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Key Text The PRSP Process and DFID Engagement: Survey of Progress

Author: R Driscoll and A Evans
Date: 2003
Size: 40 pages (313KB)

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Summary

How does DFID engage with Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) processes? To what extent are PRS principles of partnership, country ownership and results-orientation key tools in poverty reduction? This second survey, by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Monitoring and Synthesis Project explores DFID’s views on PRS progress country to country in light of pending Millennium Development Goal deadlines.

The survey shows steady and incremental progress for PRS, 32 countries have PRSs under implementation, 24 have interim PRSPs and four countries are producing their second PRS. However, there are challenges. Whilst DFID’s corporate commitment to PRS is expressed in two white papers and through attempts to align its own country programmes with PRSs, DFID has yet to articulate a coherent corporate approach for supporting PRSs.

A majority of countries in the survey are progressing through the implementation phase. Here, the focus of DFID support has moved from the preparation process towards less tangible, but crucial, donor co-ordination and harmonisation. Other survey findings show that:

Conflict countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are progressing extremely slowly through the PRS process. Most have yet to produce an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP).
DFID support for conflict countries targets drafting, roadmaps, timetables and macroeconomic frameworks. Support is shaped more by the stage countries have reached than by their conflict status.
For countries that are producing their second PRSs, for instance Mozambique, DFID support emphasises monitoring and evaluation, including mechanisms for civil society participation and sector planning.
Ownership of the PRS process in countries affected by conflict or weak governance environments is confined to a few individuals. Ownership is highest where PRS co-ordination units are located.
Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are by far the most active civil-society organisations in PRS processes. Success depends on synergy between governments and civil-society organisations.
Africa is the region where donors are moving fastest toward alignment of country strategies and plans.

Political and institutional change is understood to lie at the heart of the PRS approach, however there appears to be a lack of accounting, by DFID staff, for political factors and how to provide incentives for progressive change. Further challenges for policy emerging from DFID engagement in PRS processes include:

Providing a clearer role for legislators to help realise potential improvements to domestic accountability. PRS assumes that donors can intervene effectively, yet legislators have played little part in PRS processes.
Monitoring and evaluating PRSs. DFID best practice suggests building on existing M&E systems and using donor support to address gaps in capacity and data, including non-governmental organisations.
The need for alignment of non-budget support instruments such as sector programmes and technical assistance. This could facilitate better inclusion of non-likeminded donors to co-ordinate aid.
Addressing the link between annual budgets and Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs). Weak links exist in many countries, for instance Zambia, and could effect future increases in general budget support.
Predictability. Frameworks need to be developed for predictable, long-term aid relationships.
Issues for further research include whether weak political commitment is linked to weak capacity and how annual reports are conceived.

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Source: PRSP Synthesis Project, 2003, ‘The PRSP Process and DFID Engagement: Survey of Progress’, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London
Author: Alison Evans , a.evans@odi.org.uk
PRSP Monitoring and Synthesis Project, http://www.prspsynthesis.org/