Cyclone Ditwah caused severe flooding in Sri Lanka in over two decades, following intense rainfall and landslides across the country in late November 2025. Flooding affected all 25 districts, with 22 districts declared National Disaster Affected Areas, disrupting essential services and damaging infrastructure. An estimated 2.2 million people were affected, with 1.2 million people identified as needing humanitarian assistance, including 658,000 prioritized for life-saving support. The response is led by the Government of Sri Lanka, through the Disaster Management Centre, with support from national and international partners. Humanitarian actors are scaling up assistance across priority sectors, including food security, water and sanitation, health, shelter, protection, education, agriculture, livelihoods, and early recovery. The United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations in Sri Lanka have issued a Humanitarian Priorities Plan (HPP) covering December 2025 to April 2026, outlining response priorities and funding requirements of US$35.3 million.
This publication provides guidance on how businesses can engage and contribute, including through coordination with the Connecting Business initiative (CBI) and its member network in Sri Lanka, the Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management Sri Lanka (A-PAD Sri Lanka). For additional information, please contact connectingbusiness@un.org or OCHAPrivateSector@un.org.