Poverty Reduction Strategies

Poverty Reduction Strategies

1. Concepts

   • Governance
     • policy is not the preserve of the state alone - many institutions can influence it
   • Governmentality
     • Foucault
     • methods use to control and influence individuals through fostering willing compliance rather than through brute force
     • pre - 17th century; not much discussion of governing
       • Hobbes and Machiavelli
         • concern with sovereignty rather than governing for common good
   • Aesthetics of Participation
     • Aesthetics = study of beauty
     • when creating new NGOs, they have to be seen in the right way
       • attract funding
       • focus has shifted from content of work to ability to present themselves
   • Episteme
     • Foucault
     • epistemic communities
       • network of people with shared knowledge - same basic ideas - linked by understanding

2. PRSPs

   • What are they?
     • describe a country's policies aimed at promoting growth and reducing poverty
     • 5 Core Principles
       • country driven
         • ownership
           • locally - governments
           • participatory process
       • results orientated
         • outcomes to benefit the poor
       • comphrensive
         • recognise multidimensional nature of poverty
       • partnership orientated
       • long term perspective
     • conditionality
       • producing a PRSP has become a condition for getting a loan
     • Players
       • Donor
       • State
       • Non-State
         • mostly civil society
     • Objectives
       • forge new partnerships between govt, donors and CSOs
       • enhance ownership of reforms
       • response to challenges facing IMF and World Bank
       • potential tension between partnership/ownership objectives and status as main source of dialogue between govt and IMF/WB
   • Why are they needed?
     • 1990s - after Cold War IMF and World Bank needed to legitimise themselves again
       • bias during Cold War - loans to supporters of West
         • need to make themselves acceptable to shareholders again
     • Growth of NGO sector
       • more sophisticated; engaged in advocacy
         • critical of International Financial Institutions
     • Aid crisis part of wider African problem
       • conditionality - slippage, and reversals common
         • little enthusiasm for tougher stance so move towards more positive rationale - ownership
           • softer discursive power - dialogue and partnership
             • Helleiner Report
   • Tanzania
     • Donor Relationship
       • shifting relationship with donors
       • 60s/70s - Donor Favourite :-)
         • role of state = important
         • late 70s/early 80s - fell out of favour :-(
           • 1986 - back in favour :-)
             • 1994 - relationship breakdown :-(
               • late 90s/00s - relationship good again :-)
                 • 2nd to implement PRSP (after Uganda)
               • financial mismanagement; economic reforms unravel
                 • corruption
                 • increased borrowing
                 • tax evasion scandal
                 • donors lost faith an suspended aid
             • New President accepts SAPs
           • World Bank moves towards liberalisation
             • Tanzania resisted
           • scaled down aid in response to limited effectiveness
     • Helleiner Report (1995)
       • written by team of experts - trying to solve deadlock
         • concluded that aided activities should reflect LOCAL priorities
           • local ownership
         • should be based on consultative national consensus
         • minimal conditionality by donors
           • can still consult them in early stages but final decision should rest with government
     • Role of Civil Society
       • World Bank condition have to have consultation - include civil society
         • but no requirement that consultations have to actually influence policy
           • promised participation - proved patchy
         • Tanzania initially wary of NGOs but worked with them because they had to
       • increased engagement of NGOs in workshops
       • public consultation - mechanisms of control/opportunities
       • limited opportunities to take part in development of PRSP
         • no representatives of non-state actors (CSOs) invited to participate in PRSP committees
         • TCDD meant to organise workshops for grass-roots partcipation
           • forced to withdraw
         • NGO participation broke down
       • Governments became suspicious about legitimacy/accountability of NGOs
         • organised own consultation process
           • NGOs left out
             • TCDD led 5 groups to prepare CSO report for PRSP
               • working separately rather than coordinating together - not a partnership
       • World Bank torn between supporting country ownership and enforcing participation
         • eventually encouraged re-engagement of NGOs
       • failed to influence policy
         • wanted discussion of topics such as corruption - only partly addressed
         • request that macro-economic conditions be separated from debt relief ignored
         • limited capacity to engage in technical debtate
           • raised expectations of how much they would be able to participate not met
       • however did lay foundations for future engagement
         • forged links between NGOs
     • Critiques
       • :-) transformation in government-donor relations
         • World Bank = more collaborative
           • but partnership remains narrow - restricted to 'fraternity of economists'
       • Positives :-)
         • opened up policy making process to previously excluded
         • recognises need to secure more aid -
         • strengthens government-donor relationship
         • PRSP process continues to improve
         • progress in economic growth etc
       • Negatives :-(
         • Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) - poverty monitoring system
           • Gould and Ojaanen
           • autonomous agency compromised - seen as working for the government
         • PRSP designed to be approved by World Bank and IMF
           • biased - important stakeholders keen to influence content
         • World Bank requirements
           • need PRSP to get loan
           • macro-economic reform
             • non-negotiable - CSO tried and failed to separate from debt relief
           • privatisation
             • controversial amongst Tanzanian government - but World Bank's strong view wins
           • conditionality harms participatory process
         • government ownership = weak; World Bank power = strong
           • WB wanted to abolish user fees in primary education
             • public relations coup
             • only inserted at last minute - many against it
           • unhappy with quality so redrafted in Washington
             • lost local flavour and ownership
         • deceitful process - conditionality by stealth
         • narrow process - fails to draw in new actors; reluctance to open up to CSOs