COLOMBO – A group of 39 Sri Lankan Civil Service officers successfully completed an advanced capacity-building program on disaster management at the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), as part of an ongoing India-supported initiative to strengthen Sri Lanka’s public sector capabilities in disaster preparedness and resilience.
The two-week program, which concluded on Friday (5), focused on enhancing the skills of government officials involved in disaster preparedness, response, recovery and resilience-building efforts.
The training was conducted under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the National Centre for Good Governance and the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) during the state visit of Anura Kumara Dissanayake to India in 2024.
The agreement, which aims to train 1,500 Sri Lankan civil servants over a five-year period, has so far seen a total of 400 officers receiving training under the initiative.
The program, the third specialized course on disaster management conducted at the request of SLIDA, covered a wide range of subjects including disaster management policy and planning, risk assessment, preparedness and mitigation strategies, emergency response mechanisms, early warning systems, disaster risk governance, urban resilience, climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Participants also undertook field visits to several key Indian institutions, including the National Disaster Management Authority, National Disaster Response Force, Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force, the PM Gati Shakti Experiential Centre and the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya.
Capacity-building remains a key pillar of India’s development partnership with Sri Lanka. During the state visit of Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka in April 2025, India announced an additional 700 customized training opportunities annually for Sri Lankan professionals.
-ENCL
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