Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategy Processes: Lessons Learned from Experience

1. Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategy Processes: Lessons Learned from Experience Judith Edstrom Social Development Department, The World Bank, February 9, 2003

2. Participatory Process: a core element of the PRSP • Stakeholder dialogue for inclusive poverty reduction strategies • Transparency of decision-making • Increased government accountability • Improved governance

3. What has the initial experience shown us? • Greater transparency and improved policy dialogue between government and a broad range of stakeholders. • Deepening of democracy particularly evident in public expenditure management. • Increasing local engagement in PRSP’s

4. Process Aspects of a PRSP • The participatory process will vary substantially across countries • Relevant factors include: • Nature of existing development dialogue • Nature and role of parliament, civil society and local governments • Systematic exclusion of certain groups? • Systematically monitoring of results and feedback into decision making • Capacity to expand positive elements in the short term Recent good practice examples, linked to government decision making:

5. Selected good participatory practices • Country leadership, building on existing work, processes, institutions (parliament, line agencies, cabinets, local govts) • Clear institutional responsibilities and established – not an ad hoc - institution reporting to a high political authority, with clear links to established decision making processes (ex. Malawi)

6. Selected good participatory practices • Feedback mechanisms, with participation a part of regular governmental activities (ex. involve CSOs in working groups)

7. Challenges remain in formulation… • Breadth and depth of participation has been insufficient in some cases • Information-sharing prior to and after consultations has sometimes been insufficient • Insufficient discussion on macro-economic policies • Gender concerns have been overlooked • Converting the results of participatory approaches into policy formulation and implementation remains a challenge

8. … and in Implementation • Institutionalization of participatory processes • Creating an enabling legal framework for civic engagement • Capacity for public expenditure tracking • Capacity for participatory monitoring and evaluation • Increased role of parliaments • Engaging sectoral agencies

9. The Bank’s Role • Support to country initiatives to institutionalize participatory dialogue in the PRSP context. • Capacity-building of stakeholders for more effective participation in PRSP formulation and implementation • Capacity-building activities with parliaments on PRSP’s.

10. The Bank’s Role • Capacity-building of stakeholders for participation in public expenditure management (at both national and local levels) • Adaptation of M&E practices to the PRSP context • Documentation of best practices in macro-level participatory M&E • Capacity-building in macro-level participatory M&E

11. Concluding Notes • Patience and Perseverance are key to success • Preparing and implementing PRSPs is a very challenging task for every government • The first PRSP cannot achieve good practice in every dimension: each country should focus on improving relative to its starting point