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Parliaments and the PRSP Process

Author: S Hubli and A Mandaville
Date: 2004
Size: 23 pages (529KB)

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Summary

How can parliaments in poor countries strengthen the PRSP process? How can donors help integrate parliaments into poverty reduction? This paper by the World Bank Institute provides a range of options to address these issues, identifying activities that will strengthen the impact and sustainability of recipient countries’ PRSPs and ensure political legitimacy and national ownership of the process.

Multiple actors have been involved in national PRSP processes since their introduction. These include donors, IFIs, sector-specific ministries, the ministry of Finance, civil society, and academic communities. But following the 2002 Comprehensive Review of the PRSP Process, donors and democracy organisations expressed concern that the involvement of national Parliaments is weak. Parliamentary involvement at each stage of the PRSP cycle is needed to give political legitimacy, and to ensure ownership and sustainability.

Although limited parliamentary capacity in most countries is a problem, parliaments have a key role in the PRSP process because they are the most representative element of national government. Implementation of the national PRSP requires laws to be passed and budgets approved by Parliament. Involving parliaments reinforces the core principles of PRSP and:

• Deepens country ownership. MPs can increase public awareness of PRSP activities through outreach, and gain broad participation and greater inclusiveness.
• Can help gain a more country-specific poverty diagnosis through MPs' knowledge of and contact with constituents.
• In time enhances parliaments capacity to fulfil oversight and representative functions.
• Leads to greater consensus on poverty reduction, thus smoothing implementation.

Lack of capacity and poor knowledge limits most legislatures' ability to make effective contributions to the PRSP process. Efforts to build capacity need to be incremental, must consider the specific context in which the Parliament operates, and be realistic. There is likely to be a heavy requirement for technical assistance. In engaging Parliament in the process, donors need to:

• Recognise that the PRSP process takes place in a political environment and include MPs from both Government and opposition to ensure that the PRSP is not derailed by political change.
• Hold regional conferences for legislators, with relevant technical assistance and post-conference sharing of experience.
• Enable more global parliamentary exchanges, to discuss universal challenges to global governance with peers and colleagues.

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Source: Hubli, S., and Mandaville, A.P., 2004, ‘Parliaments and the PRSP Process’, WBI Working Paper, Series on Contemporary Issues in Parliamentary Development, World Bank, Washington D.C.
Author: Alicia Mandaville , amandaville@worldbank.org