Abstract:
Despite Sri Lanka has achieved impressive results in human development
indicators over the decades, continuously it has encountered difficulties in its battle
against poverty. Since the independence, the country has recovered significantly, mainly
through the implementation of various social assistant programmes. However, the
poverty in Sri Lanka is still widespread and acute, and is generally a rural phenomenon.
Poverty reduction has been slow due to widening inequalities among income groups and
across regions, and because growth is concentrated in Western Province. Sri Lanka has
a long history of social programs and of food subsidies in particular. Like many other
countries, the government of Sri Lanka has a number of social assistance and poverty
alleviation programs. The largest one of these is the samurdhi program which was
introduced in 1995. The main objective of Samurdhi is to ensure the participation of the
poor in the production process by increasing access to resources for self-employment,
enhancing their health and nutritional status as well as improving rural infrastructure.
Based on the empirical analysis of the distributional outcomes, Samurdhi does not
emerge as an efficient transfer program. It is modestly successful in reaching the
intended beneficiaries, but it transfers a large portion of its resources to the nonpoor.
Moreover, the non randomness of its targeting errors indicates that the program would
need extensive redesign in order to improve its efficiency. This paper presents a
description of the structure of Samurdhi and examines its design and targeting
outcomes. In light of these results, the paper intends to stimulate a discussion of
whether this program is an effective vehicle for reducing vulnerability and poverty
alleviation by using the secondary data from Department of Census and Statistics and
Central Bank Report
