PRSP: Capacity Building and Civil Society Participation Program

Goal: Contribute towards the effectiveness of poverty reduction interventions

July 2001

Ethiopian Economic Association/ Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute
P. O. Box34282
Tel.251- 1 - 55 74 59
Fax 251- 1 - 56 52 52
e-mail :eea@telecom.net.et
Addis Ababa

1. What is Poverty?

The term poverty is a relative term and hence its definition would vary from country to country. According to the World Bank a person earning less than 1 US $ a day is living under absolute poverty or is poverty-stricken. The official poverty line for Ethiopia is US $165.4 per annum per person.

Poverty is a term, which can’t be easily quantified. Better understanding of the term could be possible if peoples own understanding of the term is examined.Participatory researches in this area has shown that a person or a household is poverty stricken if:

unable to adequately provide household food requirements
income is low (hand to mouth) and the risks associated with this income is very high, as a result vulnerability to income insecurity is high,
lacks adequate skill, education and assets, and
the household health condition is poor

According to official government statistics 45.5 % of the Ethiopian population lives under absolute poverty (is poverty-stricken.)

In this Issue

The PRSP stages and the required participation
Brief Summary of I-PRSP
The EEA/EEPRI’ PRSP: capacity building and participation enhancing program description, and
Workshop and training programs of the first six-month, are included.

2. What is Poverty Reduction Strategy?

In 1996 the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) initiated a debt relief process known as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Towards the end of 1998 a general consensus emerged to enhance the HIPC initiative providing deeper, broader and faster debt relief measure, which is closely linked to poverty reduction. Countries eligible for the enhanced HIPC initiative are required to prepare a poverty reduction strategy paper through participatory procedures to qualify for the debt relief measures.

Poverty reduction strategy is a process of establishing a system through which governments of low-income countries can make their policies and strategies focus on poverty alleviation and its design and implementation is made with authentic participation of all stakeholders. It is also a process of stakeholders (international donors and lenders, governments, NGO’s, civil societies, etc) coordination towards poverty reduction. It is distinguished from previous approaches in that it is participatory, country driven, result oriented, comprehensive, long term in approach and based on partnership of stakeholders.For lenders the PRSP are intended to ensure that debt relief measures and loans at concessional rates help reduce poverty.

3. Poverty Reduction Strategy Process Elements

Enabling authentic public participation in the design and implementation of the PRSP is a process of ensuring the right of citizens to participate in decisions that affect their lives. This process involves the following stapes.

3.1.Interim PRSP (I-PRSP)

The interim PRSP is a document showing:

the commitment of governments towards poverty reduction measures
description of policies presently applied to address poverty reduction
the procedures and detailed time frame showing the government plan in designing the final PRSP
three years budgetary plan and targets on measures of poverty

This document is drafted by the government without consultation with stakeholders and submitted to the international financial institutions. Brief summary of the Ethiopian I-PRSP is presented in section four.

3.2. Decision by the World Bank and IMF

The IMF and the WB will discuss the interim strategy and when endorsed a country may be entitled for some debt relief measures from bilateral and multilateral lenders. The country may also be qualified for some program and policy implementation support.

3.3. The PRSP stages

Active participation is possible if stakeholders are informed about what to do and when in the PRSP process. In this regard it would be very useful to understand the PRSP process itself. The table below describes the detailed stages in designing the PRSP and the required participation from various stakeholders.

Process
Expected out put

Problem and potential Analysis

Problems are analyzed through different platforms and presented to a multi-disciplinary multi stakeholder conference. Quantitative and qualitative research to deepen knowledge about the poverty situation is supported and encouraged.The problem and constraints causing poverty are debated and major problems are ranked.

Civil society institutions are expected to assist the public to identify natural, human, financial, institutional and material potentials in order to put them into use for problem solving.

Objective analysis

The public sets the objective of the strategy or program with detailed monitoring indicators. In this phase development principles, international commitments, human rights conventions (example every person shall eat) are in detail examined in order to serve as benchmark indicators. Mostly politician sets internationally accepted pro poor objectives.

