Infrastructure in Cities
A Guide for Raising Awareness on Social Protection
A Guide for Raising Awareness on Social Protection
Promoting Social Protection Through Human-Centred Design is a practical workshop guide that helps communities understand social protection as a right. Using methods rooted in Human-Centred Design (HCD), it supports citizens to connect policy to lived experience, identify barriers, and formulate recommendations. Originally developed for urban working-class communities in Colombo, the guide can be adapted for diverse sectors and contexts across Sri Lanka.
Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
This report explores care burdens faced by working mothers in low income communities in Colombo, seeking to understand how they balance work and child care responsibilities. It also examines how social protection can be better suited to meet the different dynamics and needs that these women face within their households, places of work and beyond.
White Elephants or Cash Cows? Evaluating Two Urban Development Projects in Colombo
White Elephants or Cash Cows? Evaluating Two Urban Development Projects in Colombo
Panel Discussion Highlights: Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
Panel Discussion Highlights: Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
Colombo Urban Lab launched its latest report, “Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo” on the 19th of January 2026. The presentation of the report’s findings was followed by a panel discussion on recommendations for improving care infrastructure and social protection and what opportunities and roadblocks lay ahead in catalysing change. The panel consisted of Vraie Cally Balthazaar, Mayor of Colombo, Dr. Farzana Haniffa, Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Emma Brigham, UNICEF representative for Sri Lanka and Iromi Perera, Director of the Colombo Urban Lab.
Summary in Sinhala: Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
Summary in Sinhala: Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
Summary in Tamil : Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
Summary in Tamil : Social Protection and Urban Infrastructures of Care in Colombo
‘Legalised Begging’ and Elegant Targeting: What Ministers and Multilaterals are Getting Wrong About Social Protection in Sri Lanka
‘Legalised Begging’ and Elegant Targeting: What Ministers and Multilaterals are Getting Wrong About Social Protection in Sri Lanka
Social protection is a right and should not be viewed as charity. The government must commit to better investing in the economic, social and cultural rights of citizens through stronger social protection, if not it will be difficult to achieve a just and equitable recovery from not just the polycrisis, but also the impact of Cyclone Ditwah.
How can Colombo’s recovery from Cyclone Ditwah be transformative?
How can Colombo’s recovery from Cyclone Ditwah be transformative?
The immediacy of any disaster we see the outpouring support from Sri Lankans - coming together to raise money, collect rations and clothes and deliver them where needed. But to break this cycle of stepping in where the state and government fail, we need proactive governance and planning, and not reactive as we have been for decades.
Thin Ice (Roadsides Journal Article)
Thin Ice (Roadsides Journal Article)
"Thin Ice" article by Meghal Perera, , from the Collection No. 14 of the Roadsides Journal titled "Foodways".
Gendered Impacts of Heat Stress: Impacts and Policy Responses
Gendered Impacts of Heat Stress: Impacts and Policy Responses
From Informal Gardens to Planned Parks: Rethinking Leisure in Colombo’s Urban Poor Neighbourhoods
From Informal Gardens to Planned Parks: Rethinking Leisure in Colombo’s Urban Poor Neighbourhoods
Criminalisation of Poverty in Colombo
Criminalisation of Poverty in Colombo
Criminalisation is often understood narrowly—as something that happens after a crime, involving police, courts, and prisons. But we argue that criminalisation is not only about breaking laws; it is about how laws are written, where suspicion is cast, and which bodies are deemed out of place. A critical example of the criminalisation of poverty is Colombo’s Urban Regeneration Project (URP) of the Government of Sri Lanka and implemented by the Urban Development Authority since 2012, which reveals that criminalisation extends beyond incarceration; it includes the transformation of poor people's living environments into carceral spaces themselves.
Flexibility and Fairness in Platform Labour: Navigating Gig Work in Colombo
Flexibility and Fairness in Platform Labour: Navigating Gig Work in Colombo
COVID-19, Economic Crisis, and the Erosion of Sri Lanka’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Commitments
COVID-19, Economic Crisis, and the Erosion of Sri Lanka’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Commitments
Sri Lanka is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), obligated to progressively realise rights such as adequate food, housing, health, education, and social security. Despite clear obligations, Sri Lanka’s track record shows a persistent gap between formal commitments and reality.
Heat stress in Colombo: understanding impacts and planning for the future
Heat stress in Colombo: understanding impacts and planning for the future
Hostile Architecture in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Hostile Architecture in Colombo, Sri Lanka
What is hostile architecture and how does it impact public spaces in Colombo, Sri Lanka?
