The PRSP
Process
Background
At the Annual Meetings of the World
Bank Group and the IMF in September 1999, it was agreed that nationally-owned
participatory poverty reduction strategies should provide the basis
of all World Bank and IMF concessional lending and for debt relief
under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
This approach, building on the principles of the Comprehensive Development
Framework, will be reflected in the development of Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers (PRSPs) by country authorities. As of January 2003,
many countries in Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia and
the Middle East have presented PRSPs to the World Bank/IMF Boards.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Sierra
Leone developed an Interim PRSP in June 2001, and was one of the basis
for qualification for the HIPC Fund. At the
Consultative Group meeting in Paris, November 2002, the Government
of Sierra Leone presented a Progress Report on preparatory activities
for the full PRSP. Since then, the progress of writing the PRSP
have been reported at each of the DEPAC meetings until its
completion in March 2005.
Core Principles
of the PRSP
The core principles
underlying the PRSP approach suggest that PRSPs should have:
-
A PARTICIPATORY
PROCESS : A PRSP will describe the format, frequency, and location
of consultations; a summary of the main issues raised and the
views of participants; an account of the impact of the consultations
on the design of the strategy; and a discussion of the role
of civil society in future monitoring and implementation.
-
COMPREHENSIVE
POVERTY DIAGNOSTICS: A PRSP would begin by describing who the
poor are and where they live using existing data. Building on
this description, the PRSP could analyze the macroeconomic,
social, structural and institutional constraints to faster growth
and poverty reduction.
-
CLEARLY
PRESENTED AND COSTED PRIORITIES FOR MACROECONOMIC, STRUCTURAL,
AND SOCIAL POLICIES: In light of a deeper understanding of poverty
and its causes, the PRSP will set out the macroeconomic, structural,
and social policies that together comprise a comprehensive strategy
for achieving poverty reducing outcomes. It is important that
policies are costed and prioritized as far as possible so that
they are not reduced to becoming a "wish list".
-
APPROPRIATE
TARGETS, INDICATORS, AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATING
PROGRESS: A PRSP will define medium and long-term goals for
poverty reduction outcomes (monetary and non-monetary), establish
indicators of progress, and set annual and medium-term targets.
The indicators and targets must be appropriate given the assessment
of poverty and the institutional capacity to monitor. It is
also necessary that they are consistent with policy choices
in the strategy. Finally, a PRSP would have an assessment of
the country’s monitoring and evaluation systems.
SL-PRSP (2005-2007) IMPLEMENTATION COORDINATION
The implementation of the PRSP
(2005 - 2007) is coordinated by the Development Assistance
Coordination Office (DACO). (See
DACO Profile).
© DACO/SLIS
July 2007
|
