National Poverty Reduction Strategies Fund

TA 4278: Poverty Assessment and Information Management - Sri Lanka
Financed by the Cooperation Fund in Support of the Formulation and Implementation of National Poverty Reduction Strategies

Project Summary

In Sri Lanka, gaps remain in understanding how exactly to define the nature and extent of poverty, as well as its measurement and analysis, including the impacts of poverty alleviation efforts on the poor. More specifically, the current situation translates into an insufficient understanding of how poverty reduction programs are in practice impacting on existing poverty. This project aims to fill those gaps and thus to shed light on how ADB and others can more effectively design programs that will contribute to poverty reduction.

The TA on Poverty Assessment and Information Management has these objectives:

• To strengthen the effectiveness of poverty reduction in Sri Lanka, including those of the government and those supported by the aid community
• To improve understanding of the nature and degree of poverty in Sri Lanka and of how current and future aid programs impact on that poverty

The purposes are:

• To build on work already done so as to improve instruments and methodologies used to define and monitor the extent and many dimensions of poverty in both its quantitative and qualitative aspects in Sri Lanka
• To strengthen the capacity of the relevant state and other agencies to effectively use these instruments

The scope of the project will be nationwide, targeting all Sri Lankans falling within the agreed definition of poverty. It will have the following five components:

1. Analytical Research which will encompass both a review of existing documentation and interviews with key people working in the field of poverty reduction in Sri Lanka
2. Drafting/validating poverty analysis and impact assessment instruments
3. Capacity building which will involve contacts with the relevant government authorities, notably the Dept. of Census and Statistics and the Statistics Dept. of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, to assess the current state of their poverty information and analysis systems and their capacity building needs in consequence
4. Poverty survey
5. Test of assessment tools

• TA Paper
• TACR