The fisheries sector was the most seriously affected economic sector in Sri Lanka by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. Although the contribution of the fisheries sector to the total GDP is less than 3 per cent, the sector provides direct employment to about 150,000 people and indirect employment for 100,000 persons in Sri Lanka. In addition, 65 per cent of the country’s animal protein requirement is supplied by local fish production.

Coastal fishing is the major sub-sector of marine fisheries, which contributes to 54 per cent of the national fish production and also the mostly damaged sub-sector due to the tsunami. Therefore, the sector received more attention by various donors. However, the delivery of post-tsunami livelihood related benefits for the affected fishers was not a systematic and planned effort and ended up with poor targeting and distributional issues due to many reasons. This study attempts to examine the issues related to targeting of beneficiaries of delivery of post-tsunami livelihood interventions in the fishery sector and evaluate its distributional impacts for tsunami affected fishers. The study also attempts to suggest policy options to improve targeting of beneficiaries and improving efficiency and effectiveness of development interventions.