Abstract:
Poverty is one of the major socioeconomic issues that Sri Lanka has been attempting to tackle in the past six
decades. Successive governments of the country have given highest priority to alleviate poverty and to sustain
socioeconomic advancement of the country. The aim of this paper is to examine the trends of poverty incidence of the
country and to identify the future challenges and opportunities that have opened up for poverty alleviation. The assessment
was focused mainly on the income dimension of poverty. Secondary data published by the Department of Census and
Statistics based on its Households Income and Expenditure Surveys and the data published by the Central Bank of Sri
Lanka were used in the analysis. The data reveals that poverty incidence has shown a gradual declining trend during the
past ten-fifteen years. Several factors including economic growth, workers’ remittance, targeted poverty alleviation
programs, increasing employment opportunities, improvement of socioeconomic infrastructure can be identified as the
causal factors of this progress. Sustaining the declining trend and overcoming the disparity of poverty incidence among
geographical locations are key challenges that should be addressed, appropriately. The end of the war the country presents
several opportunities to free the country of income poverty.
Keywords: Public Policy, Poverty Alleviation, Economic Growth, Workers Remittance, Socioeconomics
