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Poverty Reduction: Are the Strategies Working?

Author: World Vision
Date: 2005
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Summary

How effective are Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) in accommodating the voices of the poor and promoting accountability in the decision-making process? This report, published by World Vision, calls for greater accountability to the poor as a means of improving aid effectiveness. The engagement of poor people largely depends on how the PRS is located within the domestic political and decision-making architecture and whether donors can better align and coordinate their development aid. Fundamental improvements to PRSs are required if they are to become the mechanism for poor people to influence national poverty reduction processes.

Poverty Reduction Strategies are central to the accountability agenda. They are the main framework for the participation of poor people in the current aid architecture, especially in low-income countries. PRSs have the potential to expand poor people’s opportunities to influence the government-donor relationship and to promote downward accountability. Downward accountability is important in achieving poverty reduction objectives.

Case study evidence on the implementation of PRSs in Zambia and Bolivia highlights the need to:

Move from an agenda of consultation to one of influence. Proper engagement with poor people will guarantee downward accountability.
Create legally supported spaces for civil society participation. This will involve capacity-building initiatives to develop stronger links between national level processes and the institutions of the poor.
Analyse the different perspectives and political positions of the poor and vulnerable groups throughout the PRS process.
Encourage input from a wider variety of actors. For example, promoting a stronger role for the media and civil society to help raise public awareness and increase room for public accountability.
Ensure that consultation processes take account of language differences so that they do not constitute a barrier to genuine participation.
Strengthen the role of social sector ministries and departments in PRSs, particularly those with responsibility for the most vulnerable groups.

There is a need to strengthen domestic policy processes to accommodate the voices of the poor. Furthermore, donor need to better align their aid to the PRSs. Donors should focus on two main areas of action - domestic accountability and donor alignment:

In terms of domestic accountability, donors should:

Iimprove Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability (PEFMA), with clearly ring-fenced MDG-focused resources. Information about the budget should be available to the public to make independent monitoring possible.
Encourage the formation of community-based organisations and provide space for community-based, civil society and research organisations to independently monitor the implementation of the budget.
Develop clear policy frameworks for civil society participation in policy-making, and provide for this participation in general budget support.

In terms of alignment, donors should:

Establish specific timetables and monitoring systems for progress towards achieving the national harmonisation agenda.
Guarantee that the country-level indicators for alignment and harmonisation go beyond budget systems and procedures to sectoral priorities and governance of the PRS.
Donor conditionality should be based on pro-poor results or outcomes. Most donor conditionalities have been set outside the PRS framework, thus hampering national ownership and the accountability of the government to its own people.

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Source: Tembo, F. (ed), 2005, 'Poverty Reduction: Are the Strategies Working?,' World Vision
Author: World Vision, http://www.worldvision.org.uk