Background and Objectives:
This project builds on the Sustainable Colombo Core Area (SCCA) Project, which established partnership arrangements between the municipal councils, NGOs and communities to address the environmental planning and management constraints of the three municipal councils in the Colombo metropolitan area.

In Phase II, the project increased its city coverage from 3 to 13, whilst diversifying its environmental management focus to include participatory urban governance and gender inclusiveness. The current 3rd phase strengthens its pro-poor focus, and tests approaches to mainstream the Millennium Development Goals into city management practices and budgets in 18 cities, including four cities in the North and East.
     
The primary objectives are to assist 18 cities to:

• Develop their capacities in participatory urban governance.
• Develop capacities to prepare and implement pro-poor city Millennium Development Goals strategies.
• Formulate and implement sustainable pro-poor urban development action plans.

Activities:
The main activities include:

• Creating system-wide capabilities at the national, provincial and local level to promote, coordinate and manage pro-poor Millennium Development Goals-targeted urban governance in cities.
• Developing a replicable method of participatory governance and its application in 18 cities.
• Deepening participatory governance through participatory budgeting and e-governance mechanisms.
• Strengthening the capacities of partner training institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations to support local authorities in urban governance.
• Preparing Millennium Development Goals profiles that identify critical disadvantages and define access to services by the poor, along with gender disparities in 10 cities.
• Monitoring and documenting the processes and developing Millennium Development Goals toolkits to replicate the lessons learned and good practices.
• Establishing an institutional support network at the national-level to influence policy dialogues.

Results:

• The city consultation approach institutionalized “City Development Committees”, supported by a national Urban Governance Facilitation Committee for policy learning.
• The adopted urban governance process applied in 18 cities supported by toolkits based on documented experiences, published for national replication.
• Participatory budgeting and e-governance approaches tested in Colombo municipality, with lessons learned documented for replicating in other cities.
• Nine Millennium Development Goals profiles prepared and discussed during broad-based city consultations, with follow-up action plans under finalisation, integrated into city budgets.