Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/53040 
Year of Publication: 
2001
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Discussion Paper No. 2001/120
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper investigates poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), launched by the International Monetary Fund/World Bank in 1999 as conditions for debt relief and loans. It queries whether PRSPs really represent a shift away from the controversial structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of the past. Ostensibly PRSPs have a greater focus on poverty reduction, yet this investigation finds little has changed. Existing PRSPs lack essential components such as land reform and gender awareness, while changes with questionable impacts on poverty, such as liberalization and privatization, are promoted as beneficial. The ‘participation’ of civil society groups in drawing up PRSPs is found to be unsatisfactory, as is ‘ownership’ of PRSPs by governments. This paper stands as a critique of PRSPs and their assumed improvement on SAPs.
Subjects: 
poverty reduction
PRSP
structural adjustment programme
IMF
World Bank
debt relief
JEL: 
O11
O19
F34
H50
I30
ISBN: 
929190063X
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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