Colombo Urban Lab

Current systems are not designed for continuous, overlapping crises.

Targeted approaches like Aswesuma are excluding vulnerable households, while existing support is not enough to address the scale and complexity of need.

We need to move beyond short-term fixes.

✔️ Universal social protection
✔️ Expanded and better-funded cash transfers
✔️ Investments in care, food, labour, and climate resilience

Without meaningful change, the impacts of this crisis risk becoming generational.

📊 These recommendations are grounded in qualitative research and ongoing engagement with communities across Colombo.

Current systems are not designed for continuous, overlapping crises.

Targeted approaches like Aswesuma are excluding vulnerable households, while existing support is not enough to address the scale and complexity of need.

We need to move beyond short-term fixes.
✔️ Universal social protection
✔️ Expanded and better-funded cash transfers
✔️ Investments in care, food, labour, and climate resilience

Without meaningful change, the impacts of this crisis risk becoming generational.

📊 These recommendations are grounded in qualitative research and ongoing engagement with communities across Colombo.

🔗 Read the full policy brief here: https://www.csf-asia.org/nothing-left-to-pawn-impact-of-polycrisis-on-colombos-working-class-poor/

For Colombo’s working class poor, the crisis never truly ended. Instead, it has become an everyday condition.

Rising costs, depleted savings, and exhausted coping strategies have become the norm. Households struggle to meet daily needs, from food to medicine, while small shocks deepen vulnerability and reduce quality of life.

What looks like “adaptation” is often forced survival, highlighting the long-term impacts of Sri Lanka’s polycrisis.

📊 Our latest policy brief highlights findings from our qualitative research, household surveys, and ongoing engagement with communities across Colombo.

🔗 Read it here: https://www.csf-asia.org/nothing-left-to-pawn-impact-of-polycrisis-on-colombos-working-class-poor/