The processes to produce poverty reduction strategies papers (PRSPs) present opportunities for people to be involved directly in policy-making. But are governments allowing this to happen? Are the poor stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder of participation? How should we measure the breadth and significance of civil society input in the PRS process?

A report by Christian Aid examines the extent of civil society involvement in the formulation of PRSPs in Bolivia, Malawi and Rwanda. The quality of participation is assessed by looking at who participated in the process, how people’s expectations influenced the outcome, the impact of the political context and the role of the structure of the participatory process. Judging the current PRS process to be exclusive at all stages, it calls on governments to seek proactively the participation of a range of civil society actors.

Poor information flows are characteristic of the formulation of PRSPs. In none of the three countries was there a study to identify the arrangement of actors to be involved. Only token attempts are being made to involve women, indigenous groups or disabled people. Quality participation suffers because the process is rushed and information is not distributed in appropriate languages and formats. While poor people and civil society organisations are more likely to participate in the analysis phase, they are likely to be excluded in the policy formulation and implementation stages. Only rarely are they involved in economic discussions.

Country-specific case studies show that:

• In Rwanda, where participatory governance structures are least advanced, specific mechanisms created for the PRS led to the involvement of 10 000 people in focus group discussions on the effectiveness of proposed policies: religious organisations, rural-focused NGOs, peasants’ associations and the informal sector were, however, not fully involved.
• In Malawi, district-level PRS workshops were dominated by elected local officials, government employees, traditional authorities and other influential locals invited to participate.
• In Bolivia, the PRS process largely bypassed traditional decision-making structures within the indigenous communities who form 70 per cent of the population: indigenous women lacking proficiency in Spanish were excluded.
• Dissatisfaction with the official PRS process led to alternative church, trade union and small producer discussion channels in Bolivia.
• State vetting of participants in Malawi led to the creation of the Malawi Economic Justice Network which mobilised a broad and varied group of CSOs and pushed back the boundaries of participation to some extent.

Christian Aid urges governments to adopt a proactive, transparent policy of seeking out the views of ordinary and excluded people. With sufficient planning, political will and resources, it is feasible to bring participation in the PRS process down to a community level and have a participatory process which produces concrete, consensus-based national recommendations.

Policy-makers need to:

• recognise that participatory PRS processes are only as strong as the weakest institution on which they are based
• engage existing institutions: creating PRS-specific processes to facilitate participation runs the risk of weakening democratic institutions
• apply existing government knowledge of participatory policy-making to the PRS process
• develop the technical capacity to put in place participatory processes at later stages of the PRS policy cycle
• link discussions of political and economic issues.

Source(s):
‘Quality participation in poverty reduction strategies: experiences from Malawi, Bolivia and Rwanda’, Christian Aid, by Genevieve Painter, 2002 Full document.
‘Missing the Mark? Participation in the PRSP process in Rwanda’, Christian Aid, Genevieve Painter (ed.), by Emmanuel Bugingo, 2003 Full document.
‘Participating in Dialogue? The Estrategia Boliviana de Reduccion de la Pobreza’, Christian Aid, by Jennie Richmond, 2002 Full document.

Funded by: Christian Aid

id21 Research Highlight: 3 April 2003

Further Information:
Jennie Richmond
Christian Aid
PO Box 100
London SE1 7RT
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7523 2203
Fax: +44 (0)20 7620 0719
Contact the contributor: JRichmond@christian-aid.org

Christian Aid

Other related links:
'IMF/World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy: effective, participatory and locally owned?'

'The IMF and World Bank: undermining democracy and rolling back the state?'

'PRSPs investigated: structural adjustment in another guise?'

'Structural adjustment - pro or anti-poor?'

'PRSPs: should they carry a health warning?' from IPHN