Can the city continue to grow without losing the ecosystems that make it resilient and liveable? How can city planning better reflect the needs of the people who already live in these neighbourhoods? What kind of growth are we choosing, and can it work for both people and nature? Drawing from CSF research, and using Thalangama and surrounding suburbs as a lens, we are exploring how these tensions are playing out on the ground and what they reveal about the future of Colombo's growth.

Recently, CSF and The Asia Foundation convened a Stakeholder Roundtable to examine the intersection of gender and platform-mediated gig work, bringing together labour advocates, and employer association representatives and researchers. The discussion covered data gaps, employment classification, social protection, occupational safety, and algorithmic opacity. Download the Analytical Note from the discussion.

Centre for a Smart Future (CSF) and the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance hosted an Expert Roundtable in Colombo on 'The Return of Industrial Policy: Considerations for Trade, Competitiveness, and Green Growth in Sri Lanka'. The session examined the global resurgence of industrial policy and what this shift means for a small economy like Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s first national guidelines on business and human rights were launched by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) supported by CSF and Max Planck Foundation. It will help strengthen responsible business conduct in Sri Lanka and ensure human rights considerations are integrated into business practices.

CSF, in collaboration with iSocial Bangladesh, convened a webinar on 10th June 2026 to contribute a regional perspective to the global conversation on decent work in the platform economy, with speakers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and UK. The discussion coincided with the ILO’s 114th International Labour Conference in Geneva, where deliberations on a landmark convention on platform work were underway.

Platforms’ greatest promise is that they have created new freedoms for work – that gig workers get to work how they want, when they want, and earn as they like. But increasingly, this elegant outlook is being tested, as a more nuanced understanding has emerged on this type of work, and several countries have introduced new laws and protections.