Reducing Poverty: Is the World Bank's Strategy Working?

Three years after the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced their Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) approach as the latest template for the world's poorest countries to get out of poverty, this new Panos material examines the progress to date and presents the debate about whether PRS can succeed.

As the material points out, it is too early to say whether poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) that countries produce will succeed in their goal of reducing poverty, but the experience so far has raised questions, both about the process and about the philosophy behind it. The first half of this report examines some of these questions, which include: What is meant by participation? Do PRSPs exclude proper analysis of the impacts of globalisation on the poor because they assume that economic growth is the principal goal? Are they doing what is needed to ensure that the poor benefit from economic growth? How will PRSPs be affected if poor countries' position in global trading worsens? The material also examines positive outgrowths of the process of developing PRSPs (for example, generating a new focus on poverty by governments and a greater awareness of the nature of poverty and understanding of its causes).

The second half consists of reports commissioned from NGOs in three countries: Uganda, Lesotho, and Ethiopia. Each report examines the role of government, parliament, civil society, and the media in the process of developing the PRSP. At present, as the reports show, many people still do not know what a PRSP is. If PRSPs are to work, the material concludes, a greater understanding from a wide range of people in each of the countries concerned must be cultivated. In addition, there will need to be a strong sense of commitment and ownership by both governments and people.