nextWhen did you last read a PRSP, in full[1]? Or who
has read a PRSP recently? Have you got a PRSP on your bookshelf? And if you
have, do you know whether the PRSP is nationally owned? Or whether it is of good
quality?
Trying to read a PRSP and its corresponding assorted analytical works[2]
may well amount to an act of bibliomancy[3]. Which is a pity, because
according to the current reform directions the UN system is going wholesale not
only to support poverty eradication, but also PRSP implementation. For some of
our donors, support to PRSPs has become a non-negotiable.
Meanwhile aid agencies big and small are creating a cottage industry of
self-anointed experts preparing, reading, commenting on, changing and discussing
PRSPs. And while we can hire consultants to read a PRSP for us, I am wondering
whether the developing countries can afford to hire these consultants, too.
That seems to be an urgent need. Because there are authoritative statements[4]
that say most PRSPs generally do not factor in monitoring of the impact of
poverty reduction strategies on the poor. Imagine an education programme that
doesn’t monitor enrolment or learning achievement, or a health programme that
doesn’t monitor the disease burden.
Perhaps there is the need to get rid of the consultants, and to simplify PRSP
preparation. Break down the whole thing into its components. Aside from some
stray references suggesting that poverty is the cause of everything, we do have
a general agreement that poverty – like poor nutrition – is an aggregate
phenomenon and manifestation of many immediate, underlying and basic causes. And
while it would be nice to solve all underlying causes at the same time, I think
that solving one problem at a time can take us very far. Rather than talking
through an army of consultants, we could read the documents ourselves, and have
intelligible face-to-face discussions with our counterparts.
[1] PRSPs can be had from
150 pages upward, not infrequently topping 350 pages.
[2] The World Bank hosted website on Country
Analytical Work (CAW) has accumulated, within 2 years, about 3500 documents.
[3] The study of random - often biblical -
texts, as a specific technique of divination, the art that seeks to foretell
future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the aid of supernatural
powers.
[4] The UNDG guidance note on UNCT engagement
in PRSPs
(25 June 2004)
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