Impacts of NGO intervention on poverty reduction: an empirical evidence from rural Sri Lanka

This study examines the level of poverty and NGOs' poverty alleviation efforts in the context of rural Sri Lanka with an emphasis on the impact of poverty alleviation programmes implemented by ten NGOs in 15 villages in Vavuniya District. The data were collected by household survey from beneficiaries, and key informant interviews with officials from NGOs and government organisations. Fixed effect income estimation method and Probit poverty regression model were administrated to check out whether there is a significant improvement in the economic condition of the beneficiaries. Accordingly, the findings of the descriptive analysis reveal that NGOs' intervention in the poverty alleviation programmes resulted in the considerable improvement in the living standard of the people in the study area. In particular, household income, level of education, and health facilities seem to be improved after the introduction of the NGO activities in the study area. The results of the statistical estimation indicate that the educational level of the household members has a positive impact on the household income in reducing poverty. On the other hand, internal conflict between government forces and Tamil tiger rebels had hindered the income generating activities of the households and therefore, the probability of being under the poverty has increased.