Several African governments have in recent years set themselves ambitious poverty reduction strategies. What impact have the institutional mechanisms had for mainstreaming the goal of poverty-reduction into processes of government decision-making? Preliminary findings from current research on institutional and process issues in national poverty policy at IDS suggests that practice on policy processes and institutions relating to poverty reduction has improved.

In many sub-Saharan African countries, there has been considerable progress in information collection about poverty levels, characteristics and trends and, increasingly, an attempt to find mechanisms to ensure that the evidence on poverty informs the design of policy. Perhaps the most fundamental evidence of a heightened focus on poverty reduction in policy concerns the extent to which it is identified as a priority in a country’s national development strategy.

The study focused on three aspects of institutional mechanisms: constitutional and governance frameworks which affect pro-poor policy-making, structural configuration of consultation processes, and the role of instruments for obtaining and using information on poverty in Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Mozambique and Benin.

Findings suggest that largely as a consequence of a greater commitment to macroeconomic reform as part of the poverty reduction strategy, all six economies are achieving positive, real GDP growth per capita. The resultant institutional changes revealed:

• an unprecedented degree of consultation with civil society, and substantive input from specific sectoral organisations representing the poor
• a focus on improved state performance for service delivery for the whole community
• a binding of planners to poverty-prioritisation criteria
• ring-fencing social-sector spending determined during annual and medium-term budgeting – that is, protecting the funds released through debt relief – to maintain expenditure in sectors highlighted as critical to poverty reduction
• a stronger, shared appreciation about what is needed to unleash the potential of the productive sectors.

Policy implications include:

• In broad terms, a commitment to private sector growth is a core ingredient of poverty reduction strategies.
• It is necessary to gain and maintain public support for the overall reform process and accept that this would not be aided by trying to target service delivery in a rigid manner.
• There is a clear need for African economies to move up the value chain, yet this is very difficult to achieve in a highly competitive global economy.

These approaches are being further pursued through the PRSP process and though with mixed results, these early initiatives have set a clear and useful direction for development planning processes.

Source(s):
‘Mainstreaming the Poverty-Reduction Agenda: an Analysis of Institutional Mechanisms to Support Pro-Poor Policy making and Implementation in Six African Countries’, IDS Research Report #51, by Martin Greeley and Rob Jenkins, 2000 Full document.

Funded by: DFID and SIDA

id21 Research Highlight: 1 July 2003

Further Information:
Martin Greeley
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton
East Sussex BN1 9RE
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 606 261
Contact the contributor: M.Greeley@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK

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