Improving Poverty Measurement in Sri Lanka

The working paper is a continuation of the study “Poverty Measurement: Meanings, Methods and Requirements” published by CEPA in 2004. Poverty measurement and analysis is needed to identify the poor, the nature and extent of poverty and its determinants, and to assess the impact of policies (and non-policy shocks) and (poverty alleviation and other social welfare) programmes on the poor. Efficient and accurate poverty monitoring enables a nation to evaluate its progress in raising the standard of living of its poor, and provides much needed evidence to guide social development policy formulation and to support policy reform. Strengthening a country’s ability to track progress on poverty reduction is desirable from the donor community’s point of view and this has obvious benefits for the recipient country. National measures of poverty (and other welfare indicators) also provide the basis for international estimates, which enable the international community to keep track of global poverty trends. This is especially relevant at this point in time, when the international community has agreed on the importance of achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015