Boiling Point Webinar July 2025
Boiling Point Webinar July 2025
Centring lived experiences in food environment research: A methodological framework and application in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Centring lived experiences in food environment research: A methodological framework and application in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Recovery Without Relief: How Colombo's Working Class Poor Stay Afloat
Recovery Without Relief: How Colombo's Working Class Poor Stay Afloat
Beyond Aswesuma: Investing in Transformative Social Protection
Beyond Aswesuma: Investing in Transformative Social Protection
Electricity and Colombo's Working Class Poor
Electricity and Colombo's Working Class Poor
Youtube: Debt without Development Webinar
Youtube: Debt without Development Webinar
Debt without Development Article
Debt without Development Article
Navigating Vendor Informality and Infrastructure in Colombo
Navigating Vendor Informality and Infrastructure in Colombo
Understanding the Infrastructure-Nutrition Nexus: Lessons from Colombo
Understanding the Infrastructure-Nutrition Nexus: Lessons from Colombo
StoryMap - Built on Sand: Colombo's Urban Regeneration Project
StoryMap - Built on Sand: Colombo's Urban Regeneration Project
Built on Sand: A Review of Colombo’s Urban Regeneration Project
Built on Sand: A Review of Colombo’s Urban Regeneration Project
Reorienting housing policy for Colombo’s urban poor
Reorienting housing policy for Colombo’s urban poor
Navigating Food Environments: A Study of households in Colombo and Deniyaya
Navigating Food Environments: A Study of households in Colombo and Deniyaya
Mainstreaming Social Infrastructure in Development
Mainstreaming Social Infrastructure in Development
Photovoice toolkit
Photovoice toolkit
Food Environments in Tea Estates
Food Environments in Tea Estates
BCIS Festival of Ideas
BCIS Festival of Ideas
Food Environments in Colombo
Food Environments in Colombo
City From Scratch: An Interactive Game to Build an Inclusive City
City From Scratch: An Interactive Game to Build an Inclusive City
Reclaiming Public Space: Who Is It For and Who Is Welcome?
Reclaiming Public Space: Who Is It For and Who Is Welcome?
Coping Through Crisis
Coping Through Crisis
Sign Up for CUL's Quarterly Newsletter!
Sign Up for CUL's Quarterly Newsletter!
Falling Through The Cracks: The Impact of Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis on Colombo’s Working Class Poor
Falling Through The Cracks: The Impact of Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis on Colombo’s Working Class Poor
Methodology for Mapping Urban Food Environments
Methodology for Mapping Urban Food Environments
Settlements in Colombo: Sustainability of neighbourhoods
Settlements in Colombo: Sustainability of neighbourhoods
Behind the scenes: Colombo Settlements Survey 2023
Behind the scenes: Colombo Settlements Survey 2023
Are Colombo's working class poor really 'underserved'?
Are Colombo's working class poor really 'underserved'?
Does Colombo have sprawling slums and shanties?
Does Colombo have sprawling slums and shanties?
Colombo Settlements Survey 2023
Colombo Settlements Survey 2023
COVID-19, the economic crisis & Colombo’s working class poor
COVID-19, the economic crisis & Colombo’s working class poor
Quantifying poverty: Can we truly capture its complexity?
Quantifying poverty: Can we truly capture its complexity?
A research methodology to understand stories of development and displacement in two of Colombo’s markets
A research methodology to understand stories of development and displacement in two of Colombo’s markets
Anchoring meaningful community participation at the heart of nature-based solutions in cities
Anchoring meaningful community participation at the heart of nature-based solutions in cities
Aswesuma: High Exclusion, Low Transparency?
Aswesuma: High Exclusion, Low Transparency?
Borrowing To Eat: The Impact of Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor - CSF
Borrowing To Eat: The Impact of Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor - CSF
Circuits of Semiconductors and Affiliation: a Shallow Dive into the Small-Scale Mobile Phone Repair Sector - CSF
Circuits of Semiconductors and Affiliation: a Shallow Dive into the Small-Scale Mobile Phone Repair Sector - CSF
Beyond Pomp and Pageantry: Looking at Public Markets as Lived Spaces - CSF
Beyond Pomp and Pageantry: Looking at Public Markets as Lived Spaces - CSF
Breaking Point: Impact of Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor - CSF
Breaking Point: Impact of Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis on Colombo's Working Class Poor - CSF
Valuing the Catch of the Day: Towards a more Humanised Food Value Chain - CSF
Valuing the Catch of the Day: Towards a more Humanised Food Value Chain - CSF
Research methodologies: context and ethical considerations amid COVID-19
Research methodologies: context and ethical considerations amid COVID-19
Chasing Efficiency While Leaving the Vulnerable to Their Own Devices - CSF
Chasing Efficiency While Leaving the Vulnerable to Their Own Devices - CSF
City Resilience Through Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture
City Resilience Through Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture
Power struggles: Electricity and Colombo’s working class poor
Power struggles: Electricity and Colombo’s working class poor
Food for Thought: Rethinking Home Gardening and Subsistence Agriculture - CSF
Food for Thought: Rethinking Home Gardening and Subsistence Agriculture - CSF
FUNDRAISER: Cooked meals for one year
FUNDRAISER: Cooked meals for one year
From Bad to Worse: Coping with the economic crisis
From Bad to Worse: Coping with the economic crisis
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