Alternative analysis

Alternative analysis is a critical stage in the planning process. Unfortunately it is usually bypassed. The planning team or any interested stakeholder should present alternative action paths to achieve commonly stated objectives.Here is also where the major differences in approach could be observed. Mostly governments provide one option to their citizen. That option is their option. Participation requires that the options of various stakeholders need to be discussed, debated and consensus be established. Consensus could be easily established if stakeholders agree primarily to establish alternative selection criteria. Goal oriented alternative analysis approach is easily understood by all stakeholders and hence is recommended for application in this phase.

Program formulation

Based on the selected strategy and development path in the alternative analysis phase, a detailed description of major programs, investment profiles, the country’s financial capability and external support requirements will be defined.Long-term implementation modalities will be worked out.Stakeholders should get the opportunity to discuss the program content in detail. Program elements that the public supports should be emphasized.Once a broad consensus is established on the policy objective, strategy and program elements, the PRSP will be approved by public authorities before submission to the international community.

Approval stage

The approval stage constitutes two separate stages:

first the government of Ethiopia will approve the PRSP;

the second involves decisions by the boards of the WB and IMF for loans and additional debt relief measures.

Implementation design

After the international community agrees to fund some or all of the strategic program components, then implementation design will be formulated. This is the stage where the details of when program and programs are implemented, by whom, how, by how much money, where etc are answered. This stage is more important to get impact. In many cases impact is low as a result of poorly designed and managed implementation phase. Different stakeholders should share and negotiate roles. Partnership should be planned. The civil society and the private sector should carefully watch these stages. If there is any corruption this phase, the implementation procedures should clearly spell out issues of transparency, accountability and monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

Monitoring strategy

Stakeholders will share responsibility. Questions such as who shall perform the task? For whom and at what time interval shall it report? etc. are specified. If this stage is passed, issues of transparency and accountability will be lacking. In a centralized system, which lack adequate monitoring and evaluation strategy involving national, regional and local interest groups, funds could easily be appropriated with false reports.

Implementation and Implementation monitoring.

This is the stage where the various components of the program are implemented. Major purchases and employment of staff is made. Beneficiaries are identified. Monitoring and evaluation will be the major task of civil societies at all levels of government. It could good if civil societies establish permanent forum for monitoring and evaluation and regularly monitor the development process based on the commonly agreed monitoring and evaluation framework.

Closed and secret meetings are among the sources of corruption. Because of this the public should demand that all meetings of elected offices should be recorded and made public as required. In this stage the role of the media is critical. The media should constantly advocate for the right for information. Corruption could only be reduced with meaningful participation of the public in monitoring and evaluation and the media can lead the struggle.

Out come and impact monitoring

Impacts of the strategy should be studied and communicated to the public. Civil society shall participate in impact and outcome monitoring. Especially research and academic institutions are expected to conduct scientific evaluations.

4. Brief Summary of the Government of Ethiopia Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy

Sr. No.	Core element of the strategy	Major outputs of the strategy
1	Agricultural led industrialization	Expand the extension service coverage, promote irrigation agriculture, facilitate commercial agriculture through leasing government owned land, encourage small holders to orient production aimed at profit, construct rural roads, support production of hand tools, promote agricultural export, continued reliance on food aid from abroad, expand credit services through rural saving and credit institutions. Promote growth in industry through investment in utilities and manufacturing and three other measures. This includes increasing the efficiency of existing policies, creating a joint platform and making business trends environment and incentives attractive. Promotion of export is emphasized.
2	Judiciary and civil service reform	Implement the expenditure and management component of the reform, change the employees incentive and evaluation system, improve service quality and complaint handling procedures in public offices, improve the selection and management of senior management, introduce code of conduct and prevent corruption, and overhaul the legislative framework to reflect the constitution.
3	Decentralization and empowerment	Decentralization of power further to the woreda including financial powers, implementing activities that ensure women’s equality.
4	Capacity Building	Human resource development, institutional development, systems development in provision of services(put in place result oriented system), farmers training, training of woreda and zone executives, etc.
5	Sector programs	The I-PRSP includes detailed description ofexisting programs on agricultural extension, the ESRDF program packages, health and educationand the road sector initiative.

5. Government of Ethiopia I-PRSP Goals and Major Indicators

Sr. No.	Major welfare objective	Indicator	Present condition 2001	Target for 2003
1	Reduce poverty and inequality	Poverty head counts % Per capita income (US$	45.5 137	40.0 150
2	Improve food security	Percentage of farmers covered by extension Productivity of major crops Percentage share of the budget going for agriculture Incidence of food consumption variability	42.2 15.8 10.3 50	60 17 12.7 40
3	Health conditions improved	Health coverage Budget share of health (%) Vaccination Coverage (%)	52 5.2 60	55 7 70
4	Improve education coverage	Participation rate at elementary school Percentage budget share of education	45.8 12.5	50 14.5
5	Potable water supply improved	Percentage of the population having access to potable water sources Share of total budget allocated to clean water	30 -	36 -
6	Access to road facility	Time it takes to reach to all weather roads (hours)	6	5

6. PRSP: Capacity Building and Participation Program Description

Goal:

Contribute to towards the effectiveness of poverty reduction interventions.

Purpose:

Assist (the government of Ethiopia) in developing country owned, participatory and inclusive PRSP and thereafter ensure peoples participation at all levels.

Program out Puts:

Implement programs, organize up workshops and networking,
Create awareness through the media,
Organize regional awareness workshops and specific national workshops on PRSP,
Organize experience sharing workshops,
Produce different issue papers and organize series of public debates, and
Provide training for selected target groups,

Program Activities:

Facilitate and organize the various workshops and conferences,
Sponsor radio and TV programs on the PRSP and organize TV discussions,
Prepare training manuals, select trainees, organize training place, recruit trainers and conduct training,
Update the public regularly about the PRSP using government and private media,
Publish a regular program news journal,
Initiate and support research on selected issues on poverty,
Organize series of public debates,
Publish workshop and conference proceedings and disseminate the results,
Record and document all information and minuets of various discussions,
Organize PRSP task force that will enable the civil society to produce organized comments on the PRSP,
Record, document and disseminate all the minutes and information of the various planned discussion forums,
Establish net works among civil society, and
Conduct Regional experience sharing workshop on the PRSP.

Administration

The program is lead by a committee within the EEA/EEPRI.It has a full time Coordinator, Assistant Coordinator and Secretary.

Program period

The program is planned for a period of three years.

7. The EEA / EEPRI Planned Activities Over the Three Year Period in Relation to the PRSP Stages

PRSP Stages	The first year of the program	Planned activities of the EEA /EEPRI’s over the three year period
Diagnostic stage		Awareness creation about PRSP
		Press briefing on Radio and Television
		Arrange public Discussion in all regions
		Prepare issue papers on selected topics
		Make Discussions and public debate based on issue papers
		Under take different training programs
		Communicate the discussions with responsible government organ and Banks
		Agree with the government for a permanent forum of discussion on the issue and share available information
		Organize experience sharing workshop
Program Formulation stage
		Under take different workshops and focused discussions
		Organize stakeholders taskforce to comment on the strategy
		Dialogue and achievingconsensus among stakeholders about the content of the strategy
		Media briefing and awareness for the public about the proposed strategy and needed improvements
		Arrange special session for parliament to indicate the strength and weakness of the strategy
Approval		Build general consensus about the strategy
		Brief the Donor community about the participatory procedure of the PRSP
		Disseminate information for the public
		Seek public and donor support for the strategy
Implementation design, Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation	Program activities after the PRSP is approved	Regularly update the public about the budget and its implementation
		Make research on service delivery system
		Make dialogues among stakeholders on service delivery
		Make regular surveys aimed at monitoring of impact
		Disseminate the results to the public
		Translate duplicate and disseminate the PRSP document
		Organize round table discussions on the implementation of the PRSP
		Work at improving the monitoring and evaluation capacities of stakeholders through regular training
		Regularly report on the performance of the economy
		Provide feedback to the decision makers to revise strategy
		Organize workshops and public meetings on progress made in the PRSP implementation
		Broadcast PRSP implementation assessment in the media
Impact assessment		Make impact assessment studies
		Define the role of stakeholders in evaluation
		Undertake participatory evaluation

8. Tentative Programs of Workshops, Trainings and Conferences

a. Diagnostic and experience sharing workshop

Sr.No.	Type of meeting	Date	Discussion point	Participants	Language
1	Labor unions	25/8/01	Labor policy, employment and poverty	Employers and labor associations, association of the unemployed, Government	Amharic
2	Parliamentarians and elected persons at all level	06/12/01	Poverty reduction and the role of the legislature in the framework of good governance and decentralization.	Parliamentarians and elected officials at all levels	Amharic
3	The private sector	12/12/01	Constraints of the private sector development	Chamber of commerce, people in the private sector, government and financial institutions	Amharic
4	NGO and Civil Society	20/12/01

Process	Expected out put
Problem and potential Analysis	Problems are analyzed through different platforms and presented to a multi-disciplinary multi stakeholder conference. Quantitative and qualitative research to deepen knowledge about the poverty situation is supported and encouraged.The problem and constraints causing poverty are debated and major problems are ranked. Civil society institutions are expected to assist the public to identify natural, human, financial, institutional and material potentials in order to put them into use for problem solving.
Objective analysis	The public sets the objective of the strategy or program with detailed monitoring indicators. In this phase development principles, international commitments, human rights conventions (example every person shall eat) are in detail examined in order to serve as benchmark indicators. Mostly politician sets internationally accepted pro poor objectives.
Alternative analysis	Alternative analysis is a critical stage in the planning process. Unfortunately it is usually bypassed. The planning team or any interested stakeholder should present alternative action paths to achieve commonly stated objectives.Here is also where the major differences in approach could be observed. Mostly governments provide one option to their citizen. That option is their option. Participation requires that the options of various stakeholders need to be discussed, debated and consensus be established. Consensus could be easily established if stakeholders agree primarily to establish alternative selection criteria. Goal oriented alternative analysis approach is easily understood by all stakeholders and hence is recommended for application in this phase.
Program formulation	Based on the selected strategy and development path in the alternative analysis phase, a detailed description of major programs, investment profiles, the country’s financial capability and external support requirements will be defined.Long-term implementation modalities will be worked out.Stakeholders should get the opportunity to discuss the program content in detail. Program elements that the public supports should be emphasized.Once a broad consensus is established on the policy objective, strategy and program elements, the PRSP will be approved by public authorities before submission to the international community.
Approval stage	The approval stage constitutes two separate stages: first the government of Ethiopia will approve the PRSP; the second involves decisions by the boards of the WB and IMF for loans and additional debt relief measures.
Implementation design	After the international community agrees to fund some or all of the strategic program components, then implementation design will be formulated. This is the stage where the details of when program and programs are implemented, by whom, how, by how much money, where etc are answered. This stage is more important to get impact. In many cases impact is low as a result of poorly designed and managed implementation phase. Different stakeholders should share and negotiate roles. Partnership should be planned. The civil society and the private sector should carefully watch these stages. If there is any corruption this phase, the implementation procedures should clearly spell out issues of transparency, accountability and monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
Monitoring strategy	Stakeholders will share responsibility. Questions such as who shall perform the task? For whom and at what time interval shall it report? etc. are specified. If this stage is passed, issues of transparency and accountability will be lacking. In a centralized system, which lack adequate monitoring and evaluation strategy involving national, regional and local interest groups, funds could easily be appropriated with false reports.
Implementation and Implementation monitoring.	This is the stage where the various components of the program are implemented. Major purchases and employment of staff is made. Beneficiaries are identified. Monitoring and evaluation will be the major task of civil societies at all levels of government. It could good if civil societies establish permanent forum for monitoring and evaluation and regularly monitor the development process based on the commonly agreed monitoring and evaluation framework. Closed and secret meetings are among the sources of corruption. Because of this the public should demand that all meetings of elected offices should be recorded and made public as required. In this stage the role of the media is critical. The media should constantly advocate for the right for information. Corruption could only be reduced with meaningful participation of the public in monitoring and evaluation and the media can lead the struggle.
Out come and impact monitoring	Impacts of the strategy should be studied and communicated to the public. Civil society shall participate in impact and outcome monitoring. Especially research and academic institutions are expected to conduct scientific evaluations.