This is the second Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Country Report for Sri Lanka, which reviews the
progress on MDGs in Sri Lanka, since 1990, at national level, as well as at sector and regional levels. The first
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Country Report for Sri Lanka, released in 2005, played a very important
role in creating awareness on MDGs and promoted a dialogue among policy makers, planners and other
stakeholders.
The timing of the second MDG Country Report is particularly important as more recent data are now available
on all indicators as the results of three major surveys conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics
(DCS), namely, the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (2006/07), the Demographic and Health Survey
(2006/07) and the Special MDG Indicator Survey (2006/07), were published during the course of preparation
of this report. In 2007 the midpoint was reached between the adoption of the Millennium Declaration and the
2015 target date, and it is useful to review progress at the halfway stage and plan for the remaining period. The
Country Report provides MDG indicators not only at the national level, but also at the sector and regional
levels, wherever possible, highlighting the regional disparities. It will help Sri Lanka and its development
partners take stock and review progress during the 2000-07 period so as to identify areas where additional
effort is needed to implement the Mahinda Chintana, the government’s ten-year development framework and
meet the remaining MDG targets by 2015.
During the period 1991-2008, economic growth in Sri Lanka has ranged around 4 to 7 percent. Economic
growth is an important prerequisite for poverty reduction, and the analysis conducted in the context of this
second MDG Country Report clearly shows that poverty rates are declining. Overall, Sri Lanka has achieved
considerable success with respect to a range of social indicators that comprise the MDGs and is on track to
achieving the MDG targets for most of the remaining social indicators. Although many indicators show
encouraging trends at national level, still there are regional disparities which need the attention of policy
makers and planners. Inadequate infrastructure and weakness of service delivery systems are the main factors
behind these disparities
Rapid reduction in poverty achieved since 1991/92 points toward the Government's increasing capability to
improve the lives of the Sri Lankan people in a single lifetime. The challenges for continued poverty reduction
in Sri Lanka, however, are to sustain the level of economic growth achieved over the previous decade while
enhancing equitable distribution across provinces and districts and extend development beyond the Western
province. At the halfway stage of the Millennium Declaration, Sri Lanka is at an encouraging stage where it is
looking to achieve all the MDG targets by 2015. The second MDG Country Report clearly shows that the
country's next attempt should be to move from the national-level to MDG localization at provincial and district
levels, giving special attention to geographically-isolated and deprived regions.