What We Did We decided to study four districts. The first, Badulla District in Uva Province, was where we would do a pilot test to ensure we had the right approach. A six-hour drive southeast of Colombo, Badulla is one of Sri Lanka's poorest districts when measured as the access to basic social services. Poverty there is 27 percent compared with the national average of 21 percent. While much of Badulla is flat, the part we visited is mountainous.
Tea is a major crop, as are rice and vegetables.
Nireka Weeratunga, a PIMU anthropologist who had done her dissertation fieldwork in Badulla, proved a wonderful guide and researcher in helping us learn and understand the dimensions of poverty in this part of Sri Lanka. Dharini Rajasingham, also an anthropologist, and Shakila Jabbar, a research assistant, accompanied us, as did Soo-Nam Oh, who is ADB's Country Economist for Sri Lanka. One person drew all the important features of the village. We used a participatory approach for the consultations. The first thing we did was to request one person to draw a map of the village, indicating things such as the major topographical features, houses, school, health center, water supply, road, and stores.