What sow the seeds of hardship for the poorest of the poor? Towards increasing the performance of informal sector in war affected regions of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Less performance of informal sector among the poorest of the poor in the war affected regions in Sri Lanka has been caused by many reasons. Findings of an exploratory study and the factor analysis revealed four important factors namely training and skills, education, social and economic. As the extension of the exploratory study, to test this prediction empirically with a larger sample size, the present study applied a survey method using a questionnaire especially designed based on the initial exploratory study which was conducted inductively. A sample of 300 women headed households engaged in the informal sector participated in this study. The results indicates these four factors significantly predict the performance of informal sector. More specifically, while, economic factors contribute more to the performance of the informal sector, training contributes less. The study also discussed the implication of findings and area for future research. Based on the findings and conclusions, few recommendations are also made to enhance the performance of women headed households in the informal sector.