When three decades of conflict ended in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, approximately 450,000 people had been displaced, with many having to rebuild their lives after having their houses destroyed, having lost family members and with no proper means of livelihood.

The Post-Conflict Reconstruction Programme in Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces implemented by UN-Habitat, provided numerous opportunities as well as challenges and proved to be a testing ground for many new strategies and technologies. The programme proved to be highly successful, completing the reconstruction of 31,350 homes and 520 infrastructure facilities and bringing fractured communities closer together.

This report looks closely at the three main elements that made the programme a success – the participation of people from the inception to the end, the diverse partnerships – donors, government, community based organizations that brought people together to implement the projects and the new and innovative technologies that were introduced to make the programme cost effective and sustainable.

Ten principles can be followed to produce the sort of equal post-conflict settlement planning that can help to build communities that have a better basis of becoming peaceful and sustainable. These are:

1. Gender factors should be integrated in post-conflict settlement planning.
2. Post-conflict settlement planning should increase the safety and security of all groups.
3. Women grassroots organizations should be involved in post-conflict settlement planning.
4. A spatial framework should be used to facilitate the improvement of gender-sensitive coordination of post-crisis settlement planning.
5. The planning process should be people-centred and include both women and men.
6. Planning should be about building back better and increasing crisis resilience, peace and the inclusiveness of all groups.
7. Spatial planning should frame interventions as first steps towards socially, politically and economically equal neighborhoods and cities.
8. Planning should be integrated, linking infrastructure, services and livelihoods in a way that recognizes both women and men needs.
9. Planning should generate economic recovery and growth if addressed equally.
10. Planning should be monitored and evaluated.

In Sri Lanka today, as in many other developing countries, there is a growing urgency to come up with creative and sustainable solutions to tackle the twin pressures of infrastructure needs and the interests of communities who are affected by such projects, often losing their homes, land and livelihood in the process.Rapid industrialization has catapulted Colombo, Sri Lankass commercial capital, into an economic hub. However, this has also severely damaged the environment, especially the cityss peripheral areas abounding in factories. One of the worst victims of industrial wastewater pollution is the Lunawa Lake, south of Colombo. The lake straddles two adjoining Municipal Councils: Dehiwala-Mt. Lavinia and Moratuwa. Barely a decade ago, it was surrounded by a thriving fisheries industry. Continued discharge of waste water into its waters over the years played havoc, killing most of the fish. Moreover, the catchment area suffers from frequent flooding, due to an inadequate drainage system.

El segundo Encuentro Iberoamericano de Mejores Practicas Urbanas se centro en el analisis y en la discusion de la relacion entre la ciudad en expanison y la ciudad construida. De esta actividad resultaron valiosos aprotes en la construccion del proceso de recuperacion de la primera centralidad de la ciudad.

Dentro del escenario de las Buenas y Mejores Practicas urbanas y ambientales que contribuyen al desarrollo sostenible de la ciudad, el evento reunio actores con intereses y responsabilidades semehantes en la busqueda de objetivos comunes.

If all estimated 400,000 families currently displaced in Darfur return to their places of origin and reconstruct their destroyed homes utilizing the traditional building practices, with wood as the main structural element, they will need to find and cut an estimated 16 million mature trees.

In light of the ongoing documented deforestation, this would be an environmental, social, and economic disaster that must be avoided” (source: project document, 2009). This books comprises a summary approach, lessons learnt of UN-Habitat and DFID funded project in Sudan; using stabilized soil blocks in building of dwellings and institutions in the first stages of recovery in Darfur.

UN-HABITAT Working in Partnership with Sr Lanka Description/Abstract: After the tsunami hit Sri Lanka in December 2004, UN-Habitat has taken a lead role in the shelter recovery and rehabilitation efforts in partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka, a multitude of donor agencies and national partner institutions.

UN-Habitat introduced a community-based approach to recovery and reconstruction of shelter and settlements and promoted an owner-driven approach. This publication aims to take stock of these efforts and analyse the role of UN-Habitat and its partners in the post-tsunami housing recovery and reconstruction process.