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Country profile
Sri Lanka is an island country with a diverse population of around 20 million. It has experienced economic growth rates above 6% for the past three years. Tea, rubber and coconut are its main sources of external revenue, together with foodstuffs, textiles and apparel. It also receive significant remittance income from Sri Lankans working abroad.
Sri Lanka has near universal literacy, and has made good progress on most social indicators, including maternal and infant mortality, making it on track to achieve the MDGs. However, despite significant reductions in poverty in some provinces, rural poverty remains entrenched and equality of access to services and economic opportunities remains a significant issue.
After a couple of Interim PRSPs, in 2005 the Government of Sri Lanka launched an ambitious, 10-year development programme, ‘Mahinda Chintana’. Building on a number of existing sectoral strategies, its major focus is on the development of rural infrastructure, to provide rural communities with access to markets, electricity and safe drinking water. Education and health services are also priority areas, and major cross-cutting themes include gender equality, environmental sustainability and respect for human rights. The vision also recognises the link between peace and poverty reduction.
Sri Lanka receive foreign aid in 2007 of US$1,674m. This was equivalent to 4.5% of GDP, 17% of govt expenditure and 54% of public investment. The major donors are ADB, Japan, the World Bank and India, with China playing an increasingly important role. Large-scale investment projects remain the dominant form of aid.
There is an annual Sri Lanka Development Forum for consultation between the government and donors, but relatively few formal avenues for aid coordination at either the national or sectoral levels. Donor attention in recent years has focused on the security situation and questions of humanitarian access. There has been some cautious moves towards sectoral engagement, but Sri Lanka does not yet have any programme-based assistance, other than some general budget support. Capacity-building efforts from donors remain largely uncoordinated. The government has made some significant progress in strengthening its systems, with a major Fiscal Management Reform Program and a new National Procurement Agency. However, most aid is still provided mainly through separate project management structures.
In recent years, Sri Lanka has made a concerted effort to introduce Results Management across government. It has results frameworks for all of its ministries, and has built up some innovative systems for monitoring projects.
Sri Lanka did not participate in the 2008 Paris Declaration Monitoring Survey. |
Aid Management & Coordination (0)Country Systems (0)Managing for Results (3)Mutual Accountability (0)National Plans & Budgets (4)Stakeholders: Civil Society (0)Stakeholders: Parliamentarians (0) |
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