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Poverty reduction strategy in Africa
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6. Poverty Monitoring
There is a National Poverty Monitoring Steering Committee (NPMSC) which includes representatives from all the relevant stakeholder groups. The Vice President's Office (VPO) plays a secretariat role to this committee. Monitoring of poverty involves measuring as you go along to make sure that you are following the plan.
Poverty evaluation involves stopping now and again to review progress and decide whether or not the plan needs to be changed.
Provisions for participation at the implementation of the PRSP stakeholders in poverty monitoring and evaluation:
Poverty monitoring and evaluation will include not only central and local government officials but also research institutions and university departments, development partners, civil society organizations and ordinary people. Ordinary people are expected to play an active role in measuring what actually happens about reducing poverty at the grassroots level.
My objective assessment of PRSP in respect of whether it is not just another new conditionality demanded by the World Bank and the IMF on indebted countries essentially intended to enhance their capacity to pay back their debt as opposed to outright debt cancellation.
The performance of PRSP if done well is supposed to reduce poverty through the set targets. The answer to this question is both YES and NO. It is YES in the sense that it will increase capacities of Governments to address and tackle issues of poverty.
Outright debt cancellation would have been much better rather than the current debt re-scheduling as it was proposed in the PRSP and HIPC initiatives. It would have been much better to have all debts cancelled so that we start afresh altogether just as it happened in Europe after the Second World War under the Marshall Plan.
PRSP can be a chance for a new and meaningful development policy if:
- Well funded
- Priority sectors/areas well managed
- Donors/development partners meet their obligation timely
- Civil society participate in implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
- Communities ownership of programs increases and their priorities are taken on board.
However, PRSPs could be a new imposed conditionality if:
- Policies are dictated from World Bank and IMF.
- Government under-fund priority sectors/areas earmarked in PRSP.
- Donors don't meet their funding obligations
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