Included to be Excluded? A Critical Assessment on the Inclusion of Slum and Shanty Dwellers into the Urban Regeneration Project

Sustainable Development has become a popular concept in recent development discourse. With the sustainable development goals adopted in 2015, all countries have taken actions to fulfill the goals by its target deadline. Among the goals, goal no. 11 “[m]ake cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable” has become one of the most important sustainable development goals as cities are proponents of a country’s development. Due to the highly diverse nature of urban populations, inclusion has become an important concept under this goal. Nevertheless, there are many examples around the world which suggest that vulnerable groups like slum and shanty dwellers have been excluded from the decision-making process on the development of cities.

In such a context, this article asks, to what extent were the slum and shanty dwellers in the city of Colombo included in the decision-making process of the development projects related to building a sustainable city? It uses as a case study, the Urban Regeneration Project, initiated by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and aimed at upgrading the living conditions of slum and shanty dwellers by relocating them into modern houses. The article is based on secondary data gathered through journal articles, books, websites etc. It argues that the slum and shanty dwellers were excluded from the entire decision-making process, and that the government’s decision to exclude these communities was justified based on its positivist stance when making policy decisions.