Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers ( strategy paper on poverty reduction ) are a basis for a program of the World Bank.

The strategies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

The fight against poverty and the halving by 2015 was declared on the final declaration of the Millennium Summit of the United Nations to the parent task of the international community. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) developed a comprehensive approach to poverty reduction, which was presented for the first time in the joint Fall Conference 1999. The approach is a development of economic and socio- political, macro-economic, structural and sectoral orellen strategies to combat poverty ( " Poverty Reduction Strategy " = PRS) by developing countries with the involvement of interested social groups ( parties, parliaments, trade unions, business associations, religious institutions, non-governmental organizations, cooperatives, associations, etc. ) operating systems.

The " Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers " ( PRSP) to serve as control instruments and be the basis for medium-term strategies in the fight against poverty in the 70 poorest countries. The World Bank and the IMF should then ( etc. bilateral donors, NGOs ) act upon approval of the strategy papers with other actors just watching and advice.

Highly Indebted Poor Countries ( " Heavily Indebted Poor Countries " = HIPC), which seek to debt relief, countries want to take out a loan from the IDA (International Development Association) and IMF funds to complete a PRSP must have created. The poor are to co-decide as a participatory process, which opens up policies and strategies them a way out of their situation and solicit international support.

The PRSP every three years to the given situation to be adjusted in a continuous process and include the following components:

• Poverty analysis: definition of poverty and those affected
• Objective: development of medium and long -term goals, and the definition of indicators for measuring the achievement of objectives.
• Strategy Development: The development of an integrated strategy to reduce poverty.
• Implementation: The determination of the costs of the strategy, the determination of own resources and the expected level of external financial and technical support.
• Participation Process: The description of the participatory process of the preparation of the PRSP and the impact of participation on the content of the PRSP.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: The statement of the following, the process and the planned monitoring ( monitoring tool ).

Objectives of participation

The PRSPs have managed to increase the participation of those affected and to force a dialogue between the government and the social actors. The approach of participation has led in many countries for the first time to a broader discussion of structural and poverty issues. The standing behind the rest of the World Bank and IMF idea was that the poverty reduction strategies, although these are not the responsibility of governments to get more the character of national strategies that are not automatically up for grabs in a change of government. At the same time the general public and interested parties should (ie the poor) are so far involved in particular in the discussion that they can exert influence on the behavior of governments and administrations through their participation in the political process and keep it on the agreed way. Ultimately, the internal political processes of developing countries should thus get a different quality. Democratic principles and the responsibility of governments to bear their parliaments and the general public to accountability should be strengthened.

A participatory arisen PRSP is then pointing action for both governments of the respective developing countries as well as bilateral and multilateral donors. This allows you to align their actions to a strategy that property (ownership) is the country and was not influenced from the outside. It thus has the sustainable reduction of poverty and socially balanced growth to the target and is based on facts.

Criticism and problems

Problems in the temporal implementation of poverty reduction strategies often play a role, as is required of governments with weak institutional capacity at once to create the otherwise imposed formulations of strategies self-induced. In addition, the preparation often takes place without the involvement of the rural population, which are the main victims. However, these often can not be present because of time, organizational and financial reasons and not involved here. A flimsy participation or ledigliche consulting the parties concerned was not often the case.

Critics also argue that the criteria used for the evaluation of PRSPs by the World Bank and IMF, ultimately the enforcement of neoliberal objectives based on the Washington Consensus based means, and that this would ultimately lead to an increase of poverty rather than a reduction.