Why Sri Lanka Must Build Back Better - UNDP Explains

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka must not add risk again while rebuilding from disasters and crises. Instead, recovery must be used as a decisive moment to strengthen systems, protect livelihoods, and break the cycle of vulnerability that continues to push families back into poverty.

This urgent message was delivered by Azusa Kubota, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, as she warned that the country has entered a new and more complex risk landscape, one where climate extremes are no longer isolated events, but a recurring reality with long-term consequences.

With nearly four-fifths of Sri Lanka’s population living in rural areas, Kubota highlighted that millions depend on climate-sensitive livelihoods, making them particularly vulnerable to environmental shocks. 

She stressed that vulnerability in Sri Lanka is deeply structural, rooted in longstanding economic, social, and environmental challenges.

Sri Lanka, she said, is no longer dealing with occasional disruptions. Instead, it is confronting overlapping risks, climatic, economic, and social, that reinforce one another.

In this context, Cyclone Ditwa was not an anomaly. It was a warning signal.

Kubota explained that climate extremes are becoming more frequent, more severe, and more costly, globally and especially in Sri Lanka. 

The heaviest burden, she said, falls on the poorest and most vulnerable families, many of whom are already on the brink of falling into poverty and can be pushed over the edge by a single disaster.

The impact of such shocks extends far beyond physical destruction.

“These disasters destroy livelihoods, disrupt education and health services, deepen household debt, and push families back into poverty,” Kubota said, noting that their consequences are intergenerational. Years of development gains, she warned, can be wiped out in the blink of an eye.

Because shocks are inevitable, the real question Sri Lanka must confront is how to mitigate and reduce their impact.

This, she explained, is the foundation of the concept known as “Building Back Better” (BBB).

Building Back Better is not simply about rebuilding infrastructure. It is about avoiding the reconstruction of the same risks that caused damage in the first place.

Kubota emphasized that smart recovery is particularly critical in Sri Lanka’s post-economic crisis context, where physical space is constrained and public resources are limited. 
Every investment, she said, must be deliberate, risk-informed, and forward-looking.

“We cannot afford to rebuild the same risks back into our systems,” she warned.

Instead, resilience must be embedded into development planning, budgeting, and service delivery, ensuring that safety and sustainability are built into the foundations of progress.
Recovery, Kubota stressed, is not just about restoring what was lost.