STATUS OF PRSPs IN SOUTHERN AFRICA IMPLEMENTATION: Key Successes & Challenges

1. STATUS OF PRSPs IN SOUTHERN AFRICA IMPLEMENTATION: Key Successes & Challenges By Barbara Kalima-Phiri Southern Africa Trust 20-21st November, 2006

2. 1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND • Origins of PRSPs • core principles • pressures from Global Jubilee Campaign • 1995 – James Wolfenson • 1997 - ESAF evaluation

3. 2. Key Lessons: Successes of PRSP 1 (Formulation) • key instruments of accountability and transparency - aid relationship bwt donors and recipients • become country-level operational framework for progress towards MDGs (specific focus and attention on county specific constraints to development) • sharper focus on poverty reduction, more open participatory processes and greater attention to monitoring poverty related outcomes • Greater ownership of PRSP process by technocratic Ministries such as MOF - does not translate into country ownership • Gleneagles G-8 Summit 2005 vs poverty levels

4. 2. Key Lessons: Challenges of PRSP 1 (Formulation) • Time constraints • Poor institutional arrangements • Limited participation, consultation & involvement • Weak poverty analysis & policy sequencing - Eg. Data used lacked depth & comprehensiveness, gender disaggregated data unavailable & on plight of marginalized groups missing – eg Tanzania (10yr old Hsehold survey Data) * Quality data is essential for contingency planning and trade-off analysis – crucial areas of achieving real progress in PRSP content

5. Challenges of PRSP 1 ..cont.. • Bruce Imboela – Zambia’s PRSPs - champions a neoliberal program constructed on the sanctity of the market and seeks to maintain the very structural processes that engender poverty. - Because it fails to break, conceptually and methodologically, from past program failures, the PRSP is likely to be just the latest installment in the ever-changing fashionable semantics of the development community . IMPLICATION FOR THIS - NO POVERTY REDUCTION • Another missing element of PRSPs - was lack of support to productive sectors, incl. small and medium sized enterprises and small farmers and rural entrepreneurs. In the majority of cases these critical groups are supposed to benefit from subsidies – THIS DIDN’T HAPPEN * unless poverty reduction strategies actively integrate the poor into the productive sectors, poverty will not be reduced, and growth will either not transpire or will be inherently inequitable.

6. 3. Implementation status • 2005 – 49 countries - full PRSPs (half in sub-Saharan Africa & almost similar proportion in HIPICs) • 11 more produced IPRSPs and 10 initiated processes that could result in a full PRS • In southern Africa – 5 out of 14 – fully completed, eg Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi & Lesotho – Tanz. and Moza – among the 1st wave of countries that adopted and finalized PRSPs, and in both cases a second generation PRSP completed in 2005 • Implementation timeframe - on average, for just over two and a half years. • Several countries - in process of revising their original strategies. eg Burkina Faso, & Uganda - already done so

7. Implementation status continued… • The DR Congo - recently finalised its full PRSP, which has to be submitted and approved by the World Bank/IMF • Angolan cabinet approved the country’s poverty reduction strategy (Estratégia de Combate à Pobreza, ECP) in early 2004 & was scheduled for a Joint Assessment by the World Bank and the IMF during the first quarter of 2006 • Zim. – ongoing discussions on possibility of preparing a PRSP - but current political situation has forestalled this from being developed. - April 2006, the government released the National Economic Development Priority Plan (NEDPP). • 6 Countries not eligible for PRSPs

8. Southern Africancountries finished or finalizing Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) (January 2006) Source: Adapted from Roberts (2006)

9. Southern African countries not eligible for PRSPs (Jan 06)

10. 4. Keys issues in implementation • Ownership • Financing • Participation processes • Policy targeting and impact on poverty

11. Ownership • PRSPs vs other develp. Plans – no harmonization, role of govt. decision making unclear – consolidation on plans • Ministries of Finance not fully engaged – link bwt plans and budget lost • New structures/PRSP Units created on top of existing ones – influence of funding • Boards of IMF/WB Still endorses good/bad Prsps – undermines ownership

12. Financing • General agreement - donor hamornisation & alignment • Effective implementation happening now in many countries eg Tanzania, Mozambique, Ethiopia etc • CSO Coordination and engagement – Intermediary initiatives • Debt servicing obligations, trade losses • Donor vs citizen accountability

13. Participatory processes • PRSP 1 – clear CSO participation mechanism • New challenge – failure to maintain participation during implementation • Growing sense and urgency to define roles - NGOs (info. Disseminators, watch dog role, PEM) - Private Sector (beneficiaries of tenders) - Parliaments – growing role in parl. oversight

14. Policy Targeting and impact on poverty • MDG Targets vs PRSPs • Misalignment bwt PRSP plans & MDG targets – timeline 3-5 yrs vs 2015 • Difficulty in translating medium term goals into year by year national budgets • Lack of prioritization – PRSP wish list – lack of focus • Positive trend – increasing expenditures towards aspects (data for 27 countries) • Caution – public spending - not better results + poverty reduction but budget outlays indicate PRS implementation • 40% of 230 million population in SADC – abject poverty

15. What policies and processes to drive poverty reduction? • Right mix of rights based and sustainable livelihood approaches • Adoption of responsive policies processes (Global Monitoring Report) • CSO priorities – monitoring poverty trends and gaps, institutionalization of participation, regional agenda informed by evidence based analysis • Cost effective monitoring and evaluation techniques

16. Conclusion • it is clear that as countries move towards the next stage in the PRSP process issues of ownership, financing, participation, and policy targeting becomes crucial to the success of the implementation of poverty reduction strategies. Thank